Leeds' squad last season, Billy

On paper, it was a top half squad - so surely it was Wise and Blackwell's fault that they went down, wasn't it? No. It was the result of years of staggering off-field mismanagement, plus an absurdly lengthy delay (much, much longer than ours this season) in replacing Blackwell.

Marshall and Lappin seemed to fit in ok last season: and after that hairy period just after the New Year, things seemed to be coming together quite promisingly. I'm not arguing Grant is a good manager: I'm not even suggesting he should've been appointed in the first place. But the rot's been going on at this club for years: team spirit went to pot during the Prem season, we stopped bringing through any decent young players except Martin, the board sanctioned bizarre player releases such as Mackay and Crow, and left Worthington in way beyond the point we could turn it around during the period in which we were still receiving parachute payments.

Was it Grant's fault that Earnshaw and Etuhu departed abruptly, and for much less than they were worth? No. Was it his fault that the board has speculated so much on land that vast amounts of each season's turnover goes towards paying off a debt of almost £20m? No. Look at the profits we've continually made on player sales - yet has this been put back into the team? No: hence our continued decline, and mounting fury of players like Huckerby. In my opinion, we're still trapped into thinking that because we haven't "done a Leeds" off the field, the board have somehow been competent in their leadership of the club - but they haven't: not a bit of it.

Instead, the CEO displays his naivete time and again when it comes to transfers, agents plainly tell their players to avoid the club, and we end up bringing in loan signings with no real motivation to succeed for us. Grant made tons of mistakes, not least his stupid public criticism of players - but many, many factors behind where we are now were totally beyond his control, and I'm sceptical even a truly accomplished manager could've coped in such circumstances.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Nov 16, 10:33:27