13 Mar 2024 16:37:29
Peter Ridsdale is to join Manchester United as their new Financial Director, Sir Jim Radcliffe said “ this club needs stability on the pitch and it’s need long term financial guidance off it, and Peter is our man” ??.
13 Mar 2024 18:53:34
Said nobody ever! ???.
13 Mar 2024 19:28:50
As long as he gets a new fish tank thrown in!
13 Mar 2024 19:38:42
Pistol Pete a tad unlucky given a raw deal by some Leeds fans.
13 Mar 2024 22:07:54
How can you seriously defend this man, success at any cost?!
It certainly cost our club by our huge demise for 16 years.
Did you enjoy all those years of mid table mediocrity in the Championship playing shjt football,? that was all thanks to pistol packing Pete playing Russian roulette with our club.
We are giving him a raw deal? You are insane.
13 Mar 2024 22:38:38
Ha a spot of Baz fishing. caught me an OP
I am not so much defending Pistol Pete .
just saying the guy was a tad unlucky with that crucial pivotal 2000/ 2001 season. (which was a difficult season because of off field matters which were not fault of PR) ,
18 UCL games getting to semis. and missing out on that crucial 3rd place ( and UCL qualification) by just 1 point .
so very close. had we qualified again for UCL. well.
13 Mar 2024 23:15:03
Baz Two words. First is Seth. Second is Johnson.
13 Mar 2024 23:42:22
Unfortunately Baz even if we had quailed for the Champions League that second time it would still of caught up with us, he was reckless in every purchase he made and every contract he signed over. He bought players for far too much and gave them same players what they wanted. His idea of factoring his buys was well documented and even years later we were still paying for footballers that had left, and one of our prized assets a certain Harry Kewell went to Liverpool and his agent got paid more money for him than we did, it was a complete farce that many of us today that were there then will never forgive him for. Just remember how we feel about Ken Bates, well Ridsdale’s actions led Leeds United to that horrible parasite! I do appreciate a lot of what you say Baz but I’m with OP on this and as a fan I followed us all over Europe then, we had fantastic nights, glorious weekends and I watched us play some of the best teams in the world, and win, but let me tell you that if I’d known what he was doing and how he was doing it I would of give my season ticket back, because I would of rather been a middle table team for the next 20 years than a 3 season wonder then obscurity for the next 20 years, just my opinion though chaps ?MOT.
14 Mar 2024 00:16:44
Yep good post Woody pal.
One never knows if Leeds had qualified again for UCL in 2000/ 01 and 2001/ 02 . things may have been very different.
To be fair to PR before the meltdown season 2003/ 04 he did make profit on some players
he made a £10 milion profit on JFH . a £12 million profit on Rio and £9 million profit on Woodgate
Anyways .
14 Mar 2024 07:40:13
There is no “being fair” to that man. He nearly destroyed our club, and is to blame for everything, yes, everything, that came after. How he is still allowed on the directors register is way beyond me, as what he did was the utopia of financial mismanagement. (If that was what he was striving for…. erm, lol. Utopia! )
{Ed001's Note - he also did the same to Bradford and Plymouth afterwards.}
14 Mar 2024 08:42:11
Certainly was not defending Pistol Pete just offering a what if scenario of 2000/ 01 and 2001/ 02.
14 Mar 2024 16:55:35
You said some fans give him a raw deal!
I guess that means you are defending him.
Look we all enjoyed that period for those few seasons with the European nights, but like Woody put it, I would change all of that any day for a mid to lower table but stable position in the Premiership had I known the catastrophic events that ensued.
Boom and bust, never again.
14 Mar 2024 17:51:29
Personally as a Leeds fan bought up on Revie success . trophies top 2 or 3 team evey season
what OP and Woody would settle fo a perpetial mid to lower table team seems awfully meh imho.
A bit more luck on pitch and not off field player distractions in 2000/ 01 things may have been different .
14 Mar 2024 18:48:02
I can see where you are going with this Baz but with the way he was balancing the books it was inevitable that the wheels would come off, there was far to much financial pressure to hit those heights every season and it began to show with the reckless managerial appointments and the money spent getting them, it was complete false accounting and like I said it only ends up one way! If Ridsdale’s financial plan was that good lots of financial directors of clubs would have been doing it but he was on his own! The one good thing to come out of it is that I for one appreciate what we have now a lot more than I bet did. It’s great to reach for the stars, but the fall is to painful and very unforgiving and especially when we became many pundits favourite quips by saying “let’s hope they don’t do a Leeds” never don’t do a Ridsdale it was always don’t do a Leeds! See my point Baz? ?MOT.
14 Mar 2024 18:53:07
You are a plonka Baz, we didn’t even win a trophy in that time! If we had i might say it was worth it.
You were dreaming if you thought it could have been successful with O’Dreary.
I personally look back at this period as a false dawn, the darkest time in our history because it was not real.
The two people running it was the clown and his fool.
If you are deranged enough to think this time was anything to compare with the Revie years then I pity you.
14 Mar 2024 19:39:44
Yep I see your point of course Woody, eloquently put, well balanced as ever.
Shame about OP tacky bitter response ?.
14 Mar 2024 19:44:58
Not buying also either of you being genuinely content for long with meh lower to midtable mediocrity year upon year . seriously.
14 Mar 2024 22:28:43
I say it again, he won nothing! It’s no different from being mid table.
What’s so great about winning a big fat nothing?
An empty dream for which we paid the ultimate price for, two decades of hurt and that was worth it in your opinion. Seriously!
14 Mar 2024 23:25:42
Imo Leeds United gave it 100% everything ( 3rd, 4th) in all seasons except the final DOL season 2001/ 02 .2nd half of season imploded for various reasons. injuries, discontent .
But seriously . Man U and Arsenal dominated 1996 to 2004 EPL era.
Yet OP you expect Leeds United to beat BOTH of these these teams to win EPL. Easy? . Seriously why? How?
15 Mar 2024 00:33:30
In all honesty Baz I really would have been happy sitting in mid table mediocrity than languishing in the lower leagues dangling by a string! We missed being part of a massive change in Premier League revenue shares, it really was a good time to be in the premiership but because we were financially irresponsible while we were there we paid for it with our demise and we were a laughing stock, an embarrassment, so for me Baz it’s a yes, give me mid table rather than go through all that again, I’m 1 Million per cent with OP on this one ?we as Leeds supporters through and through we’re robbed of many years in the premiership, I followed them everywhere, but let me tell you that one season I’m going to The Nou Camp then 2 seasons later I’m going to Prenton Park and many many other low capacity grounds, it was painful and those glory nights in the Champions League were soon forgot mate I tell you. We were nobody’s and everybody’s cup final, we had £20M players replaced with £250K players and an owner called bastard Bates! I’m so happy we are financially stable now with great owners and a bloody great manager, I like many diehards pray that we never want to see those days again! ??.
15 Mar 2024 03:00:22
Woody fair dos . another compelling well written post from you.
15 Mar 2024 06:10:05
It is well explained by Woody but the same point that I make. Your ignorance is bewildering. though I think it’s more personal against me that you detest the idea of agreeing anything that I post, especially when it contreviens your opinions.
Find me a Leeds fan who thought Peter Ridsdale was good custodian of our club and the fans who would honestly exchange the trophy less period with the inept O’Leary and the CL semi final for longevity in the Premiership, even if it was mid table for a large period.
For the time that seemed like an eternity, dangling by a thread, as Woody put it, in the lower leagues watching rubbish football and having evil thieves like Papa Smurf and GFH taint our beloved club.
When does reality click in Baz?
15 Mar 2024 07:53:54
Let me add weight to what OP has said; Smurf, GFH et al, would NEVER have got their stinking little grubbies on our club, had it not been for that criminal Ridsdale. And as Ed said, he was then allowed to go on and do it elsewhere! Unfeckingbelievable! (Add Barnsley and Cardiff to his list) . The man was an egotistical whopper of the first order, who, incidentally, lives his own life in a similar vein. Looks rich, but it’s all on tick!
{Ed001's Note - you are right I forgot about those 2! And each time he put a club into bankruptcy he was able to pay himself over £500k into his personal account just before the adminstrators arrived to take over. I think it was something like £635k from Leeds, IIRC.}