This is the sort of response that I have always said is just sticking the head in the sand.

These things do not have to be cyclical at all. There is a huge difference between winning trophy's (and there is only 3 a year on offer and generally 2 go to the same team), and actually challenging. Where Leeds are now is not challenging. Whether they would have continued winning trophy's or not is irrelevant, but we should have still strengthened from a position of strength, to ensure we were still giving ourselves an opportunity to win those trophy's.

I would agree with that but this is a mistake GH has made 3 times during his tenure.

The other thing that I find strange is the attitude that we have won the four times and we should be jolly grateful - that the failure of the club in the past justifies continued failure in the future.

This along with Wigan Leeds is the biggest club in the league, the argument about salary cap is rubbish IMO. If managed correctly the club should have access to the best young talent around. Most squads have a proliferation of youngsters and Leeds should have a higher quality crop and - with higher revenues - more funding to develop them. The club should always be in position of strength - the fact that it is not has to be a question of management decision making.

I thought I was being reslistic. What do you think is actually going to happen?

Cant disagree with that. We shouldnt expect trophies every year, but we should expect to be competing for them.

I wasn't really picking you up on what was going to happen, I was more picking up on what could have been avoided, and presumed your statement was saying it couldn't have been.

Going forward, for me we are too late to even do anything for 2012 IMO. I think that will be the year for transistion now, as this year was written off the minute we stayed with the past it players.

If I was making the decision and it was possible, then I would try and cancel the contracts of all the overseas players we have. Instill Buderus as assistant coach for 2012, and pick 3 quality overseas signings that we can get for next year, and compliment them with the promotion of youngsters (that's 16-18 yearolds).

Agreed but ensure that certain British players also out of contract do not get a renewal.

Fantastic.

Shows who had the mettle to see what was on the horizon back in 2001.

I wonder if Dannyboy ever did return those season tickets?

I posted on that thread too

I stand by my comments about Powell, even if things did improve under him from 2001. Seems like a similar situation to the one we are currently in...

Nah, what we were then is not like now. Then we never were challengers in reality. We never were in a position of dominance. What's happening now was by our own making, rather than hit and miss trying to get things right. Our own decline has been our own making.

What GH did back then was correct, and he had a plan in place at least to come out of it, as history proved. What we have now is proof in the pudding that he took his eye off the ball and because of that costly mitakes have been made. Now we need to go through that 2001/2002 era again in order to get back. But the longer he takes to rectify matters the longer that will be.

I have no qualms at all about GH remaining as CEO. I think it might begin to look like he may not have made the best choice for coach, although I'm not a huge fan of blaming the coach as an easy option. I do feel that the players at Leeds are still a lot better as individuals than they are looking as a team at the moment, and that is a problem.

The question is, by not wanting to knee-jerk and replace the coach, are you just prolonging the misery? I can't recall ever calling for a coach's head (metaphorically, obviously) before, especially this early in a season, but I feel tempted to break the habit of a lifetime.

As for replacements, I'd be delighted with Noble myself. I'm not sure what people have against him, he didn't do a huge amount for GB, but then who has lately? As a short or long term prospect, I'd be quite happy with him. Not convinced that will happen.

That spellchecker was a right knob.

Imagine wanting to see some of the six time consecutive Academy Champion squad given a chance at 1st grade level ..... who the hell did he think he was.

[i"madharry
First teamer

I saw Leeds play at Leigh some time in the 1980 ' s ( I have tried to blank the occaision from my memory but only been partially succesful ), and it was the worst 80 minutes of ANYTHING that I have ever seen . Sure , it was sleeting the pitch was blessed with a mere three blades of grass and the batteries had run out on the floodlights , but Christ it was awful . Leigh must have passed the ball straight into touch more times than to one of their teamates , and that ' s on the rare occaision that anyone could pick the ball up in the first place . There must have been 50 scrums a 100 penalties and on 2 occaisions a player ran 10 yards without falling on his **** . Leigh were the worst team I had ever seen and we lost ! I can ' t remember the score but it must have been an " own try " or something .
My point is that if you have watched this team for any length of time you should know that there is a long , long way to go yet before " this is the worst ever " becomes fact ."[/i

I actually remember writing that.

that's what I want, in the least
there were two players that helped us get close to competitive last year, once they were both out injured the season was over - neither were going to be back for the first half of the season and the remainder of the squad was also weakened
it was either obvious to the CEO we weren't going to be competitive for at least half this year and he was happy with that or he couldn't see it