This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.
Brothers in arms.
You may have missed the following story about Leeds United’s forthcoming home game with our old adversaries from Bermondsey. “Millwall fans once again face picking up their tickets for the Lions’ game at Leeds from a motorway service station – and there are only 1,000 available. Supporters had to buy vouchers and redeem them in a Yorkshire rendezvous for last season’s play-off game”. Now even if we ignore that the game is a Monday night and on Sky, thus removing the demand from the away fans for tickets, even if you factor in our recent exchanges of opinion with the South London boys over the last 6 seasons and even if you list a catalogue of incidents from the last 40 years there would still be no excuse for the draconian removal of human rights implicit in this decision (in this case by West Yorkshire Police but also used by others in the past).
Whilst it might not occur to most Leeds fans to be supportive of our Millwall brothers the truth is that if we allow this to happen to others it will happen to us again sooner or later. You will recall that the last 3 trips to Cardiff City were restricted in that way and I for one made a principled stance to reject my guaranteed ticket for those Ninnian Park games because my right to travel by the mode of transport I see fit was and is more important than any one individual game (lets also ignore the irony of the South Wales police being able to cope with 40k of us for a play-off final but not 3k of us for a league game!). Do you think the new stadium is going to make a difference? No of course not. The bigger worry is that others will want a similar arrangement in the CCC next season (stc).
When the Cardiff City version of this denial of basic human rights was in full flow I asked the Leeds United Supporters Trust to take a stand, it won’t surprise many to hear they failed miserably, maybe the “new improved” version might want get involved and to stand up for supporters.
Stacking up behind.
Speaking of Millwall one can’t but notice how they have quietly moved into the promotion race out of L1 when earlier in the season they seemed to be suffering from a post play-off defeat slide. That slide was in fact just a delusion, Millwall have lost only 6 games so far, they have the equal 2nd best home record, they previously didn’t look contenders due to a glut of early away draws. Kenny Jackett deserves some credit for taking his side back into contention without resources. Equally despite Leeds taking 6 points off them Colchester United have shown persistence in getting into 3rd. Swindon Town are the consistent team of the division and if Huddersfield’s away form hits a purple patch it will make their unbeaten home form look even more impressive. In short, what we thought was a 3 way automatic promotion race is a much wider race to the top 6. Thankfully the MK Dons are off the pace and Southampton hamstrung.
As articulated in yesterday’s Daily Contribution whilst the recent dip in form allowing the wider opening up of the promotion race is not particularly welcome we can use it as a motivation to ensure we go up. In some senses it would be less of a stressful experience to have come from the pack to claim promotion rather than risk the potential gutting failure after being in the top 2 for all the season so far. In the end what having only 11 points separating 7th from 2nd should do is widen the number of games Leeds have to take as 6 pointers in the run-in from 2 to 5 and thus incentivize the squad big-time.
In a twist of fate we will be stronger for a struggle to finish second than we will from a shoe-in. Let’s see what the squad and the management team are made of.
Ifs and buts.
With the news that Alan Curbishley has fully settled his pay-off from West Ham United, with his reputation fully intact (what did the previous regime at Upton Park think they were doing counter-suing for the cost of employing Zola?) the inevitable speculation of where next has accrued with the lazy journalism mainstay of Queens Park Rangers being touted. In some senses why not? It’s a London club which would seem to suit Curbishley, they need an experienced head to avoid relegation and they need a long term builder, in the mould of Charlton in the 90’s, in order to realise the potential they are supposed to have.
However it doesn’t take a nano-second to see the flaw in this story/idea. Curbishley left WHU because players were sold against his will despite him being promised full control over transfers. Meanwhile one of the reasons for the constant change in managers at Loftus Road is the interference of the existing Director of Football (not to mention the owners). Why would Curbishley want to get involved with the present mess of that club? In order for what would be a sensible managerial appointment to happen the QPR board would have to let the former Charlton manager have full control and I suspect that is beyond them.
If QPR are not the next stop on the career path of Alan Curbishley he needn’t worry, the Crystal Palace job will be available soon enough under new owners.
