Dear Leeds United, from the fans

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As supporters of Leeds we’re well aware of the history that’s attached to our great club and naturally, every single one of us would like to see the glory days of the past return to Elland Road. After all, glory is what football is all about.

We turn up, week after week, expecting to see a group of players battle fiercely for the badge that they’re privileged enough to wear on their shirt. We expect them to put their bodies on the line for the cause, to push their team mates to their limit and to give everything they have within them to fight for a result.

To play for Leeds you need heart, not excuses, and the excuses are becoming more ridiculous by the day.

Brian, we understand that issues on the business side of the club need resolving, I doubt there are a group of fans anywhere else on the planet that have such a sound understanding of how a takeover works, or how the administration process plays out, but the ‘business side of things’ is completely out of your control and while we understand that it has an impact on your ability to strengthen the squad, it does not, in any way, justify the types of performances we’re becoming accustomed to.

As far as excuses go, your latest one is the most ridiculous yet.

By implying that you and the players are worried that you won’t get paid this month, minutes after we all watched your team crumble once again, you’ve suggested that performances on the pitch would be different if the payment of your wages on time was guaranteed. While there will always be a degree of sympathy towards anyone that doesn’t receive the wage that they’ve earned, any player or manager of Leeds United whose effort on the football pitch changes with the certainty of the payment date of their wage isn’t fit to be at this club.

After all, when the wage issue is resolved and you receive the money you’re owed, those effortless performances won’t just be wiped from our memory. What remuneration will the fans that spent their money traveling to the other side of the country to support you receive?

The club is a mess, we know, but for those 90 minutes on a matchday we all just want to forget about all our problems and watch our team play with the fight and spirit we give from the stands. If the players aren’t showing the fight required then use the rest of the season to give the youth players some experience, after all, the ‘footballing side of things’ is within your control. You’re the manager of a squad with no drive, motivation or sense of pride. If those qualities disappear from your players when problems arise then you’re managing them wrong.

In truth, some of the players need to question whether this is the right club for them. You see good players play out their careers in the lower leagues for clubs that just don’t have the ambition or resource to ever meaningfully challenge, those players spend their time forever putting in 7/10 performances while picking up the odd Johnston’s Paint trophy winners medal here and there, but this is a club that, despite its current predicament, has the potential to be so much more.

If Leeds United is just a high profile name to add to your CV then you’re wasting your time here, because you’ll be found out. There truly is no excuse for a lack of determination.

On the flip side, if you genuinely want the best for Leeds United then using off field problems as an excuse for your lacklustre performances has to stop. The fans recognise effort, if you’re surrounded by a team that are too busy feeling sorry for themselves to put the effort in then double your efforts and make yourself stand out, be a reason for positivity, rather than the opposite.

Along with the players and Brian, the owners need to take off their ‘investment’ heads and remember that they’re running a club. It’s all good and well filling the official site with pictures of our Managing Director smiling away in a railway next to a group of kids that now know not to mess with trains, but where is he when it really matters? In fact, where are any of you?

That’s just it, you’re absolutely nowhere to be seen or heard of. We’re currently in the midst of one of the most confusing times of our recent history, with rumours flying around about administration and the uncertain future ahead of us, and you can’t even step up and tell us what’s going on?

Back in August last year Salem Patel tweeted to tell us all that we were the real winners, because we’ve got our club back.

Have we? This isn’t the club I remember?

Truth is, you haven’t given us our club back at all, we’re a shell of our former selves that’s haunted by the failings of your predecessors, but more worryingly, falling deeper and deeper into crisis with every move you make. Whatever your plan for us was, it’s failed catastrophically.

I genuinely hope that when you leave this great club, you leave with nothing. No profit, no pride, no goodbye. You deserve nothing from us.

The excuses need to stop, the fans aren’t stupid and it’s about time someone at the club stepped up and displayed a little leadership. The club isn’t rudderless, it’s just severely lacking someone that’s brave enough to face up to the problems and explain to us all where we’re at. We’ll always appreciate honesty, even if it’s something we don’t want to hear.

Once again the fans are the only positive aspect of the club, we’ll be there at the next game and the one after that, just hoping to see a team, our team, fight for the badge that many before them have fought so hard for.

Our club is in disarray, but it won’t always be like this. A day will come when we see Leeds United recover from the seemingly endless misfortune that greets us on a daily basis. We’ll be able to argue about football, not takeovers.

“Til that day, and forever after, the fans will march on together.”

You can follow Steve on Twitter at @giddy_goose – and don’t forget to follow @FanZone too for links to all the latest blogs.