Welcome to the first ever Moaning On Together, a new feature here on The Scratching Shed where we harness the power of social media to gather the thoughts of the Leeds United fanbase on key issues currently surrounding the club and collate them into a post.

For the first Moaning On Together, we asked fans via our Twitter and Facebook page for their first impressions of new owners GFH. Are they the long overdue saviours of Leeds United, here to guide us towards a brighter future? Or are they yet another false dawn to add to the ever growing weight of crushed hope fans of this club carry with them? Here’s what the fans thought…

The power of positive thinking is key to success according to Ginny Leonard who is confident Leeds United have a bright future under GFH. In-keeping with Ginny’s optimistic stance, she adds that she’s “fed up of hearing people moaning about LUFC” – I doubt all the money in the world would change that unfortunately, just look at squillionaires Chelsea’s misplaced booing of Rafa Benitez on his debut (he didn’t sack Di Matteo, did he?) Football fans will always find something or someone to complain about no matter how good they have it.

Nevertheless, optimism seemed to be prevalent amongst the fans, though a lot of it was tempered by frustration at Ken Bates’ appointment as lifelong club President. No doubt a clause he insisted on before agreeing to sell.

Philip James Towler typifies the general mood saying that he’s “sorry to see Bates kept on” but believes “GFH want to bring success back to Elland Road” and, like many others, suspects that Bates Presidential role was the only way to get the deal done. Craig Sweaton adds “I’d love to be optimistic but as long as Bates has an involvement in the club I’ll be worried.”

Duncan Kirby builds on Craig’s response, adding “I have to question Haigh’s claim to be a lifelong Leends United supporter if he can install Bates as president. As long as he has anything to do with the club, there is a shadow over everything. No new dawn until Bates is gone and everything he touched has been thoroughly sterilized.”

Such is the level of ill-feeling many fans hold towards Ken Bates, some are refusing to lift a boycott of attending matches while ever he remains at the club. Tony Steele was one such fan, explaining that “I am very concerned that Bates remains at the club in any role whatsoever. The fact that this has been agreed shows a lack of understanding of the feelings of the fans. I will still not be attending whilst Bates is at the club.”

Despite some fans lingering doubts and anger at the Ken Bates clause, GFH can rest easily knowing that the majority of the fanbase seems to be happy at the start they’ve made and are confident of a brighter future for the club. Ben Parker (@bensuperparker) says he’s impressed with the fast rate of progress since the deal was agreed, praising GFH for two quality loan signings.

Finally, Jordan Turner (@JordanTurnip) says his only complaint is “people begging them for a [retweet].” Couldn’t agree more Jordan. Fans who follow Salem Patel and David Haigh on Twitter may have noticed their timelines being spammed by poorly spelt tweets from individuals desperate for attention – the “I’m the greatest Leeds United fan ever, please give me some attention” kind. It’s basically the same as taking a musical instrument into a football stadium hoping that everyone will love you for it. They won’t, stop it.

Apologies to all those fans whose replies we didn’t feature. In the interests of keeping this particular feature concise, we took a sample of each viewpoint to try and get across as many different opinions as possible. Feel free to add further comments below.

Follow The Scratching Shed on Twitter and/or Facebook to send us your thoughts for the next edition of Moaning On Together.