Doom and gloom season again for Whites fans TSS June 21, 2011 Leeds United 36 Comments If it wasn’t so infuriating, it’d be laughable hearing the same panicked Leeds United fans forecasting our imminent doom based upon a few loose transfer links touted around by the national rags and hit hungry rumour websites. The days of the internet forum and social networking sites mean these rumours that were once easy to dismiss based on the low credibility of the paper or website publishing them, are now spread instantly across the world, all the while gaining attention until they arrive at a stage where they’re pretty much considered fact. The spread of such rumours can often make it difficult for the original source of the nonsense to be located. Not only does Twitter, Facebook and the overwhelming number of Leeds United forums play a part, but other websites pick them up and reaffirm this nonsense too, whilst at the same time making it harder still for the origins of these claims to be located. My advice for silly season would be to find yourself a dark hole somewhere and hibernate until the 2011/12 campaign begins. The problem is however that we’re the ones creating the hysteria of it all. The absence of any actual news creates as much panic as the rumours created to fill that void (and more importantly, profit from it). You demand news, the papers will happily take your money and create some for you. The news organisations once tasked with reporting the facts have found it’s much more profitable to occasionally dip their feet in the fiction market. After all, we’ll lap them up like an addict desperate for a fix and regardless of how true it turns out to be we’ll be back for a fresh injection of nonsense the following day. Josh Billings once said that “As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand”. He was right too. People don’t care for truths. They care for the kind of fantasy scenario that has David O’Leary’s Leeds United team braced for a reunion. They care for the kind of scandal that has Robert Snodgrass, Jonny Howson and Max Gradel en route to the Premier League. Football is simply man’s equivalent of Eastenders. And much like Eastenders, there’s no end in sight. Amongst all this doom and gloom however, one must concede certain things do concern a little. Ken Bates was quoted as saying – whilst obviously meant a little tongue in cheek – that a certain individual would have to remove a zero from his wage and half it if he wanted to return to Leeds United. Now, I personally can’t think of a bigger waste of money than this player but putting his reported wages through Ken Bates’ equation means he’s offering £3,000 a week. This time last season Leeds United were claiming they didn’t have to pay mega bucks to lure players in because our competitive wage structure meant they were queueing up. Strange then that wage demands always seem to be such a sticking point nowadays. The other thing that grates a little is Ken’s Meccano Project that has been bolted onto the side of the East Stand. The work currently ongoing at Elland Road is believed to have cost around £7m – more than the combined total we’ve spent on players in the last few seasons. Are a dozen or so executive boxes, some new offices and a museum really as important as a squad capable of landing a £90m promotion? Sure, Elland Road has seen better days and it does need regeneration, but the priority should be a return to the wealth of top flight football before money is spent on our chairman’s vanity project (or ‘legacy’ as I’m sure he’d wish it to be called). That said, despite the chairman’s tight-fisted ways and confused priorities, I have full faith in the Leeds United manager and genuinely believe the squad he puts out on opening day will be an improvement on the one that beat the champions on the final day of last season. Year-on-year we have the same doubts and concerns, but under Simon Grayson we’ve progressed greatly over the last couple of seasons and I fully expect him to continue building on that.