A glimmer of hope from McDermott’s shiny forehead TSS June 29, 2013 Leeds United 29 Comments Venture on to any social network, Leeds United site or forum right now and you’ll be met by an atmosphere of almost universal and overwhelming doom and gloom. Never mind that there’s still over a month until the season kicks off and the transfer window hasn’t officially opened yet, some Leeds United fans have already written off our chances for 2013/14. It’s an understandable and entirely justified response to the events of the last couple of weeks, but should we really be surprised to find out we’re skint and there’s little money to replenish the squad? We’ve all seen Leeds United’s last published accounts, (or know the jist of them at least) and we know the situation our club is in. Furthermore, we all knew that this financial year would start at a loss for the Whites courtesy of the loan Ken Bates’ took out to cream-clad our East Stand, which took a sizeable chunk from our season ticket sales before the club started making any money from them whatsoever. Already a club losing money, apparently propped up by injections of cash from our owners to see out last season, Leeds United need to balance their books and one of the things we demanded – the reduction in season ticket prices – won’t have helped matters there. A worthwhile gamble in my opinion, but they needed to sell in much greater numbers for it to pay off. So far we’ve failed to meet the number sold last season, meaning another gap in our finances now needs to be plugged. We all hoped GFH would find investors to lavish us with transfer funds, but that hasn’t happened unfortunately. That search has perhaps been impeded a little by the sorry state of the aforementioned accounts, after all, few investors will want to take on a football club – notorious money pits – that’s losing money before they set foot in the door. Would you? So it’s a summer of austerity for Leeds while our manager tries to rebalance the squad with a little wheeling and dealing. Not an ideal situation by any means, but if ever there was a man to pluck hidden gems from the dark recesses of the footballing underworld at a bargain price, it’s Brian McDermott. The new boss has been Leeds United’s shining light this summer, a consistent and reassuring figure of hope. Calmness personified, he’s taken every blow this club has thrown at him, the same blows that we’ve taken, yet while we’re licking our wounds and feeling sorry for ourselves, McDermott is still smiling. Still positive. Still convinced he can build a team capable of competing this season. And you know what? I don’t doubt him. Not for one second. Half the battle of football is psychological and McDermott appears to be winning that one with some ease. Sit wallowing in self-pity, cursing the additions we can’t make and it serves only to make the existing squad doubt their chances. Which they shouldn’t, because if the team we have can reproduce the form they ended last season with, we have every chance of finishing at the business end of the table. Whether you have faith in the owners or not, there’s a footballing brain in that shiny forehead of McDermott’s. He proved that in half a dozen games last season, through promotion at Reading and the astute transfers that made him such an attractive signing. McDermott’s not accepting any excuses, so let’s stop making them. Let’s try it the McDermott way and learn to roll with the punches, laugh in the face of adversity and come back smiling. If there’s one thing you can guarantee as a Leeds United fan, it’s that we never do things the easy way. Perhaps it’s fitting then that we’ll likely head into this season as underdogs, laughed at for our pitiful transfer spending and written off by the masses. That’s usually when we’re at our most deadly. On and on…