nPower Football League Thread 2011/12

[Lineker]

I'm just waiting for Matt to come in here and lose his shit.

[IAceI]

The mini-meltdown at the top of the page as Birmingham beat them was brilliant to behold.

Come on Matt, give us another.

[Lineker]

Leeds United have today dispensed with the services of Simon Grayson and his coaching staff.

Chief Executive Shaun Harvey said: "We have 18 games to go this season and are still within touching distance of the Play-Offs, but felt with the transfer window now closed we needed to make the change at this time in the belief that a new managerial team will be able to get more out of the existing squad of players and make the difference."

Simon and his staff have given the club over three good years service and we would like to place on record our thanks and wish them all the best for the future.

Current youth team manager Neil Redfearn has been asked to take temporary charge of the first team until a new manager is available.

Leeds statement.

Fucking hell, talk about cutting...

[jack95]

This is such a ridiculous decision, so it's telling that I don't think many people will be surprised by it. Presumably they're going to have to pay a fair bit of compensation for sacking nearly the entire coaching staff? Yet they can't afford to buy any players? I'll be the first to admit that my understanding of the financial side of football is limited, but it doesn't add up to me. This might be a blessing in disguise for Grayson though, he's a Premier League quality manager and I could see a team like Wolves taking a punt on him, should they find themselves without a manager.

[Adam]

This is such a ridiculous decision, so it's telling that I don't think many people will be surprised by it. Presumably they're going to have to pay a fair bit of compensation for sacking nearly the entire coaching staff? Yet they can't afford to buy any players? I'll be the first to admit that my understanding of the financial side of football is limited, but it doesn't add up to me. This might be a blessing in disguise for Grayson though, he's a Premier League quality manager and I could see a team like Wolves taking a punt on him, should they find themselves without a manager.

I really think Grayson would much prefer to manage in the top flight with his boyhood club, Leeds. I can't see how Bates is going to get out of this one with the fans, Bates forces him to sell his best players then sacks him for not pissing the league? It is ludicrous, and it physically makes me angry. I can't stand Leeds United or Grayson to be honest but this is just beyond comprehension.

[Matt]

I don't care. I just. Fuck it. Whatever.

[Colly]

Who sacks a manager a day after the window shuts? Ken Bates obviously.

[IAceI]

God I've just seen Warnock linked with the job. I'm so sorry Matt.

Is this a beer and watch sports in silence job or want me to put the kettle on and we can talk about it?

[Lineker]

Don't worry Matt. You can always support another Yorkshire team, like Doncas Sheffi Barnsl go sit on the grass?

[Matt]

Perfect timing for him, he can afford not to give Grayson a penny to spend and justify it with "we didn't want to give him money when we were considering his position" and now he can't give whichever chump he gets to replace him any money even if he wanted to (which he wouldn't).

To be fair though, a lot of fans were turning on Grayson - incredibly unfairly in my opinion, what can you do when you have your best players taken away (either by selling them or not offering them contracts competitive with everyone else in the division) and you're told you have to replace them with loans and freebies?

Edit: as much of a cunt as he is, I'd take Warnock. But that won't happen, he'll want more than a £2.50 and pack of pork scratchings a week.

[Mj3]

He'd run out of ideas, the changing room was slowly turning against him, Leigh Bromby slagging him off on petrol station forecourts.

That crafty cunt Bates played a blinder in waiting for the week between transfer windows, loans only, no spending, the way he likes it.

MOT

[Dan]

Grayson is a very good manager, did really well with Blackpool and the fans loved him and got Leeds promoted with Ken Bates as chairman then kept them up.

[Summers]

I like Grayson. A lot.

[Matt]

The changing room had lost faith in the club, not the manager as such. As for run out of ideas, find me a manager that wouldn't have, our team is average at best and it's forever filled with loan signings that fuck off 2-3 months down the line, of the side that started yesterday two players were first team regulars last year (Becchio and Snodgrass), we have very few experienced players in our squad that aren't over the hill and are good enough for this league - and why? Because no-one gives away/loans out good experienced players, they tie them down to contracts (something else we don't do). Grayson's choices in the transfer market basically boiled down to "some foreigner no-one's heard of looking for a break in England" or "a premiership side's youngster looking for a short term move to gain some experience" or "an out of contract player nobody else wants". You pay peanuts, you get monkeys, and that's what we've got, fucking monkeys.

Grayson will manage in the Premier League before Leeds get there.

Edit: Some delusional fucktards think we'll be getting Lambert from Norwich. How the fuck do you arrive at that conclusion, why would he want to leave a club that's having success in the league above where he's given a good budget to spend on young, quality players to come and join a side that's overachieving by being in the top half of the Championship?

[IAceI]

Do you think that Neil Redfearn may be given the job permanently if he doesn't do terribly as caretaker, since he'll be cheap and therefore probably appeal to Bates quite a bit?

Also Richard Scudamore and the Premier League have just about finished their giant turd on the lower leagues faces with the EPPP system looking very likely to come into effect soon, meaning that young talented player in your team that's just come through the U18's and looks a star for the future? Yeah him, well now we can have him for even less than already, firmly establishing you muggins' as the chewing gum on the soles of our superior shoes.

Sorry lads.

[Adam]

When football is all but dead outside the top level in a few years, I hope Scudamore and his bigwig friends are happy to know that they've been a major force in causing it.

I've just this minute finished reading an article about the changing culture, and the focus was on Patrick Bamford's £1.5million move to Chelsea this week. 18-years-old, played 13 minutes of first team football yet is poached away by one of the elite clubs. It's sickening, and this trend can only lead to bad things for the sport as a whole.

[Lineker]

I read twelve minutes of first team football, actually :/.

[Dingle]

Does this mean that all the bright young players will be snapped away and then loaned out to teams? I don't think I get what's going to happen because whilst it's bad for young players to sacrifice experience for money, a school friend of mine has had a stint away at Scunthorpe and is now off to Conventy and it's been pretty good for him, whilst getting paid more than he would if he actually played for the club. So aside from preventing long term plans, what other bad things does this bring?

[Adam]

Does this mean that all the bright young players will be snapped away and then loaned out to teams? I don't think I get what's going to happen because whilst it's bad for young players to sacrifice experience for money, a school friend of mine has had a stint away at Scunthorpe and is now off to Conventy and it's been pretty good for him, whilst getting paid more than he would if he actually played for the club. So aside from preventing long term plans, what other bad things does this bring?

Is he a religious man?

Seriously, anyway, it's bad because it slowly but surely kills lower league football. Smaller clubs don't have much money so sometimes can benefit hugely from developing their own youth players. This isn't happening as much anymore because the elite clubs at the top poach all the players, usually for not a lot of money, at a stupidly young age and a good amount of them end up wasted, because they're going to a big, big pond alongside tonnes of others. They're further away from first team experience as well. Teams like Crewe are famed for having terrific academies - the likes of David Platt, Danny Murphy, Robbie Savage and many more have come from there but nowadays it's more likely to see their promising youngster snapped up whilst still in their mid-teens by the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea.

Case in point this Bamford kid, he comes through Nottingham Forest's ranks, they pay for his development up to the age of 17-18 where he shows excellent potential, and now instead of cracking the first team line-up at a Championship club like he was starting to, he's going to spend the next couple of years alongside a load of other poached wonderkids at Chelsea, nowhere near first team professional football at a good level for him to hone his craft. Eventually he'll probably end up loaned out to 4-5 different clubs over two seasons which does them no good. Sam Vokes burst onto the scene aged 18 at Bournemouth, banging goals in for fun in League One. Wolves signed him, and have barely ever played him in the three years since. They've loaned him out literally to 6 different clubs. It has hindered his progress much more than it's helped it, and he stressed himself on his interview upon joining Brighton that he needed stability and to be able to settle down at one club and play some football.

If I had my way the transfer system would be extremely different.

[Dingle]

I figured it'd be something to do with them getting the right experience and developing themselves as a player, and I have to agree, it doesn't really help the club at all if they have a player for just one season and then have to start from scratch again. It seems to be helping towards that possible idea of not relegating teams from the EPL? Not sure how likely that ever is, but I've heard it mentioned a couple of times and I'd probably turn into a serial killer if such things ever happened .

And on the topic of Sam Vokes, he has real raw talent, and was pretty good for Burnley, but he only managed to get about ten matches and a couple of goals whilst he was with us. It really pissed me off because it just seemed so god damn wasteful. I get that players see the money and immediately want to jump ship rather than stick around in the 'indies', but we're going to end up with a huge crop of English talent that - since that's the claim, that we'll be able to develop better players for the national squad - can do fuck all and we'll still be playing Gerrard, Lampard and Terry (assuming he isn't in jail for having sex with someone's black wife and leaving her a racist message) because no one else is deemed good enough.

In summary: fuck the FA >_>.