The Morning After

So what is going on at Leeds? I've tried to see both sides on stuff, aware that many have strong views one way or another

Let's start with the Board:

The case for the Defence - Radz and co took over a club that had just finished 14th in the Championship, with no infrastructure, a weak squad and a training ground in need of a massive overhaul. Even today while we feel sick at the prospect of relegation we are a Premier League club, 18th biggest turnover in the world according to Reuters. The board are responsible for the recovery after 17 years in the wilderness and they can take credit for the appointment of Bielsa which was a masterstroke at the time. Under Radz the clubs entire structure has been transformed and Orta's recruitment has brought us player value in the form of Meslier, Rapha, Gnonto, etc.

The case for the prosecution - The board carry the can for all appointments and having got us to the promised land and a 9th place finish the momentum was with them. From last season the board's recruitment dried up leaving Bielsa with a weakened squad, and lots of noise about the areas that needed improvement. The change of Manager to Marsch may not have been popular but it just delivered safety. Having backed Marsch, again not necessarily in the right areas, the board sack a manager 1 week after an expensive window. It doesn't matter if we think they should have done this sooner or not at all - the timing sucks.

Orta has plenty of misses on his list - JKA being the prime one, but now fans are questioning Firpo, Aarondsen, Rasmussen, Rutter and still not buying a left back...

And now we have managers saying NO to us right, left and centre.

The great unknown - is the emergence of the 49ers interest a blessing or a curse? Has their potential offer to buy the club prevented investment by Radz and distracted him?, or has it provided funds that have simply been badly used and should give us hope for the future?

Are too many cooks in the board room spoiling the broth?

Now let's talk managers:

The case for the Defence - Bielsa came to the club and was brilliant both on and off the field. He instilled entertaining and successful football on the field and instilled discipline off it. He ensured all aspects of the club that had been ignored were invested in, he provided a full leadership to the club. Then he got us back to the PL.

It doesn't matter what happened next or why, his 3.5 years at Leeds will be treasured forever.

Marsch came in at a time when Leeds were losing every game, and not just by an odd goal we were getting trashed and the players heads were gone. Marsch did the job he was recruited to do in the first instance and kept us up. Marsch then pursued a style which the board had supported and right to the end the players were fighting for him and the performances were strong even if they didn't yield the points. What was the point in sacking him?

The case for the prosecution - For all that Bielsa did for the club, he only had a plan A and it involved flogging a small squad. For a while it enchanted the English game and got us up, but by PL season 2 the players were spent and getting injured, the style was found out and that's where the rot started - the club needed a complete overhaul and some more savvy which Bielsa couldn't/wouldn't offer.

Marsch came in and things only just improved enough to survive, the Summer was crucial and although the squad was strengthened, a bright start soon fell apart as the style was once again found out - hard work and running about after the ball can't replace guile and structure, we were still too naïve and easy to break down. Good money was spent in the wrong areas and now we have a mess.

The great unknown - would Bielsa have kept us up? Could Bielsa have found a plan B? What if a couple of good performances under Marsch actually brought us some points and he was still in charge?

Now let's talk players:

The case for the Defence - We have a core of players who love the club and have run through brick walls to get results. There is no evidence that players have gone on strike, they all care and have tried to do what's been asked of them. In some cases they've been injured because of the style of play but still come back and keep fighting. Players can only deliver what they are capable of and if their attitude is right then it's down to the tactics and formations they are told to work to.

The case for the prosecution - The squad is where all the risk is and all the money goes. Players have a responsibility to perform consistently and individual errors, particularly at the back, have cost us. There are some players who came in on big money and haven't delivered, which has led to other employees taking the blame and losing their jobs. There have been some poor public utterings from Bamford, deliberate or clumsy, which can allow questions over the motivation and unity in the squad. It may be time to cut our losses on some players whose market value is greater than their worth to us?

Finally - a thought on the bigger picture.

Success in the Premier League is not just about what a club does internally - it's about how much money others have and what they are doing. Relegation doesn't happen simply because a club does X and Y badly, it happens because there aren't 3 other clubs worse.

Right now the PL is awash with money, and the best players/managers in the world. 3 teams have to go down and all of them have invested hugely, even Bournemouth. We have to be objective about our levels of income which place us 18th in the world, but amazingly just 12th in the PL. Our ground is the 12th biggest and our squad worth on transfermarkt is 17th. Our overall points in the PL history is 14th, our overall silverware tally is joint 14th.

What is our realistic expectation and are we guilty of seeing Leeds as a bigger football club than it really is these days? With all the doom and gloom we sit right now 5 points away from that 14th position. What does good look like actually?

Musing over - Over to you to give your verdicts.