With great pride I’d like to welcome you to the Leeds United blog and although I am repeating myself, I wish to stress right from the top it is with great pride.
For those that know me and given that very few of you do at this time, you should be aware I take my Football very seriously but with a slightly different slant than most when they say "seriously". Football, the beautiful game, weaves its way throughout the world and is unlike any other sport. It is spoken with many dialects yet the simple round ball, with its curious bounces, its ups and its downs has the unique ability to bring people together and to raise them up.
I’ve spent a lifetime around this game in over five continents and amongst the trials and tribulations of players and team’s, the role of heritage is the claret that runs through our veins. Teams aren’t really "teams" but in-fact part of our lives, a setting at the table if you will, where we rejoice with great triumphs and suffer despair with defeat. And like life itself, we learn to fight the good fight and to push-on when our backs are against the wall with honour and integrity.
How this relates to Leeds is a basic idea that I believe the club is integral part of the rich heritage of the sport within England. I know for local rivals they may cringe at that notion but I am a staunch supporter of English Football at its roots, as well as Leeds itself quite obviously, and know the long-term success of The Three Lions is dependent upon this delicate weave of clubs with strong heritage in the sport and their academies of domestic talent, of which Leeds is and always has been at the forefront.
There is no point reviewing the sad mess of financial management that saw Leeds fall from the elite stage of the Champions League at the start of the decade to this past season. Instead, like any lifetime supporter of the club, we have faced adversity head-on and will continue our support as we fight, scratch and crawl our way back up in the new campaign. While disappointed with the final result in Wembley, I reveled in young hometown hero Jonny Howson’s brace against Carlisle and consider that part of the unique rallying cry for the Elland Road faithful. With the formidable leadership of Gary McAllister for an entire season, the full circle of the decade and the return to glory has begun.
Shortly, I will be posting a series of updates, player profiles, academy developments and other key components but first wanted to welcome you, as of-course, we are Leeds United.