Max A Million (and a little bit) Nick September 3, 2011 Leeds United 17 Comments After a summer of listening to the men who run our club saying that it’s the players we keep that show our intent. We failed to keep that man we voted our best. Ken said Max would only go for silly money, and he isn’t wrong, only receiving £1.75 million is bloody ridiculous. Now we know what everyone in the club has known since the beginning of summer, Max wanted a move. So it begs the question, why didn’t this information get made available, the reasons for it explained (if he wants to live in France fair enough) and we invite bids to try and get the best deal with time to spare to get a replacement? The silver lining is Bates nicked Max’s sweat bands before he left and he has offered to renegotiate Ramon Nunez’s contract to include them. But the odd decisions made behind the scenes didn’t start this week; we have bared witness to a summer of transfer failing. We have seen players turning down the opportunity to join Leeds in favour of sleeping in a hay bail in Suffolk. It took a month of negotiating before Lee Bowyer realised that his family lived down south. Even worse it took Bates nearly the whole summer counting his pennies before he realised that even if he used all 18 at once it wasn’t enough to pay Alan Smith. But the finish of a frustrating summer came with strange change in policy, Ken Bates uncharacteristically revealing the inner details of Max’s transfer. In the most revealing interview of the summer we have been told how much we got, who else got money and what the offers we rejected were. And just when I thought we couldn’t get anything more old Ken dropped the biggest bomb shell of them all. You might want to sit down before you read this. “Rwanda is somewhere in the centre of Africa.” I understand for those of you who haven’t heard Ken Bates interview this must come as quite a shock. Economics and geography in one and only a couple of weeks after sex education! He spoils us doesn’t he. Anyway, moving on from my irrelevant ramblings I am still confident that we can do well this season. This, I’m sure, is a blind confidence but I’m sticking with it. So, this is a rather long way of saying I think we still have a chance of a good season. Here is why: Andy Lonergan: I am currently doing a large amount of research to find out if there physically is only one Andy Lonergan. I am developing a theory that what we see is merely the head of one Andy Lonergan, and there is in fact about 7 midget Lonergans inside the keeper kit. It’s the only way he can make such good reaction saves. Well, probably not the only way, but clearly the most likely. The fruit of youth: Aidy White has learnt a valuable lesson this week in the repercussions of attempting a diving header on a strikers boot. Tom Lees, he looks like a solid full back, and I think if we had a good right back he would excel at centre half, he has a great cross and I think he will get stronger each game. Adam Clayton: He is brilliant, and he is so good because he is an X-man, you can see him in the second film tackling Xavier in the background. Snodgrass and Becchio: Proven quality. Davide Somma and Ross McCormack: The latter proved his goal scoring ability last year, and when he returns he will continue with that, and Ross is beginning to show his quality. Ramon Nunez: He is the most promising 25 year old child in the division. The fans: Our unwavering support , though not enough to draw in player on its own, we can support the lads better than any other team in England can support theirs. Ben Parker: He has become much less of a liability since he became a consciences objector to playing football. I assume that’s what’s going on, no one can be injured that often. These factors may not help us better last year’s seventh place, but Leeds United do not belong in the Championship, so I think it is only a matter of time till we get back up, why not this year? There has only been 1 year in the last 8 which we haven’t been involved in either a promotion or relegation race, this year will be the same. Leeds are arguably the most exciting team to support in the country, you can literally never guess how we will do. Who wants mediocrity? MOT