If Rome Wasnt built in a day, and Leeds wont be either!

The Leeds united team that walked out on to the Elland Road pitch in the 2002 Champions League Semi Final held the hopes and passions of a city on their shoulders. Big money signings filled most of the positions that night, and however glamourous it may have looked, this was to signal the beginning of a financial meltdown; the Leeds ball had already started rolling down the slippery slope into footballing abyss. The 3-0 defeat on the night was insignificant, a mere speck of dust compared with the 85m debt amassed by the club in search of european dominance and the pot of gold with which it would come. The man to blame was then-chairman Peter Risdale. Like a crazed gambler, he threw around money the club never had. Flying in the footballing highlife, his wings were starting to melt.

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Almost 10 years on, having had our ups and downs as the song goes, Leeds sit 5th in the nPower Championship, clear of all debts, and on the rise. The promised land of the Premier League once again beckons, with the club starting to re-emerge as a force to be reckoned with. The work of Ken Bates, a business veteran at 79, has seen Leeds go from the laughing stock of English football, to a solid and well run enterprise. A squad which is without doubt one of the strongest in the league cost the club just under 6m to assemble, pocket change compared with the 97m line up of 2002. (a difference which would more than likely be larger if inflation rates of transfer fees were taken into consideration) Another comparison which is necessary to be drawn is that between 2002 and 2004, Leeds employed 4 managers in the space of a year whilst spiralling wildly out of

control both on and off the field. However since taking full control of the club in 2008, Ken Bates has employed only one manager, Simon Grayson, who has not only steadied a flailing ship, but also managed to keep most of his crew on board. Financially, Bates is an expert in his craft, showing the same level of ability in Leeds as he did with his previous venture, footballing powerhouse Chelsea. Bates bought the London club for just 1 back in 1982, with the club in turmoil as relegation to division 3 threatened. However Bates turned their fortunes around, creating a globally known brand as well as a great football team. Bates sold the club in the summer of 2003 to Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovic for a sum of 140m. Fans must recognise that Ken Bates is again building Leeds United to the footballing fortress it once was, and not to lose himself and the club millions.

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Now, as i have already enlightened you towards, Leeds has: a skilled manager, no hidden debts, a team performing well on the field, arguably exceeding expectations. So, how on earth does this explain a 5,000 strong protest before last weekends game calling for Ken Bates to leave the club? Bates described these fans as 'morons' in his latest set of programme notes and I see this description as nothing but spot on; Simple (like many Leeds fans), to the point, and very much amusing. A game doesn't go by without me getting more and more agitated by deluded fans sitting in my close proximity who drone on and on and on about the lack of money spent by bates. Ok, maybe I cant expect them all to have a 2.1 business degree, but surely pure common sense tells you that a modern day football club wanting to stay on the right side of the debt collector simply cant afford to be splashing its cash here, there and everywhere! This should be even more obvious after the already highlighted predicament we found

ourselves in 10 years ago due to the old chairman actually listening to worthless opinions of these idiots. Furthermore, these wise bits of money he has spent here and there have seen the acquisition of the leagues top scorer and a newly developed scotland international, both of whom have premier league clubs vying for their signatures. Many of these fans fail to look past the 'my team is better than your team' bravado, and lay their hate to Bates because of his past allegiances with Chelsea, the so called 'Soft southern bastards' or as the decent population of fans like to put it, rivals. We must remember that Bates himself was born in London, therefore he had no inclination at all to support Leeds when we were faced with financial trouble. In fact he could have done quite the opposite, and laughed at Leeds' demise like the rest of the footballing fraternity. Furthermore, he is a hard headed businessman who knows if and when to invest money in the team. Ken has come under heavy criticism for funding hospitality projects and renovations to the famous Elland Road fortress, rather than improving the playing cavalry. Leeds United are building for the future and starting from the foundations, Bates is making a notoriously shaky club solid, and the fans who cant see past the immediate time shown on the scoreboard opposite need to pull themselves out of fantasy land. In the second tier of English football, instant gratification isn't something which exists, however professional management and sensible spending to bring back the glory days certainly is.

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The time has come for Leeds fans to finally wake up and smell to coffee by accepting that Ken Bates really is the right man for the job. His past record speaks for itself, and so does the Chelsea trophy cabinet which made the London club so appealing for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to buy in 2003. Old ideologies of a club with an endless disposable income must be forgotten and thrown in the bin by fans who are still living in the past. After many a term of financial turmoil which has seen the club slip through the hands of a

whole cast of bogus owners, we must learn to support Bates as we begin to find our feet on the world footballing stage once more.