Today our young writer is flirting with melancholy.
In a week that Bates has done his best to try and wake up tenforken with random outbursts about various rather comical topics but to no avail it also appears that it’s not just the editor of the site who can make predictions but myself also! I jumped the gun at the start of July when hearing the quote ”There`s a little bit to spend but there are not major funds available.” At the time I was told that it was early days yet and the money was there if there was any player that required it but it seems as the transfer window closes in 3 weeks that my prediction as to a possible lack of funds was correct unfortunately.
http://clarkeonenil.co.uk/front-page/teenage-kicks-in/teenage-kicks-in-show-us-the-money/
Now of course it’s nowhere near the end of the world as 9 signings (and possibly more) later I can say I’m more than happy with our dealings over the Summer. Now it’s down to them gelling over time and hopefully the comfortable win midweek has brought them a step forward to doing this.
Meanwhile it seems that Football Hooliganism is rearing its ugly head again this Season as some Leeds fans prove to be some of the sorest losers in football by looking for fights off anyone possible after the Derby game.
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/letters/Leeds-fans-in-search-of.6467972.jp
As someone who has never witnessed football violence in person like the majority of Leeds fans would have during the 70′s or 80′s this obviously is a very ominous sign. One game where there is very little bad blood between the two sides and yet there were buses being pelted with stones and 12 arrests. God only knows what’s going to happen with many more Yorkshire Derby’s on the way as well as the visit of Millwall in 2 games time. In the last couple of years I’ve grown up being the target audience for movies like Greenstreet and The Firm as well as various books by former hooligans and apparently all of this glorifying is somewhat working with an increasing amount of stories seeming to re-surface the past few years. It’s hard to say if the trend will continue but hopefully the media coverage of the game that just wasn’t present 25 years ago will work in a positive way for once and the majority in football will muffle the noise of the minority. Hopefully anyway because God knows Ken Bates doesn’t know how to deal with football hooliganism unless electric fences are part of the proposed plans for the East Stand.
On the pitch it seems the difficulty of our start to the season has been somewhat underestimated where it is quite possible that we could go 3 games without even getting a single point given our recent record against Millwall. I can’t remember the last time we were 3/1 to win a league game but it’s going to take some getting used to as this will be the case for the majority or our away games this Season. By the end of August we could be hovering too close to the relegation zone for comfort and all of our preseason speculation would have meant nothing as a completely different scenario comes to the fore. Perhaps a bit drastic but the squad have been dropped into the deep end and must act accordingly if we even want to settle for a consolation mid table finish.
In all it’s been another week of ups and downs. A very shaky start to the Season followed by a glimmer of hope, all be it a relatively meaningless cup tie used as a team building exercise. With a potential Honduran Superstar on trial to add even more pace and overall depth to our midfield it will be interesting to see if he will take to English football as he seems to do internationally. We aren’t supposed to look at the league table this early but I imagine after Sunday it will be hard not to have a glance and wonder what it all means for the other 44 games. I personally am most satisfied with getting Robby Savage out of the way as soon as possible as the video of him on YouTube strutting into Elland Road so proud that “nobody said anything” was enough to make you feel sick. At the moment there is a very cautious feeling in the Leeds world as we wait for some sort of routine to form around our Season. We have got most of our firsts out of the way with goals, losses, a clean sheet midweek but I don’t think Sunday will be our first league win. The City Ground is a tough place to go and Forest will be looking to avenge losses to Burnley and Bradford The next two games are crucial to the beginning of our Season and it needs to start with our first game of the Season as underdogs where we simply don’t have time to use the excuse of getting used to the rise of quality in opposition. A very cautious MOT!
Darragh Mullen.
