Tag: LUFC | The Square Ball

How To Lose, and How To Win: by Billy Bremner

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Moscowhite • 7 Comments

“I honestly don’t know where they get their patience from. They spend their hard-earned money to follow the club – and we turn in a performance like we did at Stoke. It must be heartbreaking for them when they have to watch what we served up for them. They deserve 100 per cent better. If we were up there at the top of the First Division we could not expect more from our fans. I was ashamed that a team of mine could be so lacking in enthusiasm, commitment and effort. It just wasn’t true. It was humiliating and there is no excuse. They are lacking pride in the club, when wearing a Leeds United shirt should be the greatest thing in the world. It was for me.” – Billy Bremner.… Continue Reading

Filed Under: lwmyd

AFTER THE ACCOUNTS: THE FOG IN LUFC’S FINANCES

Posted on April 4, 2012 by The Square Ball • 16 Comments

The most interesting part of Leeds United’s 2010/11 financial returns, which have become available today, fall after the end of the accounting period. The filings take the assorted companies that make up Leeds City Holdings to the end of June 2011, but at the bottom of the very last page, is this:

‘Post Balance Sheet Events’: Leeds United Football Club Limited entered into an agreement whereby it sold season tickets for both the 2012/13 and 2013/14 season for a sum of £5,000,000 after the year end.

This, it seems, it the £5m facility that was referred to in the official sites reporting of the account headlines: “After the year end we entered into an agreement for a £5,000,000 facility to part fund the East Stand Development.”

Filed Under: Leeds United

Leeds United Podcast #45: Trust in Colin

Posted on March 3, 2012 by The Square Ball • 0 Comments

Neil Warnock has arrived at Elland Road along with Danny Webber, but Andros Townsend’s head is no longer with us, which casts a large shadow over proceedings. The team looks at the Redfearn era before having a chinwag with the Supporters Trust chairman, Gary Cooper, on the phone. Next up we have Hull and Southampton… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Podcast

Jonny Howson: The Singing In The Sighing

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Moscowhite • 33 Comments

On Saturday, should you care to, you can read my first take on Howson’s sale in the new issue of The Square Ball. Without giving too much away – so promise me you’ll still buy it, okay? – here’s how I end the article:

It seems you can fleece the fans with promises of the Premier League, but you can’t fleece Jonny Howson. If he has looked our board in the eye when they told him, “We want to match your ambition,” and he’s not believed a word – well, vale, kid, and here’s to you. It’s an inherent cruelty of football that means Howson has that option, and we don’t.

I was thinking about this again tonight, as I browsed through today’s news roundup.… Continue Reading

Filed Under: lwmyd

What Ken Said – 19.10.11 – Ain’t No Sunshine

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Fax Man • 12 Comments

Taken from today’s interview on Yorkshire Radio with Leeds United owner Ken Bates…

Mr Chairman speaks to Ben Fry about last night’s draw with Coventry, what it means for our league position and the future of the goalkeeping position after Andy Lonergan was ruled out for six weeks and Paul Rachubka’s howler. He also has praise for the academy’s recent upturn in form before his weekly diatribe (just the 568 words; 3 minutes and 8 seconds), which is aimed at the Radio Leeds fans forum as he preaches to us on the art of football finances. Ken is obviously an expert in this area having saved Chelsea from insolvency (twice) leaving creditors massively out of pocket before piling on a further £100millon+ of debt by building the ill-fated Chelsea Village and then selling them to someone who actually puts money into a club. Let’s not forget he added around £15million to our debts before taking us into administration in 2007 too before ‘saving’ us for the second time. If you’re looking for someone to tell you about the ins and outs of financial mismanagement, there’s no one more qualified really, so it’s an honour for us morons to be offered this insight. How kind of him. How kind of him also to tell us about the recession and how hard it’s hitting the world… as he charges folk some of the most expensive season ticket and matchday ticket prices in the country… probably the world… while sitting on his Monte Carlo sun terrace overlooking the Med on one of the most expensive streets in the world before jetting in to Leeds for each match. It’s really hard for some isn’t it, Ken? Meanwhile, Ken offers the weather as a reason for attendances being down 4,100 per match on last season’s average. It never rains, but it pours…

Filed Under: What Ken Said

Leeds United Podcast #37: Bad Barnet Chat

Posted on October 14, 2011 by The Square Ball • 1 Comment

The podcast returns with reaction to the BBC documentary Who Owns Leeds United?, including an appearance for one pod member whose hair has caused more scandal than the programme itself.

With this follicular folly out of the way, the team gets down to business and speaks to the producer of the documentary, Neil Morrow, who responds to Ken’s Yorkshire Radio diatribe about the show and tells us why the programme was made and what they hoped to uncover.

There’s joy after a clean sheet and a victory against Portsmouth, quickly followed by confusion at the strange banning of non-members from the Kop against Cardiff. There’s cheer at El Principito’s new contract – well, kind of – but not his new name. There’s also hope/optimism/desperation/confidence/idiocy about the forthcoming matches that kick off against Doncaster on the telly on Friday night and happiness that Michael is about to take a trip in a moving pub.… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Podcast

What Ken Said – 12.10.11 – Shot by Shot

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Fax Man • 27 Comments

Regular readers of What Ken Said will recall that whenever something doesn’t quite go the Ken’s way, like the recent protests by fans at Elland Road, he reacts with a lengthy monologue during his usual Wednesday slot on his own radio station. After Monday’s BBC Inside Out documentary on the last six years at Leeds United drew attention again to the secretive ownership and continued chairmanship of Ken Bates throughout that period, it won’t come as much of a surprise to find out that seven minutes and 10 seconds of today’s 12-minute ‘interview’ were dedicated to Ken’s monologue on the subject. That’s a total of 1,311 words (or 7,104 characters typed by my good self) – rather impressive for a TV programme that Ken himself describes as ‘a complete waste of time’.… Continue Reading

Filed Under: What Ken Said

Revealed: The £10m That Could Have Saved Leeds From Administration

Posted on October 10, 2011 by The Square Ball • 66 Comments

A BBC documentary to be shown in Yorkshire tonight, Who Owns Leeds United?, attempts once again to unravel Leeds’ 2007 administration and establish just what went on as Leeds plunged into League One and almost out of business.

As part of their investigation, the BBC obtained copies of correspondence between the club and Leeds City Council through a Freedom of Information request that, while it does not form a central part of the programme, should be of interest to Leeds fans. The BBC have passed these letters and emails to The Square Ball so that we can present them to you.

The letters between Shaun Harvey and senior Council officers reveal that in March and April 2007 an ‘investment group’ was willing to invest £10m in Leeds United, a sum which would have secured LUFC as a going concern through the 2007/08 season, meaning administration and the subsequent twenty-five point penalty would have been avoided.… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Leeds United

Leeds United Podcast #34: Buzz Swoosh Bang!

Posted on September 1, 2011 by The Square Ball • 0 Comments

Trapped in a studio in the fading hours of the transfer window, we attempt to capture some of the excitement of the deadline’s approach with a lot of loud noises and hyperbole. That line between The Square Ball podcast and Sky Sports News gets more blurred every day… Of course, the big news was Max… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Podcast

New Season, New TSB: Issue One is Out Today!

Posted on August 13, 2011 by The Square Ball • 1 Comment

Today is the first home game of the season, and with it comes the first issue of The Square Ball of 2011/12. Since the last issue, we’ve been named The Football Supporter’s Federation’s Fanzine of the Year for our efforts in 2010/11, and as Howard Wilkinson said after the League title success in 1992, *”All we can say to you all is, ‘It looks as though we’ll have to go and try and win it again.’”* Let’s not dwell too long on how that turned out, shall we?… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Leeds United

Tag Archives: LUFC