Following my post on the rise of TenForKen earlier this week, TSS met with some pretty heavy criticism from another Leeds United site, Clarke One Nil and a rather agitated commentator on TSS that felt my comments regarding LoveLeedsHateBates were slanderous. Whilst I don’t want this to descend into a keyboard warrior’s argument between the sites, I couldn’t resist the urge to respond to the criticism and have my own say (mainly because CON’s founder doesn’t allow comments on his own posts regarding Ken Bates.)

Now firstly, any suggestion I’m pro-Ken Bates is ludicrous. I was always a supporter of LLHB, but after several years of unrest with no progress, I felt the site had lost momentum. What remained was essentially a blog dedicated to analysing Ken Bates’ movements and spinning them into a negative thing. I aren’t condemning the authors of LLHB for this, as I’m one of the most cynical fans in the world and at the end of the day, Ken Bates does exactly the same.

That said, over time I started to feel as though LLHB was fighting fire with fire. Whilst the campaign gathered publicity and highlighted the concerns of the fans, nothing was ever going to change while both sides were deadlocked and had resorted to insulting one another.

This is where TFK and The Campaign For Change seems to be operating differently. Both have highlighted the concerns of the fans specifically and given the club every opportunity to answer the questions of it’s customers (us). It was never going to work, and the answers Kenneth has given were pretty much to the same tune as they always have been.

Whilst it sounds like I’m undermining the campaigners efforts, that’s not the case. The campaign has been extremely successful in that it’s united the concerned fans under the same list of demands (or questions) and it’s starting to gain the attention of the media. This is essential if any change is going to take place. Now that Ken Bates has had the opportunity to respond and the campaign has caught the hearts and minds of a huge amount of people, the new chairman of the Football League must stand up and take notice.

The new FL chairman should always act in the interests of those that follow the sport. As it stands, transparency is a major concern in football, not least at Leeds United. The chairman has the opportunity to change the future and the integrity of the game forever and it’s at his door our efforts should now be focused. The minority has become the majority through a successful campaign from TFK. Now it’s time to round up the troops and take our demands to the top. I firmly believe change is coming, and when it does, the efforts of both LLHB and TFK won’t be forgotten.

Finally, to those that the original article offended I can only apologise. However, my views then and my views now remain exactly the same. If people wish to take that as a dig at LLHB then so be it, but I’d like to make clear it never was and that I remain eternally thankful for what they achieved. My point is that when something doesn’t work, you need to look at why it hasn’t and learn from it. LLHB decided to step aside because TFK offered that new approach and I firmly believe it’ll prove to be the right decision.