TheBrownBottle

Before 1997, West Ham had won more major trophies than Chelsea - and Leeds comfortably had won more. As Wolfcastle pointed out above, pre-Harding Chelsea were a club who had a glamours side in the early 70s and that was pretty much it for the entirety of football history.

Leeds were definitely considered bigger than Chelsea for the vast majority of the 20th Century

I want Arsenal to be made to work hard here. There’s comedy value to Chelsea getting beat, but Arsenal strolling to victory is less likely to have a negative effective on their performance this weekend

Lampard’s PPG average over his last half a season of PL games is worse than that Derby side from 07/08. That’s impressive going Tory boy

The only position of difference for me is when a co-commentator or pundit is expected to talk about the pressure of the situation etc and how that feels - and there’s a massive difference between the pressure levels of playing in front of a packed, baying stadium with millions more watching on TV and playing in front of a couple of thousand where the game will have little to no throughput elsewhere. Otherwise I don’t think there is any difference - Carney is full of shite, but then the vast majority of the male pundits are just as shite.

‘The Winston Bogarde of the Carpathians’

On that basis our history post-WWII doesn’t sound great tbh. I know where you’re saying in the original post, and there are some elements of what I wrote which are disputable in terms of how big they are (e.g. their ‘one club one city’ thing - always cited by Leeds supporters - isn’t the same as NUFC’s; we aren’t a rugby league city, but Leeds is a huge RL place). They’re a big club by my reckoning, in the same way that Villa, Everton and Sheff Wed are too - there’s around a dozen clubs in England that are ‘big clubs’ in my mind.

‘Don’t sign players off of World Cups’ has always been a truism, but Boehly is a grade A clown. Unproven players being signed for ludicrous fees - Mudryk was another. They might well come good, but there is enormous risk to signing players like that for the sort of money you pay for the proven finished article.

Most of the clubs on that list had around 30 years head start on them - they didn’t exist pre-WWI. They’ve spent the majority of seasons in the top division since then. For anyone my dad’s age, they were the biggest side in the country for several years. They get big crowds and are the only club in a (relatively) huge northern city. The list above should give some indication. They’ve played 500 fewer top flight games than West Ham but only got 150 fewer points. Look at their all-time GD. Traditionally when Leeds are in the top flight they’re a powerful side - football has changed so much in the past couple of decades that big crowds no longer mean much, though. Their relegation in 2004 saw them become a phrase - ‘doing a Leeds’. No-one talks about ‘doing a Stoke’ or ‘doing a Boro’. It’s the warning that even a massive club - if mismanaged as badly as Leeds were - can fall to pieces. I still hate the fuckers and tbf anyone under 30-ish will likely wonder what the fuss is about. But Leeds to me are a much bigger club than half the current clubs in the top flight.

Anyone who has been to a Leeds vs Newcastle match will confirm that the crowd are unlikely to be quiet Agree on everything else though

It’s probably absolute last chance for Southampton too - I know they’ve been written off but their GD isn’t that worse than anyone around them (and it’s the same as Forest’s) and a win would leave them three points from the drop. It’s obviously a forlorn hope for them but you never know

Only one game of course, but there wasn’t a player I watched there who I’d be clamouring for us to sign.

Wish we could relegate five clubs

Leeds are utter shite, but I think that will be the surprise game where we don’t win. There’ll be a hell of atmosphere down there, plenty of needle - and I think they’ll sneak a draw. I don’t think it will get to the last day though - Liverpool will drop points in one of those games minimum edit: hope we smash them though. I’m old enough to have an ingrained hatred for Leeds

Likewise - I’ll think we’ll take a point vs Arsenal. I also think we’ll drop two points vs Leeds and vs Brighton, and beat Leicester and Chelsea. So I’m projecting 74 points

Top four all qualify for the group stage. Which sadly means no chance of a Ketsbaia in Zagreb repeat, though happily it also means no Partizan Belgrade repeat.

Not a criticism of Lavia as a player, but I had no particular midfield-based worries yesterday, especially second half

The lad was literally an inch or so away from opening the scoring. I thought he looked canny yesterday - not perfect, but clearly he has talent and an engine. He’s at the right club with the right manager / coaching team to improve him over the coming months and years. The £40m price tag includes about £20m of ‘English premium’ - it might be worth remembering that UEFA has rules on HG players. You need local national team players in your club; we knew we weren’t signing the finished article - and if we knew, you can sure as shit guarantee Howe and Ashworth knew that too

This all feels like more of a return to how things should be to me - there’s nothing wrong with looking at the table and thinking ‘it’s not wrapped up yet’; but I feel little anxiety about it, and never used to in the 90s or early 00s either. Pressure on points when you’re shite and at the bottom is worse, because you can quite easily lose the next five games. For Liverpool to catch us would require something extraordinary from all concerned; is there a mathematical chance it can happen? Yeah, of course. Will it? It looks like a massive reach to me - these lads will finish the job now. We’re not even struggling over the line in games atm (Liverpool are, btw) - we’re flattening teams.

We’ve lost four times in thirty-three games - all to sides also in the top five. But we’ve been lucky that everyone just keeps having off days vs us!

Mag

Yeah, that got a belly laugh out of me - how the fuck he managed get that one so badly mixed up …

Brighton have Arsenal, Villa and us away and Man Utd and Man City at home in their run-in. Tbh if they can win all of those then fair play. Can’t see it.

3-0 the bastards have nicked our idea re hammering Spurs early

Fucking hell Spurs are a joke. Liverpool matching us in the first five mins