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Comment on The cold light of a Leeds United day. by chareose

chareose — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:13:08 +0000

Hate to throw a dampner on all this speculation…. but does it really matter who we get in ???
Because of the way football is at the moment – money talks so unless your prepared to compete financially with the best any manager no matter how skilled or charismatic will struggle to keep the remaining decent players we have at elland road….let alone add to them………
If Simon Grayson had been backed in the summer wed have been getting promoted this season, despite his defencive failings Grayson was good enough to get us promoted but it was the lack of backing and also the selling of our two most committed midfeilders that have lead to the self combusted state we are in now.

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by oldlufc

oldlufc — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Overall, a pretty fair article however, to sum it up in fewer words “Grayson was taking the team backwards” and when that happens it really is time for a change.

As an ex-defender himself he should have been able to sort out the defensive frailities. Add to this his transfer record was appalling and in terms of tactics he often appeared clueless.

OK he may be a really nice guy but the old saying goes “There’s no room for sentiment in football”. Jimmy Armfield was a lovely guy but he was no Don Revie likewise Grayson. He will get back into football soon enough but L1/L2 are his limit

Finally, I must disagree with “and he gave us some of the best moments in Leeds United history”. You have to be joking! Losing at places like Hereford and Exeter are the lowest points in the clubs history coupled with home defeats like Preston 4-6 and more recently Blackpool 0-5 far outweigh the win against a Man Utd squad XI in 2010.

Then again not everyone was privileged to be a regular from 1963-1975, or more latterly 1989-1992, now we are are talking great history.

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by jacccqqques

jacccqqques — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:58:50 +0000

It’s difficult to defend Grayson, there are plenty of stories of poor handling of players and the player turnover has been massive. However, I will always wonder what he could have achieved if given reasonable resources to work with. Argue the toss all you like, our wage structure is lower than most of the rest of this division, that’s why we miss out on the majority of our transfer targets. Worringly, our revenue is one of the highest in the division, and that gap between revenue and player budget (and in particular what is happening to it) is the main problem.

One more thing, whilst I agree that Norwich and Swansea had better managers to lead them to their successes, they also had chairman and boards who look after their fans. Look at the price of season tickets for Norwich and look at their attendances. Full grounds of happy fans do make a difference.

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by Adam Willerton

Adam Willerton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:27:33 +0000

I think there’s two ways you can look at the Grayson transfers. In truth, the vast majority of those signings should have been successful. Look at some of the loanees like Trundle, McSheffrey, Ephraim, Vokes, Bannan.
On paper, all of those should have been brilliant signings for us, but it never worked out.
So one conclusion as to why it didn’t is that the loan system doesn’t work, and players underperform when at loan clubs.
The second possible reason is that Grayson wasn’t getting the best out his players.

Either way, Grayson is at fault. The first way for persuing a method that doesn’t work, the second for failing as a manager.

My personal opinion is that Grayson wasn’t getting the best out of his players. For long periods during his time here grayson played a lot of big players out of position. Howson, Johnson, and this season Becchio (look how well he’s performing so far).
For the Forest game we revert to 4-5-1 (Howson and Becchio in their best positions) and we win 4-0. We didn’t play it again after that.

As I said, he didn’t know his best side, and that’s what cost him his job.

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by Irving08

Irving08 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:57:55 +0000

Adam, of course, you are right, but with one qualification: the decision to have a large squad – absent sufficient number of young academy products – in the context of possibly insufficent funds, may have dictated a recruitment policy that always seemed odd. Still, Grayson seriously under-achieved with most of the well paid players he brought in, even if his performance with the low wage players he inherited was par – and it this failure that, I think, finally did for him. He was a lucky manager in that he did inherit some very good outfield players – yet also bought two good ones; but I felt he seemed to lack sufficient independence of mind to impose himself on events – for instance, my hunch is that it was his coaches who persuaded him that White was not ready last season, or that Clayton would not be a better post-Xmas bet than those loanees. I wonder how well stocked his mind was in other respects, too. Eddie Howe, by contrast, always impresses me when I hear him speak in his quite way about football. Simon – an affable enough man – never did. As he is one of ours, I hope he has taken lessons form his time at Leeds, and goes on to be a very successful manager – which would not mean the decision to let him go was mistaken, of course. No manager could have survived the drubbings we have suffered this season, especially at home.

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by chris

chris — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:14:33 +0000

Well said Adam.

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by lux

lux — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:02:45 +0000

I can take on board what you are saying about the way Simon Grayson would have been better off signing one quality player than loaning two mediocer players but in his defence you have to imagine the positions he would be left in.At the beginning of the season for instance it was reported that he had identified to Sean Harvey five players he wished to sign only to find out with a week to go before the season started that Sean Harvey was unable to sign any of them. As a manager were do you go from there? What options would you have left? What players would be left available? Probobly players that other teams didnt want,we needed a goalkeeper desperately. Simon probobly didnt use the money available to him as wisely as he could of done but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
At the root of all our problems is our transfer policy.If he did sign a quality player who could command £12000 a week in wages do you then have to raise the team captains wages plus players such as Snodgrass.We need to have a long hard look at the way we operate.

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by Chris Fisk

Chris Fisk — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:14:55 +0000

Well done Adam. Right on the money!

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by Harrogate White

Harrogate White — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:06:38 +0000

Adam,

Amongst all the hysteria it is reassuring to come across someone expressing such a thoughtful view.

Much as I liked SG, this season I have despaired at his often puzzling tactical approach, his confusing [and confused] team selection, his awful man management and his butterfly collecting approach to transfer policy.

I sit quite near to the Home Dug-Out and during recent games I’ve spent periods watching SG. Unlke most oppostion managers and coaches, most of the time he seemed either to be in a trance with his coaching limited to the occasional wave of his arms apparently urging the ball to be kicked in the direction of the opposition goal and/or whoever was playing up-front.

More worryingly, in latter games he seemed to be giving out the vibes of someone who was “Not waving but drowning”.

Unfortunately, in my opinion it was time for change – actually, I understood the Burnley [Home] game was pencilled in as “The Day” but KB must have had a soft attack!

Over the years I’ve seen managers come and go and I’ve had some regrets about most: SG comes high up the list of those that nearly made it but who eventually lost the plot.

It’s now down to KB: if he wants to shake off his “Stupid/Tight/Confused/Lying Old Bastard” tag he’s now got to get it right and push us into the PL.

Sometimes I think Revie must have been right in his belief about the Gypsy Curse: how can we be lumbered with the likes of Ridsdale, Krasner, Richmond, Morris, Levy, McKenzie etc. only to end up with Bates?

Keep the Faith [today might just be our equivalent of Easter Saturday!].

Comment on Loose Cannon, Au Revoir Simon by bpr

bpr — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:48:42 +0000

Maybe, just maybe the fact that our performances and defence have been shocking have led to SG getting sacked? I for one dislike our transfer policy and I don’t like the dodgy offshore, tax avoiding money vacuum BUT we ARE an upper championship team. The right manager will take us forward and I’ve actually got faith in Ken Bates’ ability to lure money and investment to the club.

Admittedly it did make me feel sad hearing the stories about SG crying when leaving Leeds but a new era dawns… We can go up, we have a decent squad still, and if we can keep Delph till the end, and he stays fit we will not be far off the pace.