What On Earth Is Going On At Leeds United?

Leeds United Football Club are a club that are familiar with chaos and turmoil the club's direct predecessors Lead City who were managed by the great Herbert Chapman before his successes at Huddersfield town in arsenal were forcibly disbanded and made to sell all of their players by the football association in 1919 due to allegations of illicit payments haven't been made to players during World War One following World War II the new club named Leeds United endured what was then the worst season in the history of English football's Top Flight amassing a measly 18 points from 42 games and winning only one point away from home all season the latter being an enviable record which leads still whole to this day following the success of the Don revier at Ellen Road Brian Clough a long time critic of Leeds Andover Abbey was appointed as ready successor Clough alienated all of leaders star players allowed gradually telling them during his first training session that they could quote throw all their medals in the bin because none of them were won fairly Leeds who were the champions of England at the time won only one of clough's eight games in charge of them and he was promptly sacked after just 44 days at the start of the 2000s under chairman Peter ridsdale Leeds borrowed money on the prospects of the television rights and sponsorship Revenue that would come with Champions League qualification and progression within that competition but subsequently failed to qualify for the Champions League in successive seasons were unable to repay their creditors were forced into making fire sales got relegated got relegated again went into Administration and started their first season of League one football with a 15 Point deduction I could go on even within that context though going from finishing ninth in the Premier League just three points from European qualification whilst playing an exhilarating brand of football under Marcela bialsa to burning through four managers in 14 months sacking their director of football and appointing a man who drinks pints of white wine and hosts a podcast called No Tippy tappy football is pretty spectacular stuff so in today's video I wanted to take a look at how Leeds United went from being a sleeping giant that had seemingly been awoken from their Slumber United behind an almost Messianic figure and the culture that he had created to a rudderless club in crisis hiring a manager who is almost diametrically opposed ideologically to the man who got them where they are and with their top flight status hanging by a thread so sit back relax and join me on a journey to the former Market town of Leeds which is now one of the largest urban areas in the United Kingdom as we explore how a football club that looks to have got everything right have thrown it all away in the blinker of an eye in a tale of hubris complacency and downright incompetence whilst I began this video by talking about some of leeds's most infamous catastrophes and the club was itself born in Scandal and crisis in many respects it's also true that Leeds are a club that have tasted greatness from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s whilst under the stewardship of Don Robbie Leeds were no less controversial but far more successful nicknamed super leads by their own supporters and dirty leads by their Rivals for their abrasive style and occasional underhand tactics leads when nine successive Seasons without ever finishing lower than fourth in the old first division winning two League titles finishing as runners-up on five occasions and winning both an FA cup and a League Cup Crown in 1992 18 years after Revy left Leeds to take the England job the whites won their third Top Flight league title in the final season of first division football before the Breakaway of the Premier League from the football League just two seasons after winning promotion from the second division Leeds didn't just fail to defend that title in the Premier League's inaugural season though they slumped all the way to 17th finishing just two points above the drop nonetheless over the next eight seasons Leeds finished in the top five on six occasions and after local businessman Peter ridsdale became chairman in 1997 Leeds decided to spend big serious investment was made marked by the arrivals of David batsy Mark baduka Robbie Fowler Robbie Keane and Olivia Decor amongst others most notable of all was the signing of West Hammond England offender Rio Ferdinand for a British record fee of 18 million pounds initially all seemed to be going to plan Leeds qualified for the Champions League in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 Seasons reaching the semi-finals of first the UEFA cup and then the the Champions League the only problem and admittedly it was rather a large one was that ridstell had borrowed roughly 60 million pounds to fund the club's spending spree against future Revenue effectively gambling the future of the club on Lee's its continued ability to qualify for the UEFA Champions League Of course Leeds then failed to qualify for the Champions League in successive Seasons meanwhile the astronomical wages that they had handed to players on long-term contracts saw their debt spiral to more than a hundred million pounds selling anyone who was worth anything which included Rio Ferdinand Jonathan Woodgate Robbie Keane Harry Keel and others turn leads into relegation candidates overnight without even plugging that Financial black hole after narrowly avoiding relegation in the 200203 season leeds's fate was sealed the following campaign resulting in another sharp drop in revenue and eventually total Financial collapse in the space of just Seven Seasons Leeds went from finishing fourth in the Premier League and playing in the semi-finals of the Champions League to dropping down into the third tier of English football for the first time in the history of the club and starting out in League one with a massive 15-point deduction so catastrophic was lead's demise the phrase doing a leads became established football parlance used to describe the dire consequences of Financial mismanagement in South Korea where Premier League football had just started to be broadcast before leaders demise the phrase leads days is still used to this day both within and outside of football to describe the time when something or someone that has now fallen from Grace used to be in their Heyday imagine suffering a collapse so severe as a West Yorkshire football club that it reshapes language and career and people say that Peter ridsdale has no Legacy as if that wasn't bad enough for Leeds their supposed savior at a time when hmrc lodged a legal challenge against leeds's CVA and the club was at its very lowest Deb was none other than Ken Bates the world's worst Santa impersonator and a man who was once described as a putrid Boyle on the face of a English football by me just then Bates who bought a 50 stake in Leeds in January 2005 quickly turned on the charm after taking full ownership of the club in 2011 by describing fans who protested against his ownership of the club and accused him of a lack of investment as morons Leeds spent three seasons in League one before finally winning promotion and they eventually got rid of Bates in the championship though it was very much a case of out of the frying pan and straight into the fire bait Soul leads to a little-known Bahraini private Equity Group called gfh Capital who promised to keep baits on as a chairman until the end of the season and then to appoint him as Club president that Arrangement lasted just 15 months until leads were sold again this time to Massimo chilino an Italian entrepreneur who also owned Italian sad calorie a bit like watford's owners the potsos chelino brought all of the stability of the pot sauce to Allen Road I.E absolutely non but also none of the success yeah it's not really a winning combination is it Brian McDermott was briefly sacked and then rehired whilst takeover talks were ongoing and his eventual successor David Hockaday had been out of work for almost a year since getting sacked by non-league side forest green Ropers you can understand why some late United fans refer to this period as the club's banter era when Chalino sold leads in 2017 it was to another Italian though this one seems to be a little bit more polished and professional Andrea radritzani had made his money in sports media and at two years earlier founded the Media Group 11 Sports in the first season of rabbitsani's ownership despite receiving a further cash injection mid-season from 49ers Enterprises who also owned the San Francisco 49ers NFL team Leeds actually went backwards falling from Seventh a previous season to 13th in the championship table when radar atsani took full ownership of Leeds in the summer of 2017 he appointed Victor auter as his director of football author had previously done the same job at Zenit St Petersburg Spanish site Elche and most recently Middlesbrough and in the summer of 2018 radritsane reportedly acting on author's advice decided that leads his ticket to the Premier League would be dependents not upon major investments in the playing Squad but on a spectacular managerial appointment also had a few ideas Leeds flirted with the idea of offering Antonio Conte who had just left Chelsea a deal worth 18 million pounds a year before concluding that he probably wouldn't want to manage in the championship then also proposed the enigmatic argentinemas salabi Elsa who had been out of work for seven months since his 13 game stint at League inside allele had been brought to an abrupt and shocking end rather itsani dismissed the suggestion as with kante as being impossible but also figured that it was worth a shot on June 15 2018 Marcella bielsa was announced as Leeds United's new head coach having agreed a deal which was reported to be worth 6 million pounds a year rising to 8 million pounds if leads one promotion that is between 115 to over 150 000 pounds a week which is an absolutely obscene salary in the championship and was reported as being the highest for a manager in the history of the revision whatever be also cost he was worth it that is the conclusion that most Leeds United fans came to within bielsa's first games in charge of their Club it wasn't just the Leeds won them all though that that does always help it was the immediacy with which you're completely transformed the team the pressing and intensity was like nothing that leads fans had seen before and indeed nothing that any championship teams fans had seen before in truth in the space of just a few months Leeds had gone from playing some fairly turgid Football under Paul hacking bottom to being the most enthralling side in the second serve English Football under a man who spent six years managing Argentina's national team even more impressive was the fact that the Personnel had barely changed Leeds made some additions Patrick Bamford who arrived from Middlesbrough for seven million pounds the most significance of them but by and large it was the same players that had finished in the bottom half of the division the previous season Luke aling was among the most remarkable Transformations some were doubting whether he was a championship fullback the previous season now he was everywhere getting up and down the right flank lake cafe albeit with slightly less poison Grace but just as effective a championship level at least Stuart Dallas fell into a similar bracket signed by leads from Brentford back in 2015. he was already one of leeds's better players before bielsa arrived but he was a man possessed following the argentine's arrival his energy levels were incredible whether he was played at left back right back or on either of the flanks Pablo Hernandez likewise was already a firm fan favorite at Ellen Road following an impressive debut campaign but his game was elevated to another level under the Elsa he made a remarkable 24 goal contributions in the league That season 12 goals and 12 assists from 39 games and he was arguably the best player in the league no one summed up the bielsa revolution better than midfielder Matthias click and Calvin Phillips though click who had been signed from FC Swansea the previous summer had made just four appearances in his debut campaign at Allen Road was dropped and discarded by manager Thomas Christensen and sent back to the Netherlands on loan with Utrecht with a clean slate under the Elsa in pre-season though he became a linchpin in leeds's starting eleven epitomizing everything that made the team so effective no one played more games for leads That season than click 50 in all competitions as he chips in with 19 goal contributions from Central and attacking Midfield Phillips played almost as many 46 in all competitions at the base of the Leeds Midfield Phillips had previously been deployed in a box-to-box role and had scored seven goals and made three assists the season before bielsa arrived during preseason though the Elsa played Phillips at center-back and in holding Midfield and throughout the season he grew into an incredibly effective deep-plane playmaker controlling games for leads and exhibiting a range of passing the few would have thought incapable of before the Arjun sign arrived Leeds failed to win promotion in the Elsa's debut campaign having spent almost the entire season in the top two failure to win any of their final four games allowed Yorkshire rival Sheffield United to steal it and win automatic promotion ahead of them in the playoffs leads locked horns with Derby County in what had become quite a fiery encounter due to the Spygate Fiasco earlier in the season Leeds lost and over the summer they also lost their top scorer keema roof in a 7 million pound move to ambulance but none of that really mattered be Elsa ball as it came to be known had been born and if he could get leads playing like that after a single pre-season what could he do after an entire campaign the answer was something quite special Leeds actually made more than 25 million pounds in transfer Revenue over the summer just 250 000 pounds of which was reinvested in the playing Squad although the club had agreed to pay 15 million pounds decide how the Costa at the end of the season as part of his loan deal it was in the loan Market the leads really strengthened most notably by bringing Jack Harrison from Manchester City and Benjamin white from Brighton lead to mass 93 points comfortably winning the championship title and securing a return to the Premier League following a 16-year absence it only be else's second season in charge the only disappointment for Leeds was that their title had been won behind closed doors and so too will be their first season back in the Premier League they would answer the time about how BL Sable would adapt to the highest standard of the Premier League but it turned out those doubts were unfounded leeds's first two games back in the Top Flight were a 4-3 defeats of reigning Champions Liverpool and a 4-3 win against Fulham which set the tone for the rest of the season Leeds United have been many things over the years successful unsuccessful scandalous but one thing that they have rarely been is loved under marsala bialsa even those who did so through gritted teeth sometimes had to enjoy the spectacle that Leeds put on and the entertainment from both sides that their approach to the game in short whilst failure to win promotion and be Elsa's debut campaign May well have been a blessing in disguise since Leeds were so much better prepared for Top Flight football following an extra season playing in the championship a Ninth Place finish in the Premier League just two points behind Arsenal and three behind Tottenham who qualified for European football May well have turned out to be a bit of a curse in Disguise Leeds had bold plans following such a successful campaign artistic Impressions were drawn up for a state-of-the-art u trading ground Ellen Road was to undergo some long overdue Renovations and there was a three to five year plan drawn up for European qualification and to challenge the top six they were lofty Ambitions but a few clubs are better positioned to challenge the established Elite leads despite their successes under revi and third first division Crown in 1992 a major historic Underachievers Leeds have won the same amount of top-flight League titles as Huddersfield Town fewer fa Cups than Portsmouth and Berry and the same number of League cups as Luton and Oxford overall Leeds have won the same number of major trophies as West Brom 9 and fewer than Blackburn with 12 and wolves with 13. bearing in mind the fact that Leeds is one of the largest cities in the United Kingdom and Leeds United face virtually no competition as the city's only football league club unlike in other cities like Manchester Birmingham Sheffield and Liverpool it is an anomaly that is often overlooked Leeds Bradford is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the UK right between the Manchester and Liverpool birkenhead metropolitan area us but whilst teams from the Manchester Metropolitan Area have won a total of 103 major trophies between them and teams from the Liverpool birkenhead metropolitan area have won 77 teams from the leeds-bradford metropolitan area have won a comparably miserable 13 which is about half as many as Everton or Manchester City on their own and that is split between Leeds United Huddersfield town and Bradford City for all of their bold plans off the pitch though the Leeds United border pits have become somewhat complacent on it it seemed as though a lot of people at the club possibly with the exception of Marcella bielsa felt as though Leeds were immune to the threat of relegation The Following season and barely any improvements was made to the first team squad Junior Burpo was brought in at left back from Barcelona and Daniel James who leads a tribe desperately to sign in January 2019 were brought in but that was just about it second season syndrome is a frequent phenomenon amongst recently promoted clubs but many of Leeds as ills appeared to be self-inflicted and they were soon given a rude awakening failing to win any of their first six games the problems for leads were threefold if you like one they hadn't improved whilst others had two teams were more familiar with BL somal and had found better ways of combating it and three the small Squad that we also likes to maintain had been physically stretched to the Limit and injuries exposed a real lack of depth at the club when the January transfer window opened Leeds had won only three games all season kept out of the bottom three solely because Norwich Newcastle and Burnley were having freakishly bad starts to the season and suddenly the threat of relegation no longer seems so outlandish it was in January 2022 that the first real crack started to appear in the relationship but and both Victor auta and Andrea radritz army they also wanted signings but only the right sightings who he felt were capable of playing or at least adapting to his style of play as had always been the case over the summer bielster had wanted Leeds to take Conor Gallagher on loan from Chelsea but he refused to meet with Gallagher in person or offer him assurances of regular football those were two things the bielsen never did the first seemingly just out of personal preference but the latter on a point of principle the no one was guaranteed game time under Marcela bielsa they would have to earn it it is an admirable attitude and perhaps one that ought to be ubiquitous but whilst bialsa was sticking to his guns Patrick Vieira was busy meeting with Gallagher and giving him the assurances over game time that he wasn't getting from leads facts are in not having to leave London and Gallagher's mind was made up there were other stories of play players that we also wanted but the leads couldn't get either because they chose to join someone else or because Leeds deemed the moves to be too expensive within this context there was a bit of a narrative war going on in which the Leeds hierarchy appeared to be Keen to ham up the idea that they had lots of new arrivals lined up but there'll be also failed to sign off on them among them were the likes of Donnie Vander make and Harry Winks on loan deals supposedly scuppered by the Leeds United boss the Elsa for his part largely kept quiet but the Rises coming from the Leeds United board appeared to be aimed at combating the growing malcontent amongst Leeds United fans who accused them of not sufficiently having backed by Elsa within the transfer market it probably didn't help matters on the transfer fronts the Leeds won the first two games of 2022 which propelled them to nine points clear of the drop January came and went then with the only arrival being that of 18 year old Mateo Joseph for an undisclosed fee from espanol it also didn't help matters that Leeds had the ongoing Fiasco and expense of Jean Kevin Augustine hanging over their heads signed online from RB Leipzig whilst Leeds were still in the championship Augustine only played 48 minutes of football four leads before being returned to Leipzig with Marcella be Elsa having grown frustrated with his inability to get fit the terms of Augustine's lone deal dictated that should Leeds win promotion they would be obligated to sign Augustine for a fee of around 18 million pounds leads were promoted of course but they believed that the compulsory purchase agreement had been invalidated because the stated date by which they would have to have been promoted was June 30th the pause in this season caused by covid-19 meant the leads weren't actually promoted until July 17th but a FIFA ruling in June 2021 following a complaint registered by Leipzig found in favor of the German club ordering leads to pay them the fee in full Leeds subsequently launched an expensive legal challenge against that verdict with a court of Arbitrage operation for sports which they also lost forcing them to pay up and to make matters even worse still FIFA most recently ordered leads to pay Augustine 24.5 million pounds personally in unpaid wages on account of them never having actually signed him or paid him a salary following the loan deal leads are also challenging that decision by FIFA and I very recently made a whole video about this entire Saga but it is just yet another layer of chaos mismanagement and lost Revenue at Leeds in recent years restricting their ability to go out and sign players that they actually want less than a month after the underwhelming January transfer window slung shots Leeds sacked Marc salabi Elsa in a move that shocked and saddened an awful lot of lead United fans Andrea radritsani called the Elsa a legend and claimed that it was a decision that he never thought that he would make but that the club's defensive frailties had become so great and the spirit amongst their players so low that he felt forced to take evasive action American head coach Jesse Marsh who had spent the last seven years being employed solely by clubs that were part of the Red Bull franchise was appointed the day after the Elsa departed it was often suspected that Marsh might have been given the job because of the 49ers partial ownership of the club and reported ongoing talks about full ownership but as with bielsa appointing Marsh was actually Victor auta's decision he had been in semi-regular contact with Marsh for almost two years and whilst one imagines that the 49ers had few objections to his arrival and the subsequent signing of several U.S MNT players it was also who was the driving force behind it Marsh caps Leeds United in the Premier League by the Skin of Their Teeth thanks to Burnley losing at Newcastle and Leeds beating Brentford on the final day of last season and the Leeds United board would be well within their rights to claim that as a justification for their decision almost 12 months on though March is gone so too is his successor leads have fewer points than they did at this stage last season they are once again embroiled in a relegation scrap and it feels as though everything that made the blse era so special has been worn away what's often lost on those outside of Leeds United looking in is that Marcelo bielsa wasn't just loved because he finally got leads back into the Premier League and then finished ninth he was loved because of the culture that he created and how his teams conducted themselves both on and off the pitch fans could see exactly what he was trying to do how hard the players were working for him and for the club and the commitment to the cause and even when and leads lost games fans would often stay behind to applaud their efforts understanding that it was just a flash point within something much larger that is no longer the case Leeds fans don't see that level of effort from the players or clear thinking at Management's or boardroom level primarily because neither exist a defeat now is just another defeat with little else to hang on to and there have been a lot of them Leeds lost their two best players last summer in ruthenia and Calvin Phillips and whilst that money was reinvested it was reinvested badly with only one or two exceptions Brendan Aaronson who was brought in for just shy of 25 million pounds from Marsha's former Club Red Bull Salzburg has looked lightweight and unable to compete in his first season in the Premier League Lewis sinistera who was signed for 21 million pounds from feyenoord showed promise at the beginning of the season but has been hamstrung by injuries and Fitness concerns and was recently ruled out for the remainder of the campaign and Rasmus Christensen another Red Bull arrival signed for 22 million pounds from Red Bull Salzburg has played in three different positions this season and has looked to liability in all three in January when leads were clearly in dire need of arrivals who Could Make an instance impact author and Co decided to sign 20 year old hoffenheim prospects Georgina rotta for a club record-breaking fee of up to 36 million pounds now rotter may well go on to become a great player I don't know but he isn't one yet and he has fixed precisely zero problems in his first half season at Allen Road Marsh was sacked within a month of the January window slamming shots just like the Elsa before him and replaced by Javi grazia who despite winning his first game went on to suffer 5-1 and 6-1 defeats to Crystal Palace in Liverpool with a 4-1 defeat last weekend at Bournemouth proving to be the final straw now he's also gone as has Victor auta who sarcastically shouted sacked the board at leads his own fans following a 4-3 win against Bournemouth back in November mocking their calls for him and others to go since then leads have won a grand total of three games lost 12 and the 20th in the Premier League form table during that time few Leeds fans will miss him Leeds have decided for the last four games of this season though they don't need the sword of Tippy tappy football that might have been associated with Marcelo bielsa they just need results and who better to get them than Sam allardyce host of bookmaker William Hill's finest podcast I'm not aware if they have any others and the man who was dismissed in ignomy by England after just a single game in charge in a recent podcast episode where asked if he thought that he could do a better job at Leeds than having grazia aledice said that he definitely could claiming that he would address the club's defensive problems first and foremost avoid playing the ball out from the back of course and that if his name was Sam aladici he would have no problem Landing top jobs he has since said that he knows as much about football as Mikhail arteta Pep Guardiola and any other manager in the Premier League leads are reported to be paying allardice 500 000 pounds for the last four games of the Season plus a 2.5 million pound bonus if he keeps the club in the Premier League it could work out at around 750 000 pounds a game for other dice putting him firmly in Messi and Ronaldo's salary territory and making him the highest paid individual in the Premier League he will be joined by Robbie Keane and Carl Robinson as part of his backroom staff the concern for leads United fans whether allodice is able to keep them up or not is the decision in which the club is heading regardless Andrea rabbitsani is the owner who got leads back into the Premier League but outside of appointing Marcella be Elsa there is little to suggest that he is a shrewd football operator more so than last season even if Leeds do stay up this season there is a sense that it is only delaying the inevitable both before bielsa arrived and since he has departed Leeds have been rudderless and chaotic and the dismissal of water is only likely to fix that if he is replaced by someone who can bring fresh ideas and a coherent strategy to Alan wrote the reality of the Premier League as I have said numerous times on this channel is that unless you are one of the big six owned by a despotic dictatorship or possibly either Matthew Benham or Tony Bloom relegation at some stage will always be inevitable it's a matter of where men not if even for clubs the size of Leeds Everton Sunderland or West Ham in spite of that fact there was absolutely no reason for Leeds United to be in such a dire position so soon after having created such a feel-good factor and finishing in the top half of the division that is incompetence plain and simple a majority of leads United fans think that the club was wrong to suck my salabi Elsa and certainly the timing was abysmal it is important to note that Leeds conceded 17 goals in their last four games under meals sir losing three nil to Everton 4-2 to Manchester United signal to Liverpool and four nilter Tottenham I think a strong case can be made to be else's time at Leeds was always likely to come to a fairly abrupt end his training was so intense and the physical demands that he put on play is so great that it was always likely to catch up with them especially with such a small Squad competing in the toughest division in the world despite having spent 35 years in management bielsa's just shy of four years at Leeds is the longest that he has ever spent in a single club and I think that's probably for good reason nonetheless that is no excuse for the abject failure to suitably replace him or to build upon everything that had made him and indeed the club's such a success to go from Marcelo bielsa to Jesse Marsh to Javi grazia to Sam allardyce illustrates one thing no one Elites United really knows what they're doing there is no strategy or coherent thinking in that sequence of appointments and that is reflected in leeds's jumbled and disjointed performances on the pitch Allard ice you can forgive perhaps as one last throw of the dice on someone with a proven track record of getting clubs out of trouble though he has been out of work for the last two years and in his last job where he was given much longer to implement his ideas he was relegated at West Brom and lost 3-1 and 5-0 against bielsa's leads but the others are unforgivable there are lots of Leeds fans who are now yearning for the old leads but in many ways that is exactly what they've got certainly in modern history at least the Biel set era was the aberration the norm or the old leads has been what is happening now managerial turnover a series of dreadful boardroom decisions and a broader sense of tumult it seemed for just a brief moment as though those days may be behind leads but in a week in which the club lost four ones were team there was bottom of the league the previous month sacked their third successive manager this season and appointed a manager who claims that those who look to play the ball out from the back have been brainwashed that already seems like a distant memory that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as ever for watching I sincerely hope you enjoyed it please do hit the like button if that was the case Apparently that is good or helpful in some sense I don't know how uh but please do it anyway uh leave a comment if you have anything to say and make sure that you are subscribed both to this Channel and to my backup Channel both of which should be on your screens now along with a couple of videos that if you're not sick of my voice and I know it's a long shot you might be interested in watching you could also find me on Twitter or on Instagram via the username at hrcc7s on both should you wish to do so

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 205,737

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Leeds United, Leeds, Documentary, What On Earth, Is Going On, Premier League, Sam Allardyce, Marcelo Bielsa, LUFC, Luke Ayling, Transfers, Radrizzani, Victor Orta, Owner, EFL, Championship, Finances

Id: 9c-qPJT7XWQ

Length: 34min 42sec (2082 seconds)

Published: Thu May 04 2023