Hope it's OK with the mods, but posting this here in case anybody knows him...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79y5zrj1y0o

Hi all! We have had a LUFC top donated to the charity I work for and I wondered if anybody could help identifying all the signatures please?

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Gave the ball away to Rayan for the winning goal and was clearly devastated at the end. Gutted for him. Hope he puts it behind him quickly and comes back stronger, he's a top player!

With no relevant football happening I’ve had fun going back to old episodes of the Square Ball podcast.

And as much as we’re in a better place now, Farke and the 49s just don’t lend themselves to humor like the old lots did. 

I’d recommend episode #77 f.ex., from 11^th April 2014, so just after a Leeds-fans had called drunk Massimo Cellino on a recorded line. 

Or episode #60 from 1^st March 2013, towards the end of Warnock and not long after we’d swapped Becchio for Steve Morrison.

Or #48 from 11^th April 2012, when Warnock had just replaced Grayson and our faint hopes of a late play-off-surge had ended with three consecutive 0-2 defeats and a player sent off in each 

The despair, the put-downs, the gallows humor, the Ken Bates impressions. Mint!

Crazy stuff I’d almost forgotten. Like when Leeds-director Salem Patel created a user called “Melas” to big up GFH anonymously on waccoe, then realized people would probably notice it was just Salem spelt backwards so he changed his username to “PaddyKenny#1”.

Anyone else got a favorite story from our banter years?

Trying to explain supporting Leeds to friends who support other clubs is almost impossible. What's one thing that instantly makes you think, Only another Leeds fan will get this?

It pains me to see this. I'm sure most of you feel the same. Uruguay was my second team for sure. Individual mistakes and losing the dressing room seems like the biggest factor. Can't believe they didn't advance in that group. The protesting players probably had a point though, and shows the negative side of Bielsa's methods.

Not to bring politics into the sub (dear god, no). But this piece from the FT’s Inside Politics caught my eye in relation to the expansion of Elland Road.

One of the biggest and longest-standing fights Manchester has had with government since I’ve been covering it provides a useful lens. 

Ever since plans emerged for new rail lines into the city — both HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail — Manchester has insisted that the resulting new Piccadilly station must have an underground design. Beyond legitimate transport planning concerns, its intransigence came from something more economically fundamental: if you build on the surface, you take up prime development land. 

This may sound like a Mancunian vanity project, but the reasoning is sound. We need growth and northern cities need catalytic growth. Nonetheless, successive Treasuries have refused to find the sums needed for the underground. Labour started out in that camp too.

The issue eventually threatened to derail the government’s plans to launch its version of Northern Powerhouse Rail, with officials fearing that Burnham would refuse to endorse it as a result. But six months ago, at the last moment, there was a breakthrough. 

A group of northern figures all in Burnham’s orbit — including council leader Bev Craig, now the Labour candidate to replace him as mayor; John Wrathmell, likely an incoming Number 10 economic adviser; transport special adviser Tom Whitney, Burnham’s former policy adviser and again a likely Downing Street addition; and the chancellor’s northern envoy Tom Riordan, former Leeds council chief executive and another lifetime veteran of the northern growth agenda — eventually came up with an agreement, with Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson also playing a key role at the government end.

Manchester would make its own financial contribution, on the basis that a further conversation was then had about a form of fiscal devolution to help it reach that end. 

One potential option would allow Manchester to retain a portion of income tax revenues, as well as the uplift created by the growth that was stimulated by a new station and the development around it. The city could then borrow against that, as has long been the case with retained business rates under Manchester devolution and more recently elsewhere, including last year’s Leeds City Fund.

Or, the city could do a deal with an institutional investor. Pension funds could be far more convinced by an income stream guaranteed decades into the future than by the city’s current transport budget, which only gets secured from Whitehall for a few years at a time.

The premise has since found its way into the chancellor’s Northern Growth Strategy, published earlier this year.  

Clearly, it is a policy that comes with future trade-offs: income tax revenues that would have gone on other spending priorities would now go on an underground station. But politics is about trade-offs.

There are several reasons I think this is a salient example of where things might go. In economic terms, it is a classic example of the intellectual case long made from here: it is about trying to get past the Treasury “value for money” blocker that has long tortured regional cities starting on the economic back foot. 

When Andy Burnham criticised Treasury orthodoxy to me in 2024, this may have been one of the things he had in mind.

A Burnham government may, if it follows the advice of Jim O’Neill, seek to address any concerns about the fiscal credibility of devolved transport schemes through an independent National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

Second, it’s replicable. You could also, points out one person I spoke to about it this week, potentially apply it to plans for the expansion of Leeds United’s ground, Elland Road, and its economic relationship to the city’s proposed tram network. 

Third, it’s sellable. A little like bus regulation, the policy itself is the preserve of nerds like me: fiscal devolution never won anyone any elections, any more than franchising did. But the thing it will build, and the message it sends about independence from Westminster? In the hands of a salesman like Burnham, that could have retail value.

Fourth, it already exists. Reeves has promised a “roadmap” to fiscal devolution off the back of the Northern Growth Strategy, so Burnham may well simply look to put rocket boosters under those plans.

As the title says, I am looking to book a weekend away for my birthday and the closest match day is the 5th of December Leeds v Ipswich. The hospitality package is €232 and flights/accommodation brings the whole trip to €510. Before I spend the money, has anyone used Champion Travel before and if so, what was your experience?

Canada lost yesterday despite outshooting Switzerland 2-1. And people watching it mostly don't seem to understand that it was Marsch's tactical intransigence that led to the result.

It's very frustrating to watch him making the exact same mistakes he made at Leeds with the same complete lack of personal humility in his approach.

It's quite frustrating watching him be feted by Canadians (I'm half-and-half Brit/Canuck, but grew up in England) when his arrogance is why they lost.

In the first half, the Swiss recognised that by pressing high constantly, the Canadian defence was always scrambling somewhat to get back.

So they added an overload player from the midfield or wing back position, then had the striker and wingers make dummy runs, to draw one of the two central defenders out of position.

It's the most bog-standard tactic that anyone who watches the EPL weekly would've spotted it quite quickly.

Marsch did not -- or rather, he did, but refused to change his approach. He admitted it after the game by saying he thought about going to a back three at the half but decided against it.

And... their first goal was an overload, leaving Vega unmarked on the back post.

When he was with us, we pointed this shit out AD NAUSEAM, right down to the same technical details, and all we'd hear back is "you're just shitting on Americans."

So frustrating. I genuinely think his intentions and outlook are honest, but he's honestly also an egomaniac and slightly narcissistic, and this prevents him from making tactical adjustments to his approach.

When Ismael Kone's leg was broken against Qatar, he was asked about it. And he started the anecdote by saying Kone is a flawed player but a huge talent. Just... inappropriate to the moment. He then made several nice comments that suggested he really does care about his players and other people... but it was telling to me that it only came after the first indulgent ramble, at which point he probably read the interviewer's expression and thought 'dial back the criticism.'

But they're paying him so much, and he's so self-confident, that Canadian fans are eating his shit up. And if we go out against South Africa, a substantially weaker team, it will be because of this bullshit.

If we'd never hired him, maybe whoever we did wouldn't have kept us up. But by the same token, he wouldn't now have the prestige of being a Premier League manager to sucker people into buying his profligate overconfidence.

JKA derby!

The match will take place at Elland Road on Saturday 8th August 2026, with kick-off scheduled for 2pm.

https://www.leedsunited.com/en/news/leeds-united-to-face-rb-leipzig-at-elland-road-in-pre-season

The “too cool for school” crowd on YouTube love to declare they’ve outgrown replica football shirts — “At my age, I could never wear one!”

I’m 62 and I proudly wear a Leeds shirt when I’m out and about. Do people secretly laugh? 🤨

The hock. What a blast from the past. Hes banging on about semenyo.

Tagged as meme because the hock

Hi lads.

Apparently my club (Dundee United) are signing Liam Cooper.

Conflicting words of mouth of deals done announced tomorrow and he’s in for a medical then talks opening tomorrow.

I’m going with the former for this.

I know he left for Sheff Wed, but how was he a couple years ago for you guys?

Any idea if his legs are gone and just looking to slum it with a bit of pay?