Hearing the cocksure confidence, swagger and sheer arrogance
of that initial release remains as exhilarating as ever, even over 20 years
down the line, and when belting out the lyrics in the car, it dawned on me that
The Stone Roses represented everything Leeds United were about as a club
back then, and everything that’s sadly lacking
now.
The Stone Roses weren’t interested in making a living out of
music, of regularly releasing records, collecting the royalties, playing
mediocre venues and ‘getting by’, they had a single raison d’etre, to be the biggest, most important, most revered band
in the planet, notions of mediocrity were never entertained – they didn’t exist
to get by, they had a vision: they were the best in their field and were
destined to reach the very pinnacle, nothing else registered.
In 1988 Leslie Silver suddenly took upon the same philosophy.
He appointed a manager, charged him with creating a long term vision for the
club and then backed him heavily to do so, and like the Roses, by the summer of
1990 he was relishing an encounter with the big time.
Two years later of course, Silver fulfilled his dreams as
his man took Leeds to the very summit of the English game; the Roses sadly were
to crash and burn; contracts, court cases and infighting killed their momentum and
they could only watch on as Oasis lifted the crown of “biggest band on the
planet” that had been theirs for the taking.
Yet, last summer, some 21 years since their heyday, the
Roses announced a series of comeback shows at Heaton Park; they became the
fastest selling gigs in UK history – so how did this happen? And more to the
point, how is this relevant to Leeds United?
Well the Roses vision, their arrogance, confidence and
absolute belief in being the best has always lived on; it’s a huge part of the reason why they
were so brilliant and why people bought into them so heavily. Although they can
never hope to fully recapture that spirit of yesteryear, people still desperately
logged on to try and secure tickets, just for the chance to just have another
taste of the exuberance, the hope of that period. Even two decades on, the band
talked a good game and you could sense at the press conference that a steely
determination and unwavering belief still existed that they would fulfil every
promise; that they were back to conquer, and not just to make up the numbers.
Contrast this to Leeds United. We’re back in the second
tier, but where’s the excitement, the drive, the euphoria, the ambition? If
Bates, by a perverse set of circumstances had fronted the Roses, his philosophy
no doubt would’ve been “Why aim for the top, when you can get by as Flowered
Up?" – it’s little wonder Leeds United can’t dream of shifting over 150,000
tickets in under 15 minutes!
However, Ken Bates is an old argument, as anybody with even
the most miniscule modicum of sense has long appreciated that he represents the
single greatest hindrance to our progress to the footballing summit. My issue
lies now with Simon Grayson; is he actually good enough for Leeds United?
While I feel reluctant to stick the boot into Grayson, he is
now at a crossroads and he isn’t showing any signs of choosing the right turning.
His record over the last 12 months has been pretty awful, and it’s down to luck
alone that the club remain on the fringes of the play-offs. Were it not for two
dubious sendings off, a moment of madness from Alex McCarthy and defensive
catastrophes in the Burnley and Ipswich ranks, Leeds could quite conceivably be
on a run of seven straight defeats. Awful performances have become the norm... and
let’s be realistic, if Grayson didn’t work for Ken Bates, then grumblings
amongst the fan base would’ve been a lot more audible by now.
Grayson supporters will of course, rightly, point to the
measly budget available to him, but in all honesty, I can no longer take that
argument on board. Yes, of course, you cannot seriously hope to challenge for
promotion with such measly resources, and yes, Grayson is on a hiding to
nothing... and that begs the question: why the hell doesn’t he do something
about it?!?
This is where my real problem with Grayson lies. Where’s his
drive? Where’s the hunger to make Leeds United the best? Where’s the desire to
repay the long suffering supporters with a successful team – one to be proud
of?
Here I find myself again returning to the Stone Roses; the
glorious album closer; ‘I Am The Resurrection’ could almost represent an open
letter from Leeds fans to Ken Bates; amongst the most pertinent of the lyrical tirades
are the lines:
Don’t waste your
words I don’t need anything from you,
I don’t care where
you’ve been or what you plan to do...
Now tell me those sentiments have never echoed in your mind
when reading our chairman’s programme notes, or listening to one of his Wednesday
morning radio addresses? Should Grayson feel the same? He’s one of us after
all, or so we’re told. That’s what he’s been trading on to keep the faith and
backing of the fan base. Yet do we see any evidence of that? On the contrary,
what we read and hear are the same sorry old sound bites and clichés, toeing
the club line. Either Grayson does truly believe that selling Howson was the
best thing to do, or he’s playing up to the ‘yes man’ role – either way, that’s
not what I want from a Leeds United manager.
Returning momentarily to those lyrics, the next line in the
song is the glorious statement:
I am the resurrection
and I am alive...
Such a messianic claim is the preserve of a select and
arrogant few in life; including admittedly, a number of the mentally ill, but
for some others, it represents, albeit not in a completely literal sense, a belief
in themselves, an arrogance that they are the best in their chosen field, that
they exist to achieve and not to compromise, that their vision is an absolute
and woe betide anyone who doesn’t facilitate and buy into it – it’s fair to say
that Grayson doesn’t fall into this category.
Leeds United as a club is currently going nowhere, and
rather than pushing, pushing and pushing to change that, Grayson appears to be
complicit in this stagnation, rather than fighting it. To the outsider looking
in, it appears that to our manager, the Leeds job IS just another job, a way of
paying the bills, rather than a passion. As a fan, I can’t settle for watching
my club settle for a life of mid-table mediocrity in the second tier, watching
on as clubs a fraction of our size outspend and outperform us on a regular
basis. Those at the top should be identifying the likes of Spurs as aspirational
role models, rather than Burnley and Blackpool.
If Simon Grayson has serious ambitions for himself and the
club, he should be demanding more: more of his chairman – a £9.5m budget is
pathetic – more of the quality of players he’s looking to recruit; more of his
coaching staff and most importantly, more of himself. I see no ambition, no
long term plan, no vision for the future on the playing side of things – I’d
expect nothing else from Bates, but when the same can be said of Grayson, it
truly is worrying.
More to the point though, the same concerns seem to be held
by the players. Two months have passed since the team’s last convincing
performance – the 4-0 drubbing of Forest – and that was more a response to the
tragic loss of Gary Speed than anything of Grayson’s doing. Before that, I’d
suggest that you’d have to go right back to the win at the Keepmoat in
September for a truly impressive showing. Furthermore, until recently, the one
consolation to be had after our increasingly regular drubbings would be that
there would be a ‘response’ in the next game – even that isn’t the case any more.
The club is directionless and the team has now fallen into
line; Grayson’s words no longer carry the resonance they once did; he no longer
has a vision the players can buy into. His words are now hollow; week in, week
out Grayson emphasises the need to start games better, yet Forest aside, the
team haven’t scored a first half goal since the 3-2 win at Peterborough – THAT’S
16 GAMES!!
The signs are that the players have lost their faith and with
every passing game, so are an ever increasing number of fans. If the next 48
hours go as expected and a couple of loanees or cheap journeymen arrive then
that’ll be the final straw for me. I want a manager who has a vision, ambition
and who isn’t willing to settle for second best (or about fifth best in Leeds
United’s case). If that costs him his job, then at least he can leave with his
head held high, rather than face being implicated in overseeing the slow death
of our club.
Grayson still has strong support on the terraces and no
doubt a number of other club chairmen who’d happily employ him tomorrow; he
must use his current position of power before he erodes it completely. It may
be a gamble pushing Bates for funds, but the stakes are arguably even higher
for Bates. Even our deluded despot must be conscious of how any such move to force
the manager out could prove to be the decisive tipping point in the anti-Bates
campaign.
One look at the most successful managers of recent years in
the English game brings up names like Ferguson, Mourinho, Wenger and Redknapp -
all of them possess an absolute belief in what they’re doing (not necessarily their
chairman’s philosophy), a streak of arrogance and a determination to do
everything their way. Win at all costs, not muster by as far as possible is the
philosophy. Does Grayson possess this? I have my doubts.
A manager is recognised as much for his legacy at a club as
his achievements. Howard Wilkinson is as much beloved for the nucleus of the
Champions League side he helped create as for the titles he delivered. What
would a new incumbent inherit from Grayson? - Maybe three or four decent
players, a couple of whom are likely to depart in the summer, then a whole load
of mediocrity.
If Grayson wants what we as fans want, he now really has to
show it over the next 48 hours. No more quick fixes, no more squad men; players
of proven ability or rich promise – players who’ll be around the first XI for
many years, rather than another burden on the tight wages budget come next
January. Ever since his inaction almost cost us promotion two years ago,
Grayson has presided over a series of disastrous transfer windows. If come
Tuesday night, Leeds fans are again feeling underwhelmed and bitter; I fear he
won’t have the chance to break yet another series of false promises, come the
summer.
To conclude by coming full circle, like Leeds United, I’ll
always love The Stone Roses, even if, almost inevitably they fail to meet up to
expectations in June. I guess as well as for the peerless music they produced
back in that era, it was the attitude, the philosophy they personified that
made them so special. ‘She Bangs The Drums’ remains THE requisite Roses track
of choice for me, nothing quite captured their essence like the magical line:
Kiss me where the
sun don’t shine,
The past was yours
but the future’s mine,
You’re out of time...
Oh, to have an Ian Brown in the Leeds United hot seat...
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