03 Aug 2024 22:01:19
Radz our former owner gets a lot of stick.
To me, compared to most previous owners, he's a Leeds man. People have short memories. He took us up after years in the rubbish and stabilised our club after the mad man. Ok he made mistakes but to me he still Leeds.
03 Aug 2024 23:01:31
I agree with you Cork…best owner for a long time. The very fact we’re here at all and had 3 years in the EPL over the last 5-6 years is 100% down to him. He restored the club’s reputation and credibility. The mess of the prior 20-odd years shouldn’t be forgotten. He made mistakes towards the end, but the positives far out-way the negatives. I think he always had the interest of club at the forefront of his decisions. At the very least he made us attractive to the suitors we have now.
When you think that now we have a full ground every match, have been in the EPL, top of the Championship (and winners) ; we can and did spend £100m+ a season on players, sell players for £30-40+ million…. a million miles from where we were under Bates, Cellino etc.
03 Aug 2024 23:16:49
How is he a "Leeds man" when he was born in Italy?
Was he Leeds when he gave Orta too much power?
Was he Leeds when he tried to use the stadium as collateral?
Was he Leeds when he declared the mammoth loss on ? JKA wouldn't really affect us or the accounts that much?
Was he Leeds when he replied to content creators directly?
Knew little about the game. He did however bring in the 9ers. Other than that, if you want to meet true Leeds I can introduce you to some solid folk from Gipton. They're more Leeds.
04 Aug 2024 00:37:06
What my brother Georgey said esp the stadium as collateral.
04 Aug 2024 01:44:59
Great post I think rads did well and left us better than he found us.
George what has were you are born git to do with anything
The most leeds person I can think of is radebe and he was born in South Africa. Bremner, Strachan both Scottish along with dozens of our greats
Most recently pablo who is Spain.
Orta gets stuck but he’s buys have done us very well. Many had a pop at ortas ones for the future but they have made us a lot of money and the ones left are doing amazing.
You know my view on where our buys went wrong and it’s not orta.
04 Aug 2024 04:29:25
What George said.
He was slightly better than the previous horrendous owners we've had. Which is about as useful as being the tallest midget.
04 Aug 2024 05:43:12
Berm You right to a degree on the geography but nowhere near fully. You cite Lucas, Billy, Gordon and Pablo. Excellent ? examples but here's the difference. Each one of those players expressed continual affection for the club post departure. Radz hasn't and it would be inappropriate for him to do so. He moved on very quickly so quickly he was buying a new club before the sale ink was dry on the transaction to the 49ers.
Radz did considerable good for the club but his errors were howlers (he didn't leave the books as well as he should have done) and this substantially negates any possible legacy. He was a businessman ship passing through the night at Leeds and ought not to be particularly revered.
The 9ers and RB will eventually demonstrate they're the ones to take this magnificent club forward. Thank you Radz for finding the 9ers but thank you and goodbye.
04 Aug 2024 07:02:16
I don’t disagree with you often Dill, but he has been far the best owner / key decision maker we have had in the last 30 years. Every single facet of the club was left far better after him. I’m not going to argue that he was Leeds through and through; he was a businessman first and foremost, that's what a modern football club is at the end of the day; a business run for (hopefully) profit and financial progression.
The whole stadium “collateral” issue is just silly bunkum. He was negotiating his exit and in doing so, you use every element at your disposal. Every asset of the club is collateral. Archie Gray was collateral when he sold to get us ahead of our latest financial constraints.
04 Aug 2024 08:05:01
He was miles ahead of any owner we had in the pervious 25odd years. End of story, and any argument saying otherwise is wrong. (The Baz approach being adopted) .
George and Baz are now related. Congratulations.
04 Aug 2024 09:05:24
Rads as bright says was and is a good owner for a modern football club.
All in all he left Leeds in a better state than he found the club. Yes he made mistakes but he set the club on a upward trajectory.
As I have said before I don't think he ever really had the money for the prem and I think the success with bielsa took them by surprise.
After 16 years of lower league football he got us going again. For that I'm grateful. If they had planned better we might have stayed in the prem.
04 Aug 2024 09:36:01
He gave Orta too much power.
04 Aug 2024 09:53:27
For me the beauty of Radz. is he done all the good for nothing. ?
He didn't make a penny, took no wage, took no expenses, took no dividends, didn't separate stadium from club . He done it like Trumps presidency term in states, never took a penny ?
Seriously he remunerated himself handsomely ( as is his right ) but don't then say oh he's so so great for what he done at Leeds
Leeds made him an awful lot of money
I not envious of that, but it just annoys me when people fail to mention the monetary side .
Which let's be honest was the only side he was interested in
As for Orta, is it still not clear to some people the man should be nowhere near a job as a D. O. F.
Go ask Sevilla fans now on opinions. of him.
04 Aug 2024 10:32:42
Just mean that we've been accustomed to having bad owners, so much so that Radz is seen as great.
He did set us on an upward trajectory, but he also held us back by blatantly bad decisions he made such as the things George mentioned along with a massive failure to build on our 9th place finish by not putting his hand in his pocket sufficiently that summer. That summer we were primed to kick on and it all went downhill did his time after that.
I don't resent him as the club is in a better place than it had been previously, but I'm not putting him on a pedestal when he's not too far removed from previous owners.
I am happy that we now have the 49ers and RB involved with the club as things are looking a lot brighter.
04 Aug 2024 10:38:23
Orta was a massive failing on his part, too, as others have mentioned. Too much control given to an angry p! sshe*d with a god complex. We're still feeling the aftereffect of Orta's numerous failings and ultimately that lands on Radz.
04 Aug 2024 12:27:28
I guess when you look at it the utter carnage started under Ridsdale then was compounded by papa Smurf who basically had no interest in Leeds other than a cash cow. Things then hit a new low with GFH who basically just thought they could flip us as a commodity when their predecessor had rinsed us for all he could. Change was set in motion by the King of Corn, maverick as he was but he then introduced Radz into the scene who then played his part in the recovery, so I for one am grateful for them to have begun the process to where we are now, which let's face it, is a far better place than we have been for over 2 decades.
04 Aug 2024 12:41:37
Yes orta and the power he was given was a mistake by rads. Also the fact he didn't invest when we went up could be seen as shortsighted. But I would rather him keep his powder dry than gamble and go all in and bankrupt the club.
One slight thing that maybe excuses rads and orta a tiny bit is our rapid rise.
We were a very ordinary mid table championship team. Our buys were journeyman, prem youngsters and players for the future.
Then within a couple of years we were going to the prem. Our first team was very thin. Our bench was no where near good enough and our academy lads were all either way off the first team or never be good enough.
What followed was a bit of panic I think. Marshe. Not good enough. The recruitment poor. But rads held onto the purse strings and we live to fight on.
Orta even did well with gnonto and gio towards the end.
So rads was good for us . Orta less so.
But we could be a mid table team if cellino was still in charge because he was just good at being a bit mad.
04 Aug 2024 12:44:46
Leeds made Cellino and Bates an awful lot of money, without practically any advancement of the club.
Chris we all do what we do for money at a base level. The 49's and their sports investors [along with RB] are not in Leeds United because they think Yorkshire is a great place to be; they are all here to make money. Radz put his £40m in and risked it. Yes, he went on to make some money in the end [no where near as much as he planned], but he could have lost it all.
04 Aug 2024 13:08:24
Basically I was saying that Radz “got” Leeds and what it stands for. I never realized you had to be born in Leeds to be “Leeds”
There’s some proper muppets on here.
04 Aug 2024 13:35:33
PR Radz certainly never " got" Leeds and what it stands for.
04 Aug 2024 13:57:31
Gotta invest in the team to be more successful for a greater return. Feels like there came a point where Radz simply stopped wanting to invest in the club.
I vuess towards the end he likely didn't have the finances so was trying to scrimp by, rather than putting the money in after we finished 9th and trying to attain a better league position and the potential to earn more money.
04 Aug 2024 17:54:53
We bought Rutter tho in his final window?
04 Aug 2024 18:22:38
Not entirely sure Orta had scouted him tbh, Brighty. We needed a player profile like Gyokeres and he brought us Rutter to be the CF needed to score us the goals to stay up. This despite Rutter playing in a two upfront at Hoffenheim and his dribbling and creativity being his best assets rather than being a goalscorer.
I was happy with getting Rutter as I was a fan of his at the time (and moreso now) , but Orta severely misjudged his profile. Gyok could've kept us up.
04 Aug 2024 18:52:45
Not even sure Gyokeres would have kept Leeds up Dill . something inherently rotten about the 2nd half of that season . it reeked of players downing tools conceding tsunami waves of goals.
04 Aug 2024 19:21:07
Exactly we were against it that window and Orta. took a gamble. on a prospect and we all know rest
How embarrassing is it that our club signed the most expensive PL flop of ALL TIME
in the real world Victor would have lost his job immediately over that.
04 Aug 2024 20:03:24
Maybe so, Baz. Gyok definitely would've given us what we were in desperate need of at that stage of the season. Would it have been enough is another question.
04 Aug 2024 20:11:31
April 2022 I first mentioned we should buy Gyok.
Then this in August:
31 Aug 2022 15:13:20
Leeds apparently taking a look at Coventy's Viktor Gyokeres (CF) .
He's someone I've touted a fair few times on this forum as being a great budget signing from the Championship.
He's someone I really think would compliment the team and would get better once with us. Bags of potential and very talented right now.
The lad is a Swedish international. He's a very strong and direct runner on the ball, has a knack for getting on the ball in the box, whether low or high crosses or reacting to loose balls. His interlinking play is an asset. He runs channels and breaks well and most of all he can finish.
I'd rather sign him over Hwang, considering the cost and potential upside. I see more potential in Gyokeres.
If only we'd got him that January. He's genuinely an elite CF these days and likely to be heading to Arsenal this summer if reports are to be believed. 58 GI (43 goals, 15 assists in 50 games last season for Sporting. A GI every 71 minutes. Still boils my piss we didn't go for him when we had the chance.
05 Aug 2024 07:12:51
I only mentioned the Gio signing, as it was suggested that Radz didn’t “bother” investing in the team towards the end, which is pigs pap. Agreed, not the right man for the circumstances, but a big investment, and a great signing. Gyokeres should have been signed after his first season at Cov.
Many on here, who have changed their tunes, wanted people hanging for the waste of money, and to get shot immediately. Just proves their football vision and knowledge!
05 Aug 2024 09:26:39
Personally, I don't think there was any altruism involved. At the time it all seemed a bit like "oh sh! t we better try do something so we don't get relegated and lose X amount of money on the sale". As I think a lot of us knew or at least had the feeling that Radz had already checked out by that point and was hoping for the best returns possible.
Gio was £23m up front. 49ers on the hook for the add ons, if he does achieve them, to bring the total up to £35.5m.
Not as big a spend as initially thought and that money would've also been more than enough for Gyok had Orta picked the right profile for the team at that stage. (Although I am grateful we have Gio now)