Are Leeds landing the jackpot

It hasn’t been easy being involved with Leeds United for many years as a club with such a big following have had their problems in the past as a series of going into administration lead them to the foot of League one with a -15 point deduction.

Since 2007 when Leeds had to play in League one, it has all been good news for Leeds United... well on the pitch at least. The club are finally back competiting for promotion into the Premiership and under Neil Warnock they have the best possible chance of doing that.

Although the club have been doing well on the pitch off it there has been an ongoing saga as to why the manager isn’t getting the funds to buy a squad capable of making such a great club a success again.

There is no doubt Ken Bates has done a fantastic job over the years for Leeds, he has spear headed the revival of the Whites but recently he is idea of making a profitable business out of the club has cost him the respect he once had from the fans.

It has been a frustrating time for the fans as they have seen in previous seasons that Leeds haven’t quite had that added spark to get them into the Premiership, and that is because they haven’t had the money to spend on players when the big players in the team have left. The likes of Snodgrass, Gradel, Beckford, Howson and Johnson are all key players that have left over the years but the replacements haven’t.

However Mr Bates is currently in talks with new investors from Bahrain. The talks are reported to be in advanced stages as members of the Bahrain group who are looking to takeover the club witnessed the 2-1 home win against Nottingham Forest and they must have liked what they saw.

In hindsight I think Ken Bates and the Bahrain investors may have wanted the sale to go through for the August transfer deadline but it appears that come January Leeds may be very busy in the transfer window especially if they get the jackpot and have the new investors in place.

Comments

[Matt]

There is massive doubt over the job Mr Bates has done. Administration, 10 point deduction, threaten Leeds with Liquidation, 15 point deduction, dennis wise, three failed years in league 1, norwich's feeder club, most expensive season tickets outside the top four in the country, alienated fans, called us morons, lost court cases on the clubs tab for crazy vendettas against former directors .... need I go on? To quote Martin Oneill , "Ken Bates is a football cretin".

[Kev S]

bloody well said sir
Mr KB please leave by the nearest exit, if not someone might make a new exit for you.

[josh]

So Ken Bates has done a fantastic job if you call doing a fantastic job

1. The only reason the club made a profit was buy selling any player who anybody wanted a rock bottom price
2. Spending 4 million pounds in legal fees because of his personal attacks on ex members of the board.
3. Using loans taken out by the football club to pay for improvement to Elland Road which he owns
4. His attitude to anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him and speak out is that they are morons and idiots.

If you think that is doing a fantastic job I bet your boss is easy going

[David]

Who wrote this article!! Have they not seen or heard anything that Bates has put our club through. He was willing to risk the whole future of the club to ensure he owned it and it lead to us having a 15 point deduction. He has since wasted millions on court cases because he wanted to get back at someone, sold all our best players and called the fans morans,. Fantastic job my arse.

[Steve A]

Another cheap article written by a journalist who has done nothing but gone through the chairmans programme notes for research.

[AG Dubai]

It's interesting that there's no name attached to this article, I half suspect Ken's written it himself.
I would like to add to the facts added by other correspondents and draw the author's attention to the re-purchase facts as set out below.........
KPMG were appointed as administrators and within minutes of entering administration sold the club to Leeds United Football Club Limited, owned by Ken Bates, Shaun Harvey and Mark Taylor. On 1 June 2007 75.20% of the creditors voted in favour of Ken Bates' bid. With just minutes remaining of the 28 day period during which creditors could challenge the buyback by Ken Bates, HM Revenue & Customs lodged a formal challenge and the club was put up for sale again. After ‘due deliberation,’ on 11 July 2007 KPMG revealed that once again they had chosen Ken Bates' bid.
The league eventually sanctioned the sale to Bates without the club going through a CVA under the "exceptional circumstances rule", but imposed a 15 point deduction due to Leeds for not following football league rules on clubs exiting administration. On 31 August 2007 HMRC decided not to pursue their legal challenge any further, accepting Bates' final offer.
In conclusion, He was able to offer just 1p in the pound to purchase Leeds – and the CVA was approved by 75.2%, despite others offering more.
This was indeed a ‘fantastic’ job, sir.

[dr]

what a rubbish article