Kevin Sinfield could've left Leeds for more money a number of times. He didn't.

I don't blame Howson for taking the fast track to the premiership and cashing in, but I certainly don't admire him for it.

If this was a one off I'd tend to agree but the fact is we have lost Gradel, Schmical, Kilkenny, Johnson and Beckford under similar circumstances which shows that there is something going on which is making these players not want to sign with the club. It is well known we are paying under the going rate with the size of contracts we're offering as Bates seems to think he can offer League 1 wages and players will accept just because it's Leeds. Howson was basically told to meet with the management and that he had an offer accepted for him and was to go and speak to Norwich. He has made it clear he wanted to sign, but due to a lack of investment in the squad it is clear we are going nowhere fast, no ambition has been shown. There is a limit to how loyal to your club you can be, and with Bates in charge I would see no reason, like Kilkenny, Johnson, Gradel and Beckford to sign for longer. And now we here talks with Clayton have broken down, maybe it's all a coincidence? I see one common denominator, a man who has lied under oath in court, Ken Bates.

Gradel went for family reasons.
Kilkenny and schmeical weren't good enough to stay.
Beckford and howson bettered themselves

Kilkenny and Beckford were offered contracts, which inevitably broke down. We wanted to keep them, like Howson, but couldn't, as what we are offering isn't deemed acceptable. We 'replaced' Beckford with Paynter, we have yet to see a replacement for Gradel. We replaced Kilkenny with a 30 odd year old crock Brown. It's not the fact we are losing players, it's we're not signing anyone of quality to replace them.

Very true. Apart from Leicester and west ham we pay as much as anyone in this league.
Perhaps the players are the ones the manager wants?
Look back and he signed a lot of rubbish. Very few of his signings have worked out

rlrl rlrl

How do you figure that? We have the lowest payroll/turnover ratio in the Championship and were unable to match Kilkenny's wage demands...he then signed for big spending Bristol City!!

We're hardly stabilising though are we - we're going backwards. We have a shoestring squad but have among the best support in the league.

Bates is not interested in launching an attack on the PL. He wants the club to stay where it is and milk all the profit he can - it's better for him to have a profit making Championship club that he can sell based on its PL potential than to have a PL club with a bigger turnover but less profit.

The last few seasons for Leeds have been pretty similar, going well up to christmas then sliding away for the rest of the season
Every transfer window the other sides improve and Leeds sell and wait for loan season
Ken Bates came out before the window and said they were looking to sell five or six players net, as wages were too high. The manager comes out and says they are spending a lot of money on a loan player at the same time as they have just takne £2million and cut the club captains wages from the bills
Bates wont spend the money and Leeds will remain a middling championship side or worse, at which point the manager will take the blame.

A chairman of a sports club is happy to put dross on the field and minimal positive on field results for their own financial profit, as long as the fans keep pumping the money in then there will be no change

its very easy to blame bates, but you could equally blame grayson. without actual knowledge of what goes on its just opinions.

Which of course doesn't seem to tally with Leeds' published accounts. Fifa recommend that to be stable a clubs wages should not exceed 70% of their turnover. In the PL most clubs exceed this significantly (hence Bates ambivalence towards promotion). As I mentioned above Leeds' wages to turnover is around 50% and reportedly the lowest in the championship.

Depends what we're talking about though - If its the general running of the club then the buck stops with Bates, if its the recruitment policy at a micro level then yeah who knows how much freedom Grayson has.

the wages may be 50% of the turnover but that doesn't mean players are not earning £10k a week.
the fact is i don't like or trust bates but grayson is totally inept. he has signed so much rubbnish in his time and the team play like strangers. it is a total shambles

Its a real shame what is happening at Elland Road.

For a long time the fans have suffered incompetence, either at board level during the Ridsdale era, or in the dugout now. Bates is clearly a leech on the club, only interested in extracting money, rather than further adding to a glorious history, by making sensible investments that would not add financial risk to the clubs accounts. Whilst he remains as owner, the situation will not change as he has no desire to invest in the club for the benefit of the club or fans, merely to furnish himself with a plaything that sustains his lifestyle.

The next to go will be Snodgrass as the vultures are now circling over the carcass of the club, and the current management will simply see more ££££ to be extracted. After that others will leave, and it will become more and more difficult to bring in players of any kind of quality as the negativity around the club will only increase.

Like I said, it's a shame, and one that won't end until Bates passes away, as there is no way he will sell the club.

Snodgrass terminated contract talks. Can't blame him.
The young, exciting midfield we based all our success over the last few years upon of Kilkenny, Johnson, Gradel, Howson, Snodgrass has now been completely torn apart.
Grayson has his faults but how can he be expected to improve us when this happens. I think he should walk away now, if not he'll be gone by the summer anyway.