Damned United's biggest kicking Rick Broadbent We are Leeds and we know you are laughing. We are Leeds and we know the rest of you are up there on the moral high ground, pointing fingers at our terrible fans and listening to cosy love-ins on BBC radio as Peter Ridsdale, the Cardiff City chairman and former chairman of Leeds, denies all wrongdoing and tells how he shared a glass of champagne with his Hull City counterpart after the match that did for the club he supposedly loves.
But why do you hate us? Is it because of the one-eyed revisionists who remember Don Revie's team only as cynical Celts with the moral fibre of a Viking stag party and forget the mesmerising football they played? Is it because you remember the riots in Birmingham, Paris and Bournemouth but forget Liverpool in Belgium and England everywhere? True football fans should feel deep sympathy for Leeds United. Why? Because our history is denied by those who refuse to acknowledge the greatness of Revie's Leeds and harp on about bribery, lucky suits and finishing second. Well poor old José Mourinho and his £200 million war chest should try doing the Double when you have to play the FA Cup Final on Saturday and the title decider on Monday. Leeds did that in 1972 and were called chokers. Everyone has it in for Leeds. From the referee who failed to spot the offside against West Bromwich Albion in 1971 that robbed Leeds of another title and sparked the first pitch invasion to the one who robbed Leeds of the European Cup final in 1975 and sparked the first riot. Dirty, dirty Leeds. I know Leeds fans can be scumbags. I was at Dean Court in 1990 when Leeds got promoted to the top flight after a weekend of mayhem in Bournemouth. I visited my future inlaws that night and heard how some Northern knuckle-dusters had burnt a friend's beach hut and punched a friend's daughter in a bar. Awful, yes, but the football section of any bookshop is full of memoirs of sad, little men who spent the 1980s believing that they were military generals at Chelsea and West Ham United. Leeds were not alone in their casual misanthropy, so why hate us more? And now that future generations will never know that Leeds mattered, the worst part is having our history misappropriated by the welk-eaters. Yes, Revie's Leeds could mix it with the best of them, but Ron "Chopper" Harris did not get his nickname because he had a fancy bike and Graeme Souness sometimes missed the ball. It was not all of them, either - I bet Eddie Gray's dog never even fouled a pavement - but the vilification of Revie has never been as objective as the treatment meted out to Brian Clough. We are Leeds and you are laughing, but you wait until the Roman Abramovich era blows up in your face. You are just like us, really - passionate, partisan and utterly at the whims of the people you did not vote for. We did not ask Ridsdale to buy Seth Johnson or pay Gary Kelly £40,000 a week until he is in pipe and slippers. We did not ask anyone to sell Elland Road and we certainly did not ask Alan Smith to say that he would stay in the event of relegation only to kiss his badge and bugger off to our bitter rivals. Who do we blame? Ridsdale's board, a string of managers, underperforming players, Woodgate and Bowyer - it goes on. So we are Leeds and we have been kicked to death. We have had one cup final in 32 years, a 3-0 defeat by Aston Villa in the Coca-Cola thingy that left Howard Wilkinson feeling "emotionally disembowelled". We live on pain and the pompous tosh of our detractors. So goodbye from the emotionally disembowelled of West Yorkshire. And thanks for nothing. The contents of this email are confidential to the intended recipient at the email address to which it has been addressed. It may not be disclosed to or used by anyone other than this addressee, nor may it be copied in any way. If received in error, please contact Tensar International Ltd, Cunningham Court, Shadsworth Business Park, Shadsworth, Blackburn, BB1 2QX (http://www.tensar.co.uk) on +44 1254 262431 quoting the name of the sender and the addressee and then delete it from your system. The presence of this footer indicates that the message has been scanned for viruses using up to date virus software. However, Tensar International nor the sender accept any responsibility for viruses Tensar International has the facility to monitor all incoming and outgoing emails and it must be understood that email is not a secure medium for the transfer of information. No contracts may be concluded on behalf of Tensar International by means of Email communications. The opinions expressed by the sender of this email are not necessarily the opinions of Tensar International. _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist it's a God awful small affair
