In this weeks Teenage Kicks In our reflective young writer Darragh Mullen treats highs and lows as the same.
As you can imagine fresh from my trip to Old Trafford I was ready to write an excited article on what it means to the club, to me etc. but in 24 hours allot of things have changed and the brilliant mood that was with every Leeds fan has suddenly changed with the announcement that Beckford had actually applied for a transfer before the match last Sunday and now the development in the last couple of hours that Beckford told Goal.com in what I think will be a famous quote in the future, “Im off to Newcastle!” That is going to split Leeds fans right down the middle like the Alan Smith topic does with Leeds fans but I have decided first I am going to write about how I was feeling 48 hours ago, fresh from our trip to Old Trafford.
The trip itself went well, safety wise. I didn’t say or do anything stupid to get me noticed so I could enjoy the game without having to worry about hooliganism which for some reason I was slightly worried about the night before. In the end myself and my dad got unwanted season tickets for an executive box so it was pints and prawns before the match and padded seats during the match quite near to the Leeds fans so being honest it was the next best thing to sitting in the away end. One point of interest during the game was the goal. I have no idea how I didn’t manage to celebrate but it must have been the fact that the goal went in so slowly that I just sat still and looked at my dad. A Leeds fan a couple of rows away from me was not as lucky as he was ushered away by stewards while also being chased by two scum fans! Likewise at the end of the game I had to settle for going into the toilets and screaming as I did with the goal. All in all, The best footballing experience I have ever had in my life.
As you can imagine, probably doing it yourself, I have been pondering over the win for the last couple of days and what it means. To someone who has no interest in football it means nothing other than scum are out of the FA cup. To us though and to scum fans it means so much more! Arguably they are at the very peak of their history having just won 3 leagues in a row and a European cup recently enough while in very deep contrast we are in the very darkest depths of our clubs history! I would like to think that our team can never sink any lower and I would also like to think that the team across the Pennies will never get any more successful! So the fact that we managed to beat our arch rivals when they are at their best and we are at our worst means so much. If the 80′s were known as he dark ages I really do wonder what the last decade will become known as. That win lifted us all to a point where we have not been for far too long. Of course though this being Leeds United my feelings of overwhelming joy were short-lived when I hear that Beckford had put in a transfer request before the game even started!
Now over the past day I have been trying to form my opinion on this but the fence is so high it is proving quite hard to get down from. It has really split Leeds fans right down the middle I think with some people referring to him as Judas while others are even using the term Legend! Now these two are the complete extreme in my opinion and there seems to be very little grey area in between. I suppose if I really did have to push for an opinion then I would be on the Judas side but in the same way that I would be slightly right wing rather than a Fascist! I really do not like the way Beckford and his agent have gone about things but I suppose neither does any Leeds fan. I will not be wishing him the best of luck in the future as he is clearly just a selfish person who has no appreciation for something bigger than himself. ‘Legend’ supporters would make the argument that anybody would leave their job for a similar job with 3 times the pay but that argument doesn’t work. First of all it sounds like if Beckford for some reason were to stay and we were promoted then he would get his pay doubled anyway (I am not sure the exact figures). So it’s a matter of getting an even bigger pay increase than the one offered. Secondly you cannot compare a typical every-day job to that of the professional footballer. In the same way you cannot compare terms of pay. I cannot really find the words to explain this but they are just different. Football is not just about the money (or at least we would all like to think so). It is about passion, entertainment and more importantly for fans being a part of something bigger than yourself. For a footballer it’s about trying to build a reputation for yourself while still having enough money to get by very comfortably. Without offending anyone, being a gardener is just about doing the job at hand which is making the garden look nice. Being a professional footballer is simply different so comparing wages of that and a normal job is just something that can’t really be done.
The thing I find wrong with the ‘Judas’ argument though is the fact that suddenly because he wants to leave the club, again, we now throw anything he has done for us already and immediately classify him in one category. To me, Harry Kewell is a Judas scum and I really do not think it is fair to classify Beckford anywhere near that. His goals have helped us get where we are this season and heavily contributed to our previous two seasons and that cannot be forgotten because he has a selfish mentality. Secondly, we always knew that he wanted away from the club and it seems that this recent transfer request has acted as kindle to the fire of those who now really hate Beckford.
For the reasons then above that I think he is wrong for showing such distain for a club midway through the season even though we are doing extremely well and then the fact that I am still grateful for what he has done, seems to push me towards the centre of this debate. That is not because I am afraid to pick a side. That is because I simply disagree with aspect both arguments and agree with aspects from both arguments. Some may view that as pathetic but I honestly cannot swing greatly either way. I don’t like him and I don’t hate him and that is something that I have not heard said by any Leeds fans yet.
All in all it’s been an interesting week. Started brilliantly and is now finishing quite dodgy with few people thinking about the Wycombe game on Saturday. Honestly I hope it is the last time that I ever have to dedicate my time to writing about Beckford and that this is all over and done with as quick as possible. We can all make assumptions about Grayson’s replacement be it Sharp or whoever but knowing Grayson it will be someone we are not expecting. I hope by this time next week it is all over and done with and we have a replacement while our season continues undamaged. I really just hope that all of the distractions over the last week don’t affect our league efforts and it is a comfortable 3 points this weekend like it should be 95 times out of 100.
