Still with us.
Adam is back for one of his rare occasional missives and he senses issues, so “Slaying the Leeds United myth makers No2″ will have to wait.
As the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be disappearing into the distance, we have more immediate problems that have been slightly overlooked in all the euphoria surrounding the takeover.
The sale of Adam Clayton wasn’t quite met with the outrage of the departures of Howson, Johnson, Delph, yet the principle is still the same. Another of our “ones for the future” has been allowed to leave by the management. We’re all assuming that this takeover will happen, and that they’re going to be billionaire Middle Easterners, but what if it all falls through. Take away the promise of large investment and Leeds United is in tatters. The club’s gone awful quiet hasn’t it?
Let’s say this takeover does happen. What gives Warnock, Harvey and Bates the right to be making such long term decisions, such as selling Clayton. Warnock is only in this till the end of the season, so who is he to let the likes of Clayton, McCormack and White walk out of the door? Warnock may be working to his “quick fix” brief, but at the end of the season, if we don’t get promoted, where will that leave us? We’ll have a squad of ageing championship level players, while all our younger talent is playing in the Premier League. I can’t believe we’ve given Paddy Kenny a 3 year deal, yet won’t offer McCormack (our top scorer last season), Clayton and White improved contracts. A keeper was low down on our list of priorities, but that hasn’t stopped Warnock handing his old pal a cushy contract at the expense of Leeds United.
In the past decade Leeds has had a number of freeloaders on the books, and just when we started to actually form a team of dynamic, like-minded players, one by one we’ve seen our best prospects allowed to leave. True, Clayton didn’t set the league alight last season, but he will get better. We’ve kept Brown on a short term contract and Pugh is still with us, but how many Leeds fans would rather we kept them over Clayton in the long term? We all want to be in the top division as soon as possible, but I’m sure everybody wants a fighting chance once we get there.
If we end up staying in this division, Neil Warnock will not lose any sleep. He’s in it for the short term and is building his squad accordingly. The future of our club, however, requires future planning. We’re not the only ones being taken over, and at the moment, there’s nothing that makes Leeds stand out as an exciting prospect for new players. It says a lot that Clayton joined Huddersfield because they matched his ambitions; yet another player who has no faith in Leeds United.
