Fitba

In the 70s and leading in to the very early 1990s they were a good team, but terrible financial mis-management lead to a collapse in the quality of the squad and a fall into the lower divisions for about 20 years I think it was. They came back with a roar and with an interesting character of a manager from Argentina who is a mentor for Pep Guardiola (City manager) but is very tempremental.

The jump from the Championship to the Premiership in terms of quality of football is immense and not all teams can make it stick - hence the number of foreign players in the Premiership. If you can maintain a healthy squad and a solid defence then you can achieve 'mid-table respectability', but Leeds are suffering (as are Everton) from too many injuries leading to too few goals scored and too many goals allowed in.

Ten point separate the bottom team (10 points) from the team in eleventh place (20 points). 20 points separate the team in 10th place (21 points) with the team in top place (41 points). At the moment the 'Big Six' are looking like the 'Big Three' (Liverpool, Chelsea and ManCity) but that has been acheived in three different ways with a combination of long term planning, some judicious player purchases, great managers, some luck, and money. City wanted Guardiola for at least five years before he arrived and put in place everything he would have wanted from a club, including brand new training facilities opposite the stadium, a backroom and boardroom squad of people he knew and respected and a squad of players he could work with. Even then he won nothing in his first season.

Yeah, there's archive film somewhere of them running rings round Southampton c71/2. 

Was a teenager in Leeds when they were in their pomp but fitba's not my thing. 

Nor is any other game involving co-ordinating limbs and a ball. 

Rugger even worse as I've always been opposite quartile to the front row and not fast enough or co-ordinated enough for (eg) fly half.  

Which United is the film about in which Michael Sheen plays Brian Clough? Watched it once on a plane; remember the look but not the detail.

Leeds ticked along until 2003 or so, when their financial recklessness came to light and they were relegated from the top flight in the same year.

Anyway, it looks like most of the teams are going to have a Covid-induced Christmas holiday this year... the clubs’ multi-million squads aren’t big enough to turn out 11 fit players apparently.

Looks like there’s going to be a lot of matches played behind closed doors in January? Ruins the spectacle imho.

I think it must be the end in 2022 Rob; here’s hoping that Omicron is largely benign and that the western governments are over-reacting.

If not, I think things might start to turn ugly in 2022...