The unnamed writer suggests that the former England striker could still command wages upwards of £50,000 per week, which is precisely where any Leeds United fan that has been around for the last seven years stopped reading and started rolling around on the floor in fits of uncontrollable laughter.

The worrying thing is that some Leeds United fans tend to buy into these nonsensical rumours and are currently setting themselves up for a huge fall when our starting line-up next season doesn’t feature the likes of Jermaine Beckford, Michael Owen and Joey Barton – all of these players are out of our price-range, and footballers seldom take pay-cuts to join what used to be a big (high-paying) club.

We’re a mid-table Championship club now with Ken Bates as our chairman – we need to keep things in perspective.

The problem is that these rumours quickly gain traction due to the incredible power of social media. The Yorkshire Post publish a ridiculously speculative piece, a few dozen tweet about it and within a couple of hours, it’s no a longer the “what if?” that the Yorkshire Post published, but a full scale rumour backed up by sightings of clandestine meetings allegedly held in highly public places.

What was initially “What if Leeds United gambled on a £50k-per-week injury-plagued former England striker” quickly becomes “Neil Warnock is chasing Michael Owen” and before you know it, someone has taken it upon themselves to start claiming that the deal will be completed by early next week. It’s Chinese whispers on speed.

Remember when I said I’d run around Elland Road naked if Patrick Viera signed? Well, if Michael Owen signs I’ll run the London marathon and donate every penny I make in sponsorship to Ken Bates. And just so you understand how serious I am, the only thing I hate more than unnecessary exercise is giving money to Ken Bates.

On a positive, and more importantly, realistic note, Neil Warnock has hinted at a move for Clint Hill should he decide to leave QPR when his current contract expires.

Football Blogging Awards 2012

 If you’ve enjoyed (or appreciated) the site this year, please vote for us in the 2012 FBA’s by clicking here.

We’re also backing The Square Ball and Glory Glory Leeds in the best podcast category .

“Notice how in the count room nobody ever seems to see anything? Somehow, somebody’s always lookin’ the other way. Now, look at these guys. They look busy, right? They’re countin’ money. Who wants to bother them? I mean, God forbid they should make a mistake and forget to steal.” - Ace Rothstein, Casino (1995)

There’s even a casino in Las Vegas called the Monte Carlo, which – like Elland Road – has suffered severe fire damage in it’s recent history.

Of course, there are a couple of notable differences, like the weather and relative success for example. Vegas also knows how to treat it’s customers. The town may bleed you dry, but you’ll love every second of it. Leeds United could probably stand to learn from that.

But if it was at all possible to twin a football club with a city, Dirty Leeds and Sin City sounds like an ideal pairing to me.

It seems only fitting then that Leeds United should get it’s own casino. Details released via the official site outline plans for a two-storey structure bolted onto an extended West Stand. Somewhat reassuringly, the club say they have no intention of operating the casino themselves, but will instead seek out experts to run it for them. Why is that so reassuring? Because if there’s any football club capable of messing up a cash cow like a casino, it’s Leeds United.

Some fans have raised objections to the idea of a casino, mostly on the grounds of further funds being diverted away from the squad to facilitate yet another Ken Bates “vanity project”. Generally speaking, I’d agree. The vast majority of Leeds United’s income still comes from gate receipts despite our loveable chairman’s excessive spending on corporate facilities, bars and restaurants. And it’s a well-trodden path, despite the massive expense of Chelsea Village, the project returned very small sums of money for the club.

In short, such ventures are simply not worth the outlay to a football club. The sums of cash available from hotels and retail pales in comparison to what is available from gate receipts and sponsorship deals which only increase with the success of the team itself. Spend well on the squad and the return will absolutely dwarf any profits a hotel will make – and the income will increase year after year while ever the club can maintain success. A hotel and various retail establishments meanwhile will still be returning comparatively small sums of cash.

However, a casino is a different thing entirely. These things are built on such a vast scale, with an eye-watering potential for profit that anyone opposed to these plans really needs to have a rethink. Out-of-town leisure facilities are big business nowadays, and are generally very successful. Look at the Xscape complex in Castleford for example, everyone said they were mad when the plans for that were unveiled, but almost a decade on they continue to prove the doubters wrong.

The casino also makes the hotel a more interesting proposition. There are plenty of companies – including the one I work for – that would be considering such locations for management conferences. Elland Road already has conferencing facilities, but these events are tediously boring and since they can often stretch over the course of a few days, companies will consider nearby leisure and entertainment facilities a big plus when booking because it keeps their staff happy.

There are other bonuses too. In recent years, football clubs have become playthings for the uber-rich so one with a casino attached to it will sound even more attractive to the bored Arab Sheikhs and Russian gangsters of this world. Furthermore, the building of a casino shouldn’t have any real effect on Leeds United’s ability to build a competitive squad. Unlike corporate hospitality, bars, shops and restaurants, you’ll find no shortage of people happy to invest in a casino – it’s a guaranteed money-spinner.

The only real problem is an over-saturated market. Leeds already has four casinos that I’m aware of (The Grovesner, Napoleon’s, Gala and Alea) but it should be noted that Leeds United’s planning application is for a “super” casino, one which has a license for much bigger jackpots than it’s rivals. This should take care of the competition.

So there you have it. The Scratching Shed is pro-casino, pro-hotel (if the casino is built), and pro-conferencing facilities (if the casino and hotel are built). Pro-Bates? Let’s not get carried away…

“The end result of all the bright lights, and the comp trips, and all the champagne, and free hotel suites, and all the broads and all the booze. It’s all been arranged just for us to get your money” - Ace Rothstein, Casino (1995)  

For a player who has become a first team regular, with 43 league games under his belt this season and 6 goals and 5 assists to boot, he is not in keeping with the other dross on the transfer list: those fringe players (Nunez, O’Brien), forgettables (Connolly) and outright flops (Paynter and Rachubka).

Warnock responded to questioning as to why Clayton found himself on the transfer list in an interview yesterday evening, offering:

I’m looking to sign midfield players, and the contract Adam’s representatives were looking for, we weren’t prepared to go to that extent. Coming into the last year [of Clayton’s contract at Leeds United] it makes sense to see if they can get that offer somewhere else and if we can get an appropriate figure it’s the sort of money I can use to improve the squad … Adam has probably had more games than anyone else, but looking at that area I have my own ideas about players I’d like to bring in and that’s what I’m looking for really.

There are two different reasons mentioned in this interview as to why Clayton has been transfer listed. They are: one, a new contract has stumbled over wage levels, and two, Clayton is not the ideal player that Warnock wants for central midfield. But it is the latter which is more viable to influence Clayton’s inclusion on the transfer list.

Considering how much Clayton’s game has waned since Warnock’s arrival – in comparison to fellow central midfielder Michael Brown, who, when he remains on the pitch, has on occasions shown signs that he is a solid hard working midfielder and worth the punt of another season on ‘reduced’ wages – it is understandable that Warnock might want to try other recruits in central midfield. Who they are, and whether they are better than Clayton are arguments set for a later date…

What is more pressing in the here and now is the way Leeds United fans have jumped on the conclusion that Clayton is on the transfer list primarily because of his and/or his agents excessive wage demands, rather than where he fits in (or not as the case may be) with Warnock’s plans.

To be fair, Bates has led us down this path with an interview on Radio Bates immediately before the release of Wednesday afternoon’s hotly anticipated Schindler’s list of retained personnel.

To quote:

There is one individual whose agent has demanded £15,000 a week for him. That is £780,000 a year and with taxes, you are looking at nearly £900,000 a year, for a footballer in the championship. That is the equivalent of the gate receipts from four home games in a season. It is ridiculous, good luck to the guy if he gets it elsewhere.

For a club that doesn’t name names in transfer gossip, our Chairman sure likes to wave about unsubstantiated numbers.

Putting zero and zero together, Leeds fans quickly deduced the answer wasn’t four at all but Adam Clayton who was churlishly demanding the £15,000 a week. Taking Bates no-words at face value a stream of ire interrupted Clayton’s afternoon golfing session. Forcing him to respond via Twitter:

As my last retweet didn’t seem to make sense to many of you… I DIDN’T ask for 15k a week.

Before capping off a bad day at the office with a movie and a can or two of Carlsberg.

‘Is Clayton worth £15,000 a week?’ is one debate worth having. But it only holds any sense once Leeds United fans can agree on what constitutes a ‘decent’ wage for a first team regular at Leeds United whilst we are in the Championship.

To debate this is to restep into that dirty brown quagmire of Batesism, that whole paradigm of whether frugal management of the club’s finances is the only way to take this club forward v. the straw dog that is the recklessness of the Risdale years and ‘Living the Dream’.

Purposefully, an analogy exists with the current British political paradigm between the Coalition Government and the Labour opposition: either slash the public expense back in order to one day stop paying debt interest and maybe even balance the fiscal deficit v. maintain public provision as this takes up the slack of the private sector during the recession and maintains a level of growth that will at least service the country’s debts and keep people happier if in employment.

‘Why are you bringing all this politics McGuffan into Leeds United’s financial strategy?’ you may ask. Well, because that’s exactly what Ken is doing in order to justify paying a low-end Championship wage to our squad members.

In returning to Ken’s Yorkshire Radio interview about the unnamed player’s unnamed agent demanding exactly £15,000 per week, Bates followed on to say:

All the chairmen I have been speaking too in the last few months are all cutting back. As we point out, there is a recession and we have the fans writing in to complain about the pricing. It seems that player’s agents seem to think they are immune.

Laughable as it may be that a millionaire tax-exile such as Ken Bates feels for the plight of the common man in this time of great austerity, with player’s agent being this weeks stand-in for fatcat bankers, you will have noticed that for all the talk of ‘cutting back’, season tickets have not been reduced, nor the subscription to LUTV, nor the price of a new Leeds top…

The language of cutbacks has been hot on Ken’s lips since just before the January transfer window. Back then he wanted to cut back the wage bill and more urgently the number of players in the squad. From another Yorkshire Radio mouthpiece of 14^th December 2011, Bates answers the question he’d asked Ben Fry to ask him as follows:

We have a very large squad by even Premiership standards. We always used to say two players for every position and an extra one for the goalkeeper. That’s 23. Now we have 28, 29.

Roll on five months and the cutbacks strike again. Yesterday, Bates concluded his Yorkshire Radio stint with:

We have a squad of 30, we intend to cut it to 21-22, and we intend to get value for money. Fans are entitled to it and it is all we can afford.

Depressing as the last sentiment sounds about ‘all we can afford’, however the swinging cuts works both ways. Less players equals higher wages if sourced from the same-sized wage pool. At least in theory!

Here’s the maths…

• Last season (2010-11) we spent £11.6m on wages. Add 4% inflation for what we can guess we spent this season (2011-12) and 4% again for our supposed wage budget next season (2012-13) and this figure becomes £12.55m. Now, take Bates and his desire of reducing the squad to 22 players and that works out as an average of just shy of £11,000 per week for each of those 22 players.
• Yes there are the kids to pay too, and they shouldn’t be spoilt on excessive wages, but also consider that we are – hopefully! – not going to be paying so many wages for a string of unwanted and unused loanees as we did in the 2010-12 seasons.
• Factor in also that there are lads in the current ‘retained’ squad who should be on considerably less than regular team players, and I’m thinking here of Cairns and Thompson as ‘unprovens’ and Bromby, Pugh, and Kisnorbo as ‘bit part squad members’. This only increases the amount of wages available for the first team key players such as Snodgrass and McCormack.

At which point you have to ask, is £15,000 per week that unreasonable a wage to demand for a player’s agent to START the opening rounds of a renewed contract negotiation?

You see, we aren’t even pushing out the boat when it comes to what we spend on wages in relation to turnover. As TimPM illustrated in an excellent article on The Scratching Shed, we only spend 35.6% of our turnover on wages. That is about half the amount (% not gross) of any other Championship club.

Are we being prudent here? Well, yes; but we are being far, far too prudent. Even UEFA’s guidelines states that clubs should aim for spending between 50-70% of their turnover on wages. At 35.6%, and with no debts to service, we are massively under-resourcing our wage options and thus offering a needless advantage to our competitors in the Championship to outbid us on wages offered to the players we are interest in.

Even if we only increased our wage bill from 35.6% to 50% of turnover that would allow us to pay 22 squad players each £15,400 per week. At which point you can see that paying Clayton £15,000 per week is perfectly possible. He would be on the average salary at the club, not the top wage. Only then is it possible to argue whether or not we want to pay him £15,000 per week.

So why won’t we pay him (or almost any other player at the club) £15,400 per week at Leeds United? The answer is of course ‘Ken’. And the clue is in the quote taken immediately before the January transfer window when we once more failed to sign anyone or note and eventually sacked our manager.

Prior to saying his intention was to reduce the squad size to 23, Bates led that idea by pointing out that our “wages bills are very, very high” and need to be cut. And that’s at our current level of only 35.6% of turnover, remember! Therefore it is clear that Bates interest in the squad size is purely about the total wages and not the wage level per player. Less players could mean higher wages for each. It could possibly mean a better calibre of player arriving at the club too. But it won’t. Hiding behind the veil of ‘hard times’ for all, Bates is solely interested in paying less and less for the same old same. The cull of players yesterday was not about improving the squad, it was predominately about lessening the wage bill. Once off the books do not expect the total amount of wages to be used on new recruits – regardless of whether the squad size come August is a slim 22 or a full fat 29-30 squad.

Simply put, accusing Clayton or his agent of greed in asking for £15,000 a week, or whoever it was in our squad (if at all) is once more detracting away from the real joke at our club, Ken Bates and his insistent on paying peanuts for wages and getting nothing but monkeys and the odd nutcracker. We should not be party to such a self-purposed individual as Ken Bates in hiding their self-serving actions behind what is truly a time of many individuals’ real financial hardship. Ken, if you want to slash and burn and pocket all our cash, then at the very least do it on the quiet through some dodgy tax haven scheme, but don’t tell us it is in OUR interest for which you purposefully disserve us.

The Leeds United skipper was offered a new contract three weeks ago and has spoke little about the situation since.

This news could be interpreted as Snodgrass planning a move away from Elland Road. On the face of it, there is little reason to sit down and discuss the situation with his family if nothing is about to change.

It’s also worth taking into consideration Leeds United’s comments that the new contract offer would make Robert Snodgrass “the highest paid player at the club” and that they couldn’t go any higher. The more cynical fans amongst us have suggested this was merely the club pre-empting a backlash by diverting blame onto the player.

Robert Snodgrass recently admitted disappointment at the sale of Jonathan Howson, and questioned the clubs ambition saying that promises have been broken.

Elsewhere, El Hadji Diouf continues to dominate the headlines, telling the Daily Mail that he’s interested in a move to Elland Road. The former Doncaster Rovers striker thinks he would be the ideal strike partner for Luciano Becchio.

Finally, Leeds United fans are anxiously awaiting word of the clubs first “summer” signing. Neil Warnock previously stated that he hoped to confirm a new arrival during the first week of May. The most likely candidate is Jason Pearce after Portsmouth confirmed a deal was already in place for him leave.

Most of you probably didn’t know John Reynolds and I suspect the vast majority of our supporters don’t give a second thought to the hard work the Elland Road ground staff put in every week to ensure Leeds United play on a pitch worthy of the clubs reputation.

At the time of John’s passing, I tweeted that it stood testament to his hard work that whenever the rest of the country is postponing games due to bad weather, Leeds United always seem able to overcome severe conditions with no impact on our schedule.

John’s connection to Leeds United started in 1948, arriving as a trainee alongside the great John Charles. Unfortunately, injury put an end to Reynolds’ playing career but he still maintained a career in football, working as a groundsman for Leeds United for the rest of his life.

Paul Dews wrote on the official Leeds United website that “John was a familiar face to all who have passed through the doors of the club and will be sorely missed by all who knew him” so it is extremely disappointing to hear that Shaun Harvey rejected the request for the club to hold a minutes silence in his honour.

As explained in a letter published on Clarke One Nil, Shaun Harvey has decided that if the club agreed to honour John Reynolds then “everyone” connected with the club would want similar tributes. If, by “everyone”, Shaun Harvey means hard-working individuals that have dedicated their entire life to Leeds United then I should damn well hope so.

A Leeds United fan posting on the ever-popular WACCOE forum summed the situation up perfectly;

“The whole minutes applause/minutes silence has been devalued and I for one didn’t clap for Muamba. It wasn’t because I didn’t wish him well it was because it had nothing to do with Leeds United. Fast forward to John Reynolds, a man who has worked and supported the club for 60 years, surely he deserves a minutes applause? The club is being ran by muppets and this is yet another PR disaster.”

The real crime here is that Shaun Harvey has no right to make decisions for the Leeds United fanbase, and the arrogance of the man to think he can speaks volumes to how massively out-of-touch the current regime is with the supporters of this club.

Whether we knew John personally or not, six decades of hard work and commitment to Leeds United means more to our fans than Shaun Harvey will ever understand. Leeds United is a club built on working-class heroes, and John Reynolds epitomises that spirit.

There’s no real shock here though I suppose. The whole business plan of our current ownership sums up how poorly they understand their customers. Corporate hospitality, executive boxes and ridiculously over-priced tickets are as much “Leeds” as David Cameron is a pasty-munching “commoner”.

But Shaun Harvey’s ignorance needn’t dictate the actions of our fans. I’d love nothing more than to hear a roof-lifting chorus of “stand up, and sing for John” or a minutes applause immediately following kick-off during our final home game of 2011/12 against Leicester City this coming Saturday. It would also be nice to hear Shaun Harvey issue an apology. admitting he was wrong and reversing his decision, but I suspect an “unofficial” attempt from the fans is the more likely outcome.

Here’s how the proper version sounds, sang by 40,000 Leeds United fans before our FA Cup tie against Arsenal.

“Luckily” for us however, Leeds United’s turbulent season has created the opportunity for an alternative poll. It’s not often that a “stable, progressive team” (to paraphrase Ken Bates) has three different men in charge over the course of 9 months, but Leeds United seldom conform to tradition.

So, without further ado, here are the nominations for Leeds United’s manager of the season.

Simon “Larry” Grayson

Some would argue that he was tactically clueless, bought badly and was deserving of his P45. Others would counteract that argument by pointing out the ridiculously low wage budget he had to play with, the distinct lack of transfer funds, the continuous sale of key players and the fact that Leeds United were only three points off the play-offs when Grayson was sacked, despite the assault course of season-ending obstacles planted in his way.

Neil “Redders” Redfearn

Most Leeds United fans would point to Neil Redfearn’s brief spell in charge of Leeds United as the final nail in our season’s coffin, but very few would hold him responsible for that fate. Redders took to the helm of an ill-fated ship and desperately tried to keep it on course for the illusive play-off spot The Whites so desperately craved, but alas, his sense of direction failed him and a complete u-turn was performed with Neil Redfearn ending up back where he started – the reserves.

Nevertheless, Redfearn carried himself with the utmost professionalism throughout his brief spell in charge and should be commended for his efforts in what was an impossible situation.

Neil “Colin” Warnock

Smoke and mirrors, or saviour of LUFC? Anti-football, or effective promotion winning football?

Whatever your opinion of Warnock, the simple fact is that his arrival hasn’t gone quite according to script. A total rebuilding job is required before we can judge say most, but others would point to deteriorating results since his arrival – worse than those of his predecessor so far.

It’s all standard Neil Warnock I guess. He’s not one to leave people feeling neutral, Warnock divides opinion like no other, but on results alone Warnock has the worst record of all three – all that really leaves is reassurances and fighting talk, something Warnock has brought by the bucket load. But are they enough for him to earn your vote as Leeds United manager of the season?

Our alternative end of season awards will continue later in the week with the most ridiculous transfer of the season (both in and out).

The system works like all predictions league. You simply input your predicted scoreline for each match and are awarded points based on accuracy. The results of each round will be posted on The Scratching Shed as the tournament progresses.

Click here to visit the predictions page and register to take part.

However, before you start a frantic search for your camera and autograph book, allow me to explain…

The long suffering, faithful supporters who have (against all their better judgement) ventured to every Leeds United home match this season will soon be put out of their misery as the end of the season approaches. Just two more agonising afternoons of Elland Road football remain, with the visit of Peterborough (conveniently nicknamed ‘Posh’) and the end of season party when we entertain Leicester City (and our former legend Jermaine ‘Becks’ Beckford).

So, what are the home faithful to expect from these two encounters?

Peterborough currently sit 17th in the division, and (much like Leeds) have very little to play for except pride this season. Having entered The Championship in a blaze of glory following victory in the 2011 League 1 play-off final, Darren Ferguson’s men will surely be satisfied to have consolidated their place in the division.

When the two teams met at London Road earlier in the season, a 95th minute winner secured a 3-2 victory and a 7th consecutive unbeaten league match for Simon Grayson’s men.

Neil Warnock has strongly indicated that this match will see starting roles for fringe players, with speculation pointing towards the likes of Billy Paynter, Mikael Forssell and Ramon Nunez. If these individuals truly are ‘playing for their futures’ then we may see some very spirited performances, but passion and drive has all too often manifested itself in pointless red cards over recent weeks. With a group of players taking to the field under a weight of pressure to ‘prove themselves’, don’t be surprised if tomorrow sees a fourth consecutive match in which a Leeds player is heading for an early bath.

If I were to make a prediction, I think the Peterborough match will be a hotly-contested battle, lacking in skilful artistry. A goalless draw, with at least one sending off.

The final match of the season will again be a completely meaningless occasion for Leeds, when the only target may be a top half finish (though I fear even that may be out of reach). On the other hand, Leicester may be fighting for a play-off spot, especially if they take maximum points from their winnable matches against Millwall and Burnley.

The Foxes seem to have been in mid-table for the entirety of the season, but are quickly emerging as dark horses for 6th position. Following the early-season sacking of Sven Goran Eriksson (who would subsequently put in an application for the Elland Road hotseat), Nigel Pearson has slowly turned them into a team on the up. With a strike force of one-time-England player David Nugent and Leeds legend Jermaine Beckford, Leicester carry a very strong goal threat and (most worryingly for Lees and O’Dea) a lot of pace.

The encounter back in November saw Leeds beat then-managerless Leicester 1-0 on their own patch, with Adam Clayton placing a long range finish beyond another old-boy, Kasper Schmeichel.

The match will, of course, mark the first return to Elland Road of Luciano Becchio’s former partner in crime. Beckford will always have a place in hearts of Leeds United fans after scoring the two most important goals of the last decade against Bristol Rovers and Manchester United. It is destiny that he will bag a brace on April 28th.

If Leicester are still in the hunt for 6th place, I predict a comfortable 3-1 victory for them.

Having beaten both Posh and Becks in the corresponding away matches, it is yet another indication of how far we have fallen that we are likely to take very little from the home encounters. It pains me to envisage that Leeds will only take 1 point from the two remaining home matches, but I am a realist.

In reality, this season ended a long time ago.

It’s an untrodden path for Leeds United players – Ben Parker aside – for them to speak so truthfully about their feelings towards the goings on at Elland Road. If it wasn’t for the continuing discontent amongst fans, the outside world may well be oblivious to the problems at Leeds United Football Club as they’re constantly bombarded with statements about how fine and dandy everything is.

Everyone involved with the club, from the chairman Ken Bates, his various mouthpieces such as Ben Fry and Peter Lorimer, and even the players who were once expected to put the fans above all else appear to be reading from the exact same script. I doubt even the minimum wage employees at the club superstore would dare speak ill of his holiness.

The Leeds United fans meanwhile started to question their own sanity – are we the only people that can see how under-invested in this club is? Are we alone in thinking promotion was always impossible following the sale of key players like Howson, Gradel and Johnson? It’s almost as if we’ve been living some kind of Truman Show existence, wherein everyone knows about this epically proportioned con we’re all living except us. We have our suspicions of course, but the more we’re told how nonsensical they are, the more we start to doubt our own sanity.

It’s psychological warfare on a level Adolf Hitler would have cringed at.

Fortunately, Robert Snodgrass has decided that as Leeds United captain, he’ll carry out his obligations in the traditional sense. He’ll be straight-talking and answer the fans questions without a pre-approved script, speaking honestly about the true state of club affairs and not allow himself to be another scapegoat of this disastrous dictatorship-like regime.

The biggest concern of fans is another mass exodus of players, so it was no surprise to hear Snodgrass asked whether he’d be staying at Elland Road. He was firmly non-committal in his response saying that he couldn’t guarantee he’d be at Leeds United in five years time, explaining that “they (the club) have to show me some ambition”.

“Last season I had offers of Premiership football, the manager told me stuff, but I didn’t see much of it – whether that was him or the chairman.

“As a footballer everything here is first class, I love where I live, the only thing missing is the Premier League”.

Snodgrass went on to add that any decision he did make would have to be made with his family in mind.

Jonny Howson was another issue raised by fans in attendance. Robert Snodgrass again responded candidly;

“We’re missing Howson. Weird that we never replaced him. How can you say you’re aiming for promotion and then sell your captain?”

It seems the Leeds United captain shares the same view as most fans. Clearly unhappy at how this season has unfolded, it’s going to take a big show of ambition if we’re to retain him for the 2012-13 campaign. Amidst all the secrecy and scripted comments from everyone at Elland Road, it’s easy to forget that the players are dealing with the same lies, broken promises and frustrations that we are. No one signs for Leeds United expecting anything less than promotion, and key players don’t hang around when promises are continually broken. I think that’s worth keeping in mind for when Robert Snodgrass decides enough is enough and parts ways with a club he clearly loves representing.