Did someone mention Arsenal?

In my last post, I randomly brought up that a decade ago, Leeds beat Arsenal in the Premiership. A couple of days later the F.A. Cup 3rd round draw was made (by Noel Gallagher and Serge Pizzorno from Kasabian who coincidentally managed to draw the two teams they support to play each other) and Leeds face a daunting trip to the Emirates to play Arsenal! I definitely wouldn't mind the same score as 10 years ago (1-0 to Leeds) but that will be very difficult. It will be a very entertaining and intriguing match, probably more so than the Man U v Liverpool tie. Leeds and Arsenal have had some good matches in the past and not just recently, like the 1972 FA Cup final, which might have looked like the picture on the right.

Hopefully on January 8th/9th Leeds can take inspiration from beating fierce rivals Manchester United at the same stage last year. In that game, Wes Brown was given the run around by then League One players and it still baffles me to this day how someone so bad could manage to clock up 23 England caps before retiring from International football this year.
Andy O'Brien is better than him, his loan signing coinciding with the run of good form Leeds have had being unbeaten in five games and keeping in amongst the play-off places.

Bradley Johnson transfer-listed

Bradley Johnson has been transfer-listed after refusing the club's latest offer of a new contract. This seems strange as he isn't exactly Jermaine Beckford so he can't think he is bigger than the club but he is a regular first team player so it can't be due to lack of games. But unfortunately goals like in the video seemed to be a rarity for this hard-working midfielder.



Rather than receiving nothing for him in the summer, Leeds will try and sell him in January but where could he go? Stoke or Blackpool have been mentioned but this is a player that has been rated as being a Championship player at best so moves to Sheffeld United or Burnley seem more probable. Is that progession? These teams are in the same league and arugably have smaller fan bases. This isn't me being an arrogant Leeds fan, the figures show this. Leeds legend Peter Lorimer explained that Leeds actually had better attendances than three Premiership clubs with 27,000 when Leeds played the unfashionable Scunthorpe.

Whatever his motives are, I'm interested to see where he ends up and personally think he would flourish in the MLS in America with a name like Brad Johnson! Only ten years ago, Leeds were beating Arsenal in the Premiership after signing Rio Ferdinand for £18 million! Now a player we signed from Northampton town wants to leave...How times change.

Beckford, McFly and the Gaffer

Jermaine Beckford must have read my blog post last week as after saying he never scores, he only goes and comes on as a sub in the last ten minutes and scores his first Premier League goal in injury time!

There has been no such problems for Leeds players scoring lately, as Luciano Becchio scored a second half hat-trick against Bristol City to move Leeds up to fifth place in the table. If they carry on performing like this, The players will be called up for International duty Jay Bothroyd style...actually two players already have. Davide Somma has been called up to the South Africa squad for the friendly against USA after scoring 6 goals so far in the Championship. Max Gradel was also called up to the Ivory Coast squad for the first time along with higher profile players like Didier Drogba.

On Thursday, the Christmas lights will be switched on in Leeds. Shayne Ward and McFly will be there along with the Leeds Manager Simon Grayson. This resulted in the mildly amusing headline on the official Leeds United Website 'THE GAFFER JOINS McFLY TO LIGHT UP LEEDS.' Surely that could have been worded better? Or maybe it was deliberate. Although Simon Grayson singing with McFly would probably make it better and more entertaining! I also can't remember the last time I saw or heard the word 'Gaffer' being used to describe a manager. Some members of the Leeds squad will be there too, although it doesn't specify who. I don't blame them if not many of them want to go and spend an evening with McFly and Shayne Ward. I would happily pay whoever it is to kick a football at them while they are performing. The way Leeds are playing at the moment, I doubt they would miss.

Hull via Brentford

So after beating Coventry 3-2 at the weekend, Leeds have drew against Hull 2-2 on a cold Tuesday night at Elland Road. They were winning and Hull had midfielder John Bostock (on loan from Spurs) sent off yet Hull were still able to equalize through an own goal about ten minutes from the end. Even though they didn't lose against their Yorkshire rivals like they did against Barnsley (OK they aren't really big rivals, just from the same county), I'm glad I didn't go to be freezing sitting on the plastic seats. In my view only hardcore fans and season-ticket holders (which are basically the same category anyway) would go and do such a thing.

Does this show a lack of commitment? Not really, I live a couple of hours away in Shropshire (now at Stoke) and as an University student at is far too busy studying to even contemplate freezing to death. That's not to say I never went to a football match where the weather wasn't nice. I remember putting my replica shirt over a jumper or a hoody just to make it obvious that I was a young Leeds supporter in the stands full of erm...Leeds supporters.

The last Leeds match I attended was 8 months ago in March against Brentford, obviously when Leeds were still in League One. It was a great treat for my girlfriend to buy two tickets and want to watch the match with me. The match ended 1-1 which was a bit disappointing because Brentford were a team we were expected to beat. It was quite an even match but Brentford scored first and Leeds managed to hit the post deep in injury time but there are some things that I distinctly remember which I feel the need to bring up now. Below is a picture of my view of the pitch at the Brentford match, we were quite early hence the largely empty stand opposite but it did full up as it got closer to kick off. Even with Leeds amazing support I doubt it was as full on a cold Tuesday night.

Leeds v Brentford 6th March 2010

Wojciech Szczęsny - The guy couldn't sound anymore Polish if he tried and I bet if I ever tried to pronounce his name out loud, I will get it wrong but he was in goal for Brentford that day. Last season he was on loan there from Arsenal. He was magnificent, pulling off a number of impressive saves and it was clear to see he was destined to play at a higher level. After returning to his parent club this season,  he found himself third choice behind Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski. Since Almunia got injured he's been on the bench and played the odd Carling Cup match, performing well against Newcastle. At least he was in front of Vito Mannone who has since been loaned out to Hull of all teams, although he was only sitting on the bench at Elland Road, possibly getting very cold. From that performance alone, I would have suggested to Simon Grayson that he try and sign him for this season if he hadn't signed somebody with the calibre of Kasper Schmeichel (Yes Peter Schmeichel is his Dad). Especially seem as the Leeds goalie last season, fellow Dane Casper Ankergren seemed incapable of taking a decent Goal Kick against Brentford, continually kicking it back to Brentford players until the fans around me starting groaning and dreading the next time the ball went out of play. 

Jermaine Beckford - Our star striker from last season looked disinterested in the Brentford game. He didn't even bother making a run for some of the long balls which shows how much of a lazy forward he can be. That day he reminded me of a poor man's Emmanuel Adebayor which definitely isn't a compliment. Again the crowd were getting a bit restless but he did score the equalizing goal eventually but everybody knew he was going to leave at the end of the season after refusing to sign a new contract after feeling destined for bigger things and he did. Leeds didn't sell him last January because they were more likely to get promoted with his firepower and we did, just. He can now be found on the bench for Everton, a team who are constantly running low on strikers mainly due to injury. Occasionally he comes on as a sub and fails to score. How times change.

Welcome

Welcome to this blog about Leeds United. I thought it would be a good week to start on seem as they actually won their match last weekend. Following an inconsistent but encouraging start to this season back in the Championship, last weekend's result was exactly what was needed. A confidence boosting 4-1 victory over Scunthorpe moves Leeds up to twelfth and two points off the Championship play-offs before their match against Coventry at the weekend. Three of those goals were scored by Jonny Howson in a superb fifteen-minute second-half hat-trick.


But don't worry this blog won't just be about match reports, Super Leeds will try and offer an unique insight into life as a young football fan. Having supported Leeds since the tender age of 4, I have seen lots of highs and lows and until recently been quite disillusioned about supporting this great club. This blog will talk about all kinds of little details which will hopefully get your mind thinking about what you love and hate about your favourite club and why exactly you do support them and become such a nut!

The Blog's name comes from one of the famous Leeds chants which as a football chant you have probably guessed just repeats the words 'super' and 'Leeds' over again with the odd 'United' thrown in for good measure. It is also the name of a Leeds annual that I've got a few copies of (see right). They might not be as super as they used to be but there is still a lot to be written about!