Dennis Wise: a man of contradictions. On the one hand, charged by the FA (again) for abusive language towards a referee. On the other hand, nominated for League One Manager of the Month, an award he's already won twice (as in, every one this season). He's doing a damn good job, you have to give him that - 11 wins and two draws from 13 games played? Tottenham should have looked closer to home.
But of course, Tottenham did look closer to home. It's now confirmed - damn it - that Wise's assistant manager, Gus Poyet, is Tottenham's new assistant manager. Bloody Tottenham. I think the Guardian put it best (ignore the "Nasty Leeds" references): "Gus Poyet has left Nasty Leeds to become Juande Ramos's assistant at White Hart Lane. 'He leaves with the best wishes of everyone connected with the club,' droned a Nasty Leeds club statement. 'We'll look forward to our paths crossing next season in the Championship,' it didn't add." He's replaced, at least in the short term, by Alan Thompson. I know nothing about him but he's declared himself out of the running for the permanent position, so I don't feel any need to find out. Anyway, look on the bright side: midfielder David Prutton, who I won't say a bad word about since last week, thinks losing Poyet isn't such a big deal. So maybe everything's fine.
My prediction of fan violence during the Leeds-Millwall match turned out to be well-founded: feral Millwall supporters apparently smashed in the windows of their bus upon arrival at Elland Road and attempted to goad Leeds fans into violence. Police on horseback responded by charging the Leeds fans, followed by more police who cordoned off the buses, arrested twelve Millwall fans, and escorted the bus into the stadium. Check out the video:
There were also a few altercations at the train station and elsewhere in the city, and Leeds fans were't totally beyond blame: many of them were probably waiting their deliberately for the Millwall bus to arrive. It's really beyond a joke, this kind of crap ruins games for the rest of us who aren't illiterate idiots.
Posting a match report for Millwall is looking increasingly unlikely as Bolivia doesn't seem to have any computers with an up-to-date Windows Media Player, so here's the Yorkshire Evening Post's excellent match report for those who really want to know what happened. And get some perspective on Gus Poyet - see, it's not just me. Key line: "When Jonathan Douglas established their four-goal advantage in the 60th minute, United's performance was beginning to border on perfection." Here we go, here we go, here we go...
While you're at it, the Yorkshire Evening Post also has a superb, superb interview with/article about Dennis Wise that makes excellent reading.
In other news, my man, Shaun Derry, is fit and back in the Leeds reserves. No telling whether Dennis Wise will slot him back into the first team when he's match fit, but considering the standard of some of our midfield play this season, I wouldn't be surprised. Either that or sell him.
And in transfer news, Radostin Kishishev, of Bulgaria and Leicester fame, really wants to come back to Leeds. Seeing as we've actually acquired him for the month on loan, it's all rather good. As a loanee, he was one of our better players last season in the Championship, and it's good to see him back at Elland Road, even if he has just strained his hamstring in training.
And in marginally less (for marginally less read: completely) interesting news, Leeds midfielder Ian Westlake apparently wants his team to be get to the top. Bless. Still, he produced the best Leeds quote of the week:
"We want to be top of this league, where we deserve to be and where we probably should be. The gaffer's proud of us and he tells us we've done well. But all we've done is to get near the play-offs, and in the play-offs. This is Leeds United – they're not a play-off team in division one, are they?"
And finally, a bit of bragging: as I predicted a few posts back, loan striker Wayne Andrews is heading back to his home team, as Leon Constantine is fit and back in the squad.