One Party Ends As Another Gets Ready To Start

If you’ve no idea what day of the week it is, there are a 101 jobs to do around the house that you’ve neglected for the last fortnight and you are actually quite sick of eating and drinking, then it must be time to go back to work after the Christmas and New Year break. 

By now you’ve taken the decorations down, shifted furniture back and exposed the true extent of the discarded Quality Street wrapper mountain the family has built up over the festive period. But time waits for no man, or woman. The build-up to Christmas might seem to last forever, and then the next week is gone in a flash and suddenly it’s all over and you’re hit by a shuddering reality. It’s now 2019 and it’s time to get moving again.

Turkey fatigue and chocolate lethargy must now be overcome as it’s time for action. And for Leeds United, the corner has been turned and we are on the home straight, with the ultimate prize at stake and very much in view. While there’s nothing like the clock ticking into injury time to focus Kemar Roofe’s mind, there’s nothing like the calendar year changing over to focus the team on the task ahead. 

It’s fair to say the majority of December couldn’t have gone much better. Five wins out of six made for a very profitable month, with the only blemish coming in the last game of 2018, a 2-0 home defeat to Hull City. Before that we enjoyed a succession of wins that really opened up some ground and highlighted Leeds as the genuine frontrunners of the division. 

We couldn’t complain about the selection of home games at the Old Peacock either. Three home games in December, all 3pm Kick-Offs and all 30,000-plus attendances. The pre-match atmosphere is always something special, but you can imagine what it was like post-game on Boxing Day, when fans drifted back into the pub minutes after Kemar Roofe’s dramatic late winner. It was a party that carried on well into the night and perfectly encapsulated the positive feeling there has been all season surrounding Leeds. 

To say this is a dramatic turnaround compared to the start of 2018 is a huge understatement. The second half of the 2017/18 season was a complete write-off and few Leeds fans entertained any hope of the kind of season we are currently experiencing. But then who could have predicted that Leeds would land Marcelo Bielsa as the new head coach and that his magic touch would galvanise the players so quickly?  

Nobody quite knew what to expect when Bielsa first took charge, and even now we are learning new things about his methods and seeing hidden depths to this squad’s capabilities. It really is an incredible thing to witness, and whatever happens, this season has been a lesson in what top class coaching and management can bring out of otherwise ordinary players.

As it stands, Leeds have just lost their first game of 2019 at Nottingham Forest, but we can take a well-earned breather from the relentless slog of the League safe in the knowledge that Leeds are still in first place. It’s the FA Cup this weekend coming and I’d wager there aren’t many Leeds fans with grand designs on a day out at Wembley. Our priority is very simple, and hopefully, as many players as possible can be rested against Queen’s Park Rangers and in readiness for the resumption of league hostilities.

That will be on Friday January 11^th, as our good friends at Sky Sports have endeavoured to move our only home fixture of the month to a Friday evening. But what a game it is! Against Derby County, one of the genuine contenders for promotion and always a fixture that has a little extra bite to it. The next home game after that is February 2^nd against Norwich City, a 5.30pm Kick-Off for what could be a critical fixture in the race for promotion.

As the end of the season draws nearer, it is hard to say how we are all going to cope with the tension and the unbearable gaps between games. Drink would seem the obvious answer, and we are certainly here to help – in moderation of course – but, as Leeds fans, we are fast approaching an unprecedented situation in modern times and we might want to start preparing ourselves mentally for the inevitable ups and downs, the despair and anguish, but hopefully, ultimately, the undiluted joy that May will bring.

The Christmas period has of course been a busy one for the pub generally. In between games we entertain plenty of works’ parties and family get-togethers over the festive season and the Spiced Mango has done a roaring trade as it opened on every day possible throughout December. We can’t thank everyone enough for supporting this new restaurant venture from the moment it opened in July 2018, and it seems we have already built up a healthy procession of returning customers.

So there’s plenty in store for 2019 and we would be more than happy to see a continuation of the second half of 2018. Plenty of goals, plenty of wins and plenty of happy customers. If Leeds enjoy the same run of form in the second half of the season as they have in the first, then they should be home and dry, and then the party really will get started. 

The Big Indecision

We’re currently in that difficult void between Summer and Winter where we don’t quite know what to do. One day you need the heating on and opt for the ‘big coat’ when taking the dog out, the next day you’ve got a bit of a sweat on when you automatically do the same, and actually “it’s quite mild for this time of year isn’t it?” When a population is as obsessed with the weather as we are it can cause mild panic when the weather is indecisive, and there are days when we’d much rather the temperatures plummeted for good and we knew exactly where we were.


Indecision is pretty much how we feel about Leeds United too. Most fans are in that difficult void wondering whether we are a good side or not. The league table suggests we are, but some performances indicate otherwise, and of course there is always that nagging paranoia digging away at our expectations and forcing us to presume that Leeds will fade away to mid-table as always.

However, while we might want the weather to make its mind up, I’m certainly not suggesting it would be better to know for certain that Leeds United are in fact rubbish, as we watch them plummet to their rightful position of 15^thand feel content that we know our place. The flipside is that Leeds could go on a ten-match winning streak and blow the division apart, but the reality is that this season in the Championship looks like a pretty even playing field, and it appears that Leeds might just do enough to stay in and around the top two until the business end. That doesn’t help us with our indecision but it does suggest that Leeds are no better or worse than a huge chunk of the division.

What we can definitely say is that Marcelo Bielsa has made this team a much more organised, committed and technically-adept unit than it was last season, and that’s why I think we’ll chisel away and pick up enough points over the course of the season to stay in the pack. So far it doesn’t look like anyone is going to run away and build up an impressive points gap at the top, so there is certainly an opportunity there for Leeds.

The search for consistency over the last month has been a frustrating one, but all the teams at the top can say the same thing. Leeds have salvaged points they richly deserved in some games, but also dropped points they really shouldn’t have, so it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. And certainly at Elland Road we’ve been left disappointed with some results and have witnessed a whole season’s worth of controversy in just two games.

October started with the visit of Brentford and one of the most inept refereeing displays you are ever likely to see. The argument goes that referees are only human and you can understand how some decisions go against you, but then the authorities haven’t helped Leeds either when given the opportunity to take retrospective action with the aid of video footage. Naturally, Brentford’s Sergi Canos got away with a blatant head butt clearly caught on camera, while Pontus Jansson was fined and suspended for his post-match comments about the referee. In fairness, Jansson was always going to face some form of punishment, but it is the consistency that baffles.

There is no doubting that Leeds benefitted from the incompetency of the officials against Nottingham Forest, however, and we can maybe agree that there isn’t a huge EFL conspiracy against Leeds after all. Kemar Roofe clearly scored the late equaliser with his arm and this wasn’t spotted by the officials, so we salvaged a point. Both games ended 1-1 and Leeds could make a legitimate claim that they should have won each of them, and the harsh truth is that we just didn’t have the firepower.

Unfortunately, that’s probably the main factor that prevents us calling Leeds a genuinely good side. There were moments against Ipswich Town, in the other home game we saw last month, where Leeds looked sublime, but Ipswich were a really poor side, and against better opposition Leeds have struggled. We really are missing injured players and a bit more creativity where it matters.

Still, Leeds are second in the table as I write, so we don’t have too much to moan about, except for the fact that our next home game is still three weeks away. Thanks to the fixture list sending us to Wigan Athletic and West Brom, and then yet another international break, we have to wait until Saturday 24^thfor the visit of Bristol City. Then, like buses, Reading come to Elland Road on the following Tuesday, 27^th.

The Peacock has certainly enjoyed some busy times this season, and it looks like crowds are going to remain at 30,000 or more. The 5.30pm Kick-Off against Forest made for a lively afternoon and the atmosphere built-up before everyone headed over the road to the ground was something pretty special, and as we head towards Christmas and the big games come thick and fast, we fully expect more raucous occasions like that.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on the new matchday food menu courtesy of the Spiced Mango, and also on the new matchday bars in the beer garden. We always try to fine tune things to make the experience better for everyone, so please let staff know if you have spotted something that can be improved.

Our restaurant partnership with the Spiced Mango continues to be the huge success we expected it to be. We even received an award recently when the restaurant was voted as one of the top ten curry houses in Yorkshire by Yorkshire Life and Living North magazines. The standards are fantastic and if you haven’t tried it out yet, make sure you pay us a visit and enjoy some amazing flavours of the east.

In the meantime, I’m pretty sure that the next time we meet the weather will definitely be cold enough to put the heating on, the big coat will be out when you venture down to Elland Road, and I’m even confident that Leeds United will still be in the mix for promotion, and because of the nature of the Championship, that’s regardless of whether we’re a good team or not.  

Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Good Times

It is possibly only football fans who aren’t sorry to see the end of summer. That undeniable nip in the air, the nights closing in much quicker and the light covering of dew on the lawn is a sure sign that September is here. The kids mumble and moan as they shuffle off back to school and people who don’t like football get on with whatever weird stuff it is they do. But for football fans September signals the pursuit into Autumn and Winter months and proper football weather, and it also sees the football season begin to take shape after a frantic start.

For Leeds United, too often September has signalled the slow realisation that nothing special is going to happen for another year, but that couldn’t be further from the truth this time around. The summer was yet another time of change, but there was an air of mystery and intrigue about what was happening at Elland Road, and the start of the season has put Leeds United front and centre of the football world as, not only the early leaders in the Championship, but the focus of one of the most explosive transformations media critics and fans alike have seen.

Marcelo Bielsa’s revolution has seen mediocre bottle-jobs emerge as marauding world-beaters, as largely the same team that failed miserably last season has acted out Bielsa’s blueprint to the letter. So far Leeds have faced four of the expected front runners in the Division and remain unbeaten after six games, in the meantime playing a standard of football no Leeds fan has witnessed since the Champions League era. Sharp passing, fluid movement, hard pressing, organisation and teamwork; it has been a breath-taking start to the season that sees Leeds top of the table as we enter into the first international break, and the team on everybody’s lips as Bielsa has brought exactly the level of spirit and imagination that everyone predicted.

At the Old Peacock, August passed by in a whirlwind and we were similarly blown away by the sheer pace and excitement of the first few weeks of the season. The summer heat quickly faded away, but nevertheless we saw three crowds over 30,000 and two midweek cup games also serving up a generous attendance. Before you knew it, summer had gone but it was impossible not to get swept away by the wave of optimism and now, for once, we don’t mind walking the dog in the dark and arguing about when to put the heating on, because when football is played like this, nothing else seems to matter and the real nitty gritty of the football season can’t come soon enough.

The question of course is; can Leeds maintain the pace this time around? A similarly encouraging start faded away in limp fashion this time last year, but Leeds look better conditioned physically and are definitely better prepared mentally this time around, while they are under the tutelage of one of the world’s most renowned coaches and these players might also just be a little wiser and more savvy for last season’s experiences.

Bielsa’s maverick approach has been refreshing and rewarding and it seems there’s plenty still to come with some of the new signings, big players like Pontus Jansson and players carrying injuries barely making an impression as yet. September sees international games make a swift but brief comeback and it is testament to Leeds’s start to the season that we have all quickly forgotten about England’s heroics in Russia over the summer.

The next month sees just the two home games at Elland Road with Preston North End visiting in midweek on the 18th and Birmingham City arriving just four days later for our only Saturday fixture in September. It allows us a little breather at the pub, but as Leeds fans, if we can enter the next international break in another six games’ time, still top of the table, it will definitely shut some of the doubters up.

We have received some great feedback from customers over our new matchday food menu, which of course has been delivered via our restaurant partnership with the Spiced Mango. Mo and his team are experts in serving up delicious Asian cuisine, and the first two months of their residency at the Peacock has been a resounding success, but the matchday operation is all completely new. While we have experienced some teething problems, the new menu has been received really well on the whole, but we are always happy to hear about anything you feel we can improve. It’s a delicate balance between providing something new but catering also for what people like and expect, and hopefully we are somewhere close to that. The same can be said for our new container bars in the beer garden. We hope they have improved the experience for everybody, relieved the stress of getting served inside and allowed those in the beer garden to get served quicker. But if there’s anything we can improve upon, just let us know.

Certainly the atmosphere at the pub for the home games so far has been pretty special, even by our normal standards. However Leeds are performing, the fans always love the buzz of the matchday experience and we are proud to play a huge part in that. But you can imagine how thirsty people have been over the last few weeks and it seems Leeds fans just can’t savour the Peacock atmosphere enough at the moment.

It’s great to see Leeds fans visit Elland Road at any time of course, and we have definitely seen an increase in people popping in during the week after visiting the new Superstore, or the brilliant Bremner Square redevelopment, or simply to buy tickets. The Peacock has always been an aspect of how visiting Leeds fans can pay homage in between matchdays, and it is great to feel that expectation and the draw of the place in better times. People just want to be at Elland Road right now, whatever day it is.

As ever, we hope to be of service in that respect. And certainly as the calendar months tick past we can only pray that the lads can keep this up and continue to rampage through the Division, because we will happily wave goodbye to the sunshine and say hello to the good times, when Leeds United give you a naturally warm, fuzzy feeling like this.  

New Season

There have been a lot of new beginnings at Leeds United in the last decade. Indeed it’s hard to recall the last new season that felt like a natural continuation of the previous one. Whether it’s ownership, the manager or the players, Leeds United is in a constant state of flux in the 21^stcentury; new faces, new ideas, new structure, but the same direction. Well, that’s no direction at all actually, simply standing still.

And of course we have seen change once again this summer. Except that this does feel a little bit different. Not only have Leeds appointed one of the world’s most renowned coaches, but the better players from last season have been retained and the new players added have for once represented quality rather than quantity.

It does look from our close vantage point over the road that the club has adopted a measured patience in their pursuit of manager and players this summer, and this has led to a more considered refinement of what went wrong last season, rather than ripping everything up, ransacking the coaching structure and implementing yet another round of wholesale change. In that respect, as the new season approaches rapidly, things feel different but a bit more ‘in control’, and that can only be a good thing.

All that said, of course there was an uncomfortable sense of familiarity about the team that started against Las Palmas, in the final pre-season friendly at Elland Road last Sunday. At the Old Peacock we had opened our doors to the thirsty hordes once again, and introduced some changes of our own, but on the pitch over the road, things looked pretty much the same.

Marcelo Bielsa started with eleven players who had all been here last season, and who had all disappointed to varying degrees in a campaign that flattered to deceive and had painfully familiar ending dragged out over the final three months. While the players looked sharp and organised, many of the same traits and problems existed, and it was only until some new arrivals were introduced in the second half that you could begin to see some progress from the hours of hard graft undertaken at Thorp Arch during the recent heatwave. 

  

And since then we have seen more new arrivals. While Leeds fans have long since held the loan system in contempt, that is usually because the club has used it in ill-considered desperation or as a cheap option. This summer we have taken well regarded youngsters from Chelsea and Manchester City who on an individual basis will all improve the first team and are all better players than those they have replaced. Jamal Blackman, Lewis Baker and Jack Harrison are the three loanees so far and it already appears that they will bring much more to the team than the players Leeds have unceremoniously shipped out this summer.

Meanwhile, Leeds have also spent a cool £10million on two key signings in positions that we have been traditionally weak, and you can already sense a buzz from the immediate impact they are likely to make. Left-back Barry Douglas was one of the most important players to Wolverhampton Wanderers as they waltzed to the Championship title last season, and quite how Leeds managed to tempt him away for only £3million still baffles me today.

Likewise, striker Patrick Bamford became a key player at Middlesbrough last season and many of their fans were dismayed to see Leeds snap him up for £7million this week. Bamford arrives in much the scenario as Chris Wood did a few years ago. A highly rated striker who has proved he can hit goals at this level, but who has suffered from being farmed out on numerous loans. Chris Wood definitely found a home at Leeds United and it is to be hoped that Bamford flourishes in similar fashion from being given the number 9 shirt and from the trust being shown in him as the ‘main man’.

 

Of course, the difference we need to see is that Leeds progress at the same rate that Bamford does. We don’t want to see yet another big name sold off to the Premier League while Leeds continue to flounder in the second tier. And with things slowly coming together before Sunday’s big Kick-Off against Stoke City at Elland Road, there is definitely plenty to be optimistic about, even if Leeds fans are too savvy and battle-weary to get carried away again.

It seems Leeds might still be looking to do some transfer business in the final few days of the transfer window, and if we can add some more quality to a couple of weak spots – we still look light of options upfront and in central defence – then you have to conclude this is the best summer transfer window we have seen in a long time. And after a frustrating summer of waiting for the club to land some players, everything is now building up nicely to the new season.

Sunday’s opening game against Stoke City is something we have been building up to at the Old Peacock ever since the fixtures were released back in June. Every summer we look at the huge operation that is a matchday at Elland Road and try to find ways we can improve things. The problems are usually obvious; we just can’t serve beer quick enough. But having invested in the marquee a couple of years ago we have this summer installed two more outside bars in the beer garden, to better utilise the space available to us and to provide more beer pumps to hopefully get people served quicker and more often.

You will also no doubt be aware of our new restaurant partnership with the Spiced Mango. This began in July and has so far been a huge success. The guys at the Spiced Mango are also undertaking the matchday food operation and while they are serving up some of their delicious Asian delicacies, in Sheek Kebab wraps and Chicken Tikka wraps, they are also ensuring there is something for everyone, with cheeseburgers and fries also on the agenda.

With the Spiced Mango partnership we are looking to offer something different, and that extends to matchday too. We feel that football fans get short changed with the limited offerings at football stadiums, and hopefully we are breaking ground in that respect.

So Sunday is going to be a huge day, with a late afternoon Kick-Off and a big crowd expected. And August continues apace, with Bolton coming to Elland Road in the League Cup on Tuesday 14^th, Rotherham on Saturday 18^thand Middlesbrough on Friday 31^st.

There’s nothing like the start of the season to whet the appetite at the Old Peacock, and while a lot of things might feel the same, there’s also a lot of difference. So look around, experience it and enjoy it, because this new beginning might just be the real deal. 

Welcoming A New Culinary Era to Elland Road

When something feels right, it is often hard to describe why. You can dissect the most beautiful relationships, trying to work out the reasons why it works, but it usually leads you nowhere. Like Lennon & McCartney, Fred & Ginger or Bremner & Giles, there’s an undefinable magic sometimes that might look unlikely on the outside, so you would be advised to just sit back and enjoy it. 

There is something of that ‘stars aligning’ symbiosis about the partnership of Ossett Brewery and the Spiced Mango restaurant at Middlestown; a serendipitous ‘happy accident’ and a relationship that has grown naturally to bear wonderful fruit, rather than being a structured outcome from the minutes of an impersonal business meeting. 

Mohammad Ali, or Mo for short, is the owner of the Spiced Mango and he has built the business up over the last five years, since taking a redundancy package from his IT job and deciding to take the plunge and realise his dream in the restaurant business. Jamie Lawson, MD of Ossett Brewery, was a regular customer at the restaurant and their relationship grew from a mutual love of good food and good company. Pretty soon it became clear that the two should work together, but this was no unit-shifting corporate strategy, just a desire to follow a path that felt right and could continue the wholesome and natural image that both organisations hold great value in.

“Jamie was a customer at the restaurant,” Mo begins “and we’ve been talking for about 18 months about doing something. We provided the food for a special Curry Night at the Flowerpot in Mirfield last August, and that went really well, so the conversations just went from there.”

The partnership with the Old Peacock, which begins on July 13^thafter a three-week re-fit of the kitchens at the famous Elland Road pub, is the first venture of its kind for the Spiced Mango and they aren’t planning to stray too far from what has been a winning formula at their Middlestown restaurant.

Converted from the White Swan pub, the Spiced Mango has become one of the most successful Indian restaurants in the West Yorkshire area, winning a ‘Certificate of Excellence’ award from Trip Advisor for its consistently great reviews. And consistency is the key to the partnership with the Old Peacock, with Mo taking nine staff members and exactly the same menu with him to the Peacock’s kitchen, which is actually twice the size of the one at his Middlestown restaurant. So there’s really no excuse not to recreate the same magic down in LS11.

A major factor in the discussions that led to the Old Peacock’s exciting new partnership with the Spiced Mango, was the pub’s identity as a famous landmark in the matchday traditions for generations of Leeds United fans. Mo won’t profess to being a Leeds fan, but he has ‘Leeds United sympathies’ through his father. However, it was made very clear that matchdays are a huge part of the Peacock’s business model and Mo has built that into the project the Spiced Mango are delivering.

“I came to the pub for the recent England game,” Mo continues “so I know how busy it gets and how demanding the fans are. But in my opinion food delivered to football fans all over the country has traditionally been pretty standard with little imagination. They are a captive audience, and like motorway service stations, you have no choice but to buy what’s on offer and pay the prices. So we wanted to offer something completely different and with a bit more quality. We will be offering Chicken Tikka wraps, Seekh Kebab wraps and Biryani Rice boxes, which will be both chicken and vegetable.”

So Leeds fans flooding through the Peacock’s doors from August are in for a treat, and as if the pre-match build-up couldn’t get any better, they will now enjoy an Indian feast to go with their beer, live music and the amazing atmosphere that Leeds fans create.

The clock is now ticking towards the grand re-opening of the Spiced Mango at the Old Peacock on Friday July 13^thand with minimal internal décor changes, the concentration is on getting the kitchen fitted. All the equipment has been delivered, including a traditional tandoori oven, and everything will be in place for the big day.

Naturally Mo is excited at the prospect of what will happen with the Peacock partnership, but he is not used to the big build-up: “At the Middlestown restaurant we didn’t do any marketing at all,” he explains “we just wanted to perfect what we were doing and then let the food speak for itself. I believe we serve good quality, honest food and our success has come from studying best practice and learning from others.”

Certainly the stage is set for Mo and the Spiced Mango to make an impact in LS11. With no Indian restaurant in the area, there is an opportunity for a culinary revolution to hit Elland Road and for the Old Peacock to lead the charge into a new era. And with consistency at the heart of the Spiced Mango’s success story, there is every reason to believe that this new partnership with the Old Peacock will have people flooding to Elland Road, not just to walk in the footsteps of Charles, Bremner, Strachan and Viduka, but to sample the finest Indian cuisine in Leeds.     

Shaking Off The Autumn Blues

Funny old business football. This time last month Leeds United hadn’t won a home game, and yet we were all super positive and excited, like Santa had arrived and the in-laws had just announced they weren’t coming after all. Leeds then proceeded to win all three home games in September and went top of the league in the process, and yet by the end of the month we are sat solemnly staring out of the window contemplating whether we should jump straight through it. And yet we are still fifth in the table.

The nature of the despondency, though, is not just the polar opposite form the club is showing in the last few games, or even the slow creeping realisation that maybe we aren’t as good as we thought we were, but mainly the paralysing fear that we are still stuck in the murky abyss of being a mid-table team with no clear plan or idea as to how to get out of there. I am here to wholeheartedly confirm that is not the case, however, having witnessed the last 15 years so closely that I have seen the whites of its eyes and suffered its ungodly body odour, I can sympathise with those who cannot shake this interminable worry.  

Yes, despite winning all three home games in September, Leeds United also thrust upon us the bothersome inconvenience of losing the last three away games. Sandwiched in the middle, we shouldn’t forget, was the epic League Cup win at Burnley, where a much-changed side fought hard in a tight game against Premier League opponents, and then won the game on penalties after having twice looked like winning in the last crazy ten minutes of normal time. This, we thought, was the shape of things to come, and a clear sign that we could step up and match a quality side as and when we needed to. It was also the perfect response to our first defeat of the season at Millwall, a result so depressingly predictable but one that you could put down to the ‘unique’ occasion that a visit to Millwall is, and hence something you hoped to dismiss as a one-off.

The step up in quality we appeared to match at Burnley we hoped to also navigate in the games versus Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday, but those results were comprehensive reminders that we are far from the finished article. Whatever could go wrong in those games did so; injuries, sending offs, kamikaze defending and a goalkeeper, about whom the jury was previously still out, confirming that he has a lot to learn in the game. That said, it is hard to find a part of the team that isn’t left open to criticism after the last two games, and of course the manager is there to be shot at too. But a little perspective is needed at this juncture I feel, and while the last international break came at a frustrating time for Leeds, having just beaten Nottingham Forest 2-0 and gained some considerable momentum, this one gives us chance to lick our wounds in the sanctuary of Thorp Arch, and work out a strategy to return to our former, if fleeting, greatness.

We shouldn’t forget that September included the thoroughly brutal destruction of Burton Albion, a display so overwhelmingly one-sided and ‘complete’ it looked like it had been designed by a FIFA 17 maestro. The home wins against Birmingham City and Ipswich Town were far harder work, but showed some excellent qualities and overall it bore well for the rest of the season. Just over a week later and we’re back in a familiar routine; arranging a viewing for 15^th place and being fitted out with a zero goal difference again, just like old times.

The key is, of course, that we have the personnel at the club to do great things. We’ve already seen it. What we have to do is work out an adaptable system for certain games, and have the know-how to be able to navigate tricky periods, or tricky fixtures as a whole. It is as much about having a specific mindset as anything else, particularly at places like Millwall and Cardiff City, but it is also about being able to change your system to suit specific games, and while it is admirable to stick to certain principals, especially when they are very attractive looking ones, the mark of a great side is knowing when to approach a game differently, ie. when to play and when to pitch in and battle.

It was very easy to get carried away after the Burton performance, but equally we need to sit tight and not get too downhearted now. It is true that Thomas Christiansen is new to this league and a relative novice as a football coach in general, but he is an intelligent, studious man, and is backed by a team of professional coaches and analysts of football and the next two weeks should give them ample time to spot where Leeds are going wrong. There isn’t one specific answer, but every game is a learning experience and hopefully the management team are taking something from each one that will help us further down the line.

October at first glance looks quite sparse with home fixtures. There are no games now until the 14^th, when Reading are the visitors to Elland Road, before away games at Bristol City and Leicester City in the League Cup, but then the month is rounded off with two home games right at the end. Sheffield United visit on Friday 27^th October before we entertain Derby County on Tuesday 31^st October. Just one Saturday afternoon fixture is a bit of a blow, but we are doing our best to make the Friday night fixture against Sheffield United a traditional party occasion. From 5pm, we will have our new BBQ food available as we have started doing for all midweek fixtures, but we will also have our resident band The Snapp playing live in the beer garden from 6pm, a rare privilege usually only reserved for Saturday afternoons. With it being half term week, and a Friday night, we felt people might have a bit more time to get to Elland Road and would also be in more of a ‘weekend’ mood than a ‘midweek’ mood, so hell, let’s pretend it’s a Saturday!  

And hopefully by then we will have shaken off the Autumn blues we are suffering after the Sheffield Wednesday game. So keep faith, remember the good times that weren’t so long ago, and let’s get behind the lads as they seek to find that form again.

   

Riding the changes

The beginning of August is a unique period of a football fan’s calendar. Not because we can entertain the prospect of possibly going to a match in short sleeves and maybe even shorts, and not because we can walk down to Elland Road for an evening game in daylight and eat our pre-match burger as if we were back on holiday in a Mediterranean street café. Or something like that. No, it’s because every football fan starts the season with a clean slate and an often over-sized chunk of optimism for the next nine months. Our team has a record unsullied by defeats, goals conceded and woeful open-goal misses, and we feel good about that.

We all feel that somehow this is going to be our year, even if, as has happened often with Leeds United in the last few years, the reality of the squad of players assembled together before you like a patchwork quilt, screams otherwise. And that is pretty much where us Leeds United fans are right now, except we have just a little bit more optimism than we usually have, partly based on the fact that the 2016/17 season was the first campaign in what seemed like an eternity, to give us tangible belief that we might one day escape the tedium of the second division. But also because our summer recruitment has been pretty solid and inspiring. While there are still sizeable holes in our squad which could still be addressed before the end of the transfer window, on the whole we have a first team pool that has more quality options than it has done for many, many years.

It seems a long time since the unknown Thomas Christiansen first walked amongst us like a novice sales rep at his first annual conference, and it is to be hoped that his time has been used wisely. The prospect of making an impact on Leeds United in a short space of time can be a daunting one, even if you have the years of experience or the hide of a rhino like a Sam Allardyce or, dare I say it, a Neil Warnock. For Christiansen, he needs to first earn the respect of a set of players who have literally never heard of him, and then implement methods and a mentality that will make them a better set of players than the one that finished narrowly outside the play-off places last season. That’s a tough ask, even if you have comparable experiences to draw upon, and it’s fair to say that Christiansen needs a huge amount of uncontrollable factors to fall in his favour. But one thing Leeds fans can control and where we can help him out, is by allowing him a little patience and lowering his immediate expectations.

Of course it is the familiar trait of a football fan to expect your team to come racing out of the blocks at the start of the season, and immediately shrug off the shackles of a non-competitive summer like a hibernating groundhog unleashing itself on another year. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work out like that, and we seem to accept the fact that footballers effectively forget how to play the game in the six weeks they have off between one season and another, and it takes a few weeks to get back up to speed. Add to that the hefty turnover of players and the annual implementation of new coaching methods, and it’s fair to say that the first month of the season is rarely a good indication of how the season as a whole will go, and that is very much how last season started off under Garry Monk. Twelve months on we are in a very similar situation, except that we have the optimism of new ownership and a raft of crowd-pleasing measures, plus the very unfamiliar scenario of having purchased players that other clubs actually wanted to buy too, but instead they chose Leeds.

It is that feeling of actually competing with other clubs in our own division, beating them to players, and acting like a big club again that provides a warm fuzzy feeling as the new season approaches. Off the pitch, in the stands, the Leeds fans have never wavered, and have remained a constant reminder of the potential Leeds United has; the one ingredient of the club that is always there to project an image of a fully-functioning travelling behemoth, even if in the background there has been chaos, financial thrift and a wafer-thin infrastructure. And at the Old Peacock we are fully aware of that.

That feeling of unbridled optimism every Leeds fan feels in August, is pretty much what we see every matchday as soon as we open our doors. The buzz of anticipation prior to kick-off at any stage of the season is evident in the thirst and hunger with which you lot approach every game; there’s nothing like the prospect of another 90 minutes, and whatever your thoughts on the current state of the team and the club, every match starts 0-0 and you just never know what might happen; except that Gaetano Berardi almost certainly won’t score.

But the feeling at the start of another 46-game season magnifies this tenfold, particularly when the club has not just bought the likes of Vurnon Anita, Samuel Saiz, Ezgjan Alioski and Caleb Ekuban, but has also spent a pretty penny on securing Elland Road after it has spent 13 years under anonymous and murky ownership. And what’s more, at the Peacock we will have our regular live band, The Snapp, back for every Saturday home game, new food options, Paolo the Peacock to keep the kids occupied and another development to help cut the matchday beer queues a little bit; two pint pots! Why just buy one pint per visit when you can save time and buy two? It’s a simple concept and something we have introduced to hopefully get people served a little quicker this season.

So the new season is upon us, and we have a rush of home games before another long and miserable break until September. We had a small taster of what’s to come with the home friendly versus Oxford United last Saturday, but that was mere child’s play. Including the League Cup, we have three home games in less than a week coming up shortly, so it is a baptism of fire in terms of breaking in the new season. Port Vale will be welcomed to Elland Road on Wednesday 9^th August for a League Cup tie, and Preston North End are our first league visitors on Saturday 12^th August when we are expecting a big crowd approaching 30,000. The following Tuesday 15^th August our visitors are Fulham, but then we have a break until September 9^th.  And by then, maybe we will need it?

This new season enthusiasm creates a hell of a thirst if the past few years is anything to go by. But we’re not complaining and we can’t wait to see the pub bursting at the seams again, it’s been too long. And it’s been way too long since Leeds fans have had genuine reasons for optimism leading into another Championship campaign, but right now I think we do. So let’s navigate this first month, stay strong and focused and not get too carried away with results either way, and re-group again in September to see where we are.  

Fighting Back

A month is a long time in football, even in June when there’s usually nothing happening. Except at Leeds United, when it’s never safe to turn your phone off and go to sleep at 11pm in case we sack someone, hire someone or redefine legal precedent in some bizarre way. One month ago we were all in a pretty dark place; asking ourselves why Garry Monk didn’t want us anymore and feeling pretty vulnerable and apprehensive about what the future held. Since then we have learnt a lot, and most of it good.

It’s safe to say that Thomas Christiansen could have walked into the Peacock a month ago and ordered a pint of Yorkshire Blonde and nobody would have batted an eyelid. Even now most people would maybe afford him only a second glance as he sat down with his family for Steak Night, and dismiss him as somebody who had sold them a fitted kitchen package from B&Q a couple of years ago. He has a face we recognise, but is not yet someone we can immediately identify.

That’s the beauty of arriving on the scene in the close season I guess, and I expect it is also just the way he likes it. Leeds United’s new head coach, Thomas Christiansen doesn’t strike me as someone who is going to steal the limelight and hang around waiting for attention, he’s happy to be quietly going about his business and getting to know his squad on the training pitch. But when the season starts, he is certainly someone we are going to see a lot of. It’s the nature of being a high profile part of Leeds United and let’s just hope he has done his homework and knows that to expect from the media’s glare. The frenzy of activity upon his unveiling will be nothing compared to the attention before, during and after every Leeds United game, such is the hunger for every last detail, and if Leeds United start doing well……………

It was hard not to feel a little bemused by Christiansen’s unveiling. Literally nobody can claim to have been aware of him and his track record. We all had to undertake a swift Google search upon hearing the news. But his pedigree is decent and he is a credible appointment, if a little leftfield, but certainly with no Championship coaching experience, he will need a lot of things on his side. What is encouraging is that Christiansen will have an insatiable hunger for the job. He is well thought of and highly respected in football and this is his first big job. At 44 years old, he has something to prove, a challenge to face and a name to make for himself. When you consider some of the other names that were linked with the job: Alan Pardew, Nigel Pearson, Juande Ramos, even Claudio Ranieri, while they have a lot more coaching experience, you sensed being appointed as Leeds manager would have been ‘just another job’ to them. There is a huge merry-go-round of managers who simply skip from job to job and never stay long enough to make an impression; just pick up a sizeable pay cheque based on past reputation. With Christiansen, we almost have a blank sheet of paper and he can write his own history.

So far squad recruitment has been encouraging and the calibre of players Leeds are being linked with is a notch up from previously, but there are still big holes in our squad and a lot of hard work is required behind the scenes if we are to approach the first game of the season with confidence.  And that first game is creeping ever nearer. Fixtures release day is always an exciting one at the Peacock as we await news on when we can expect the first mass influx of Leeds fans through the doors since last May. There is a friendly fixture v Oxford United at Elland Road on July 29^th of course, but that will be like a day in Kindergarten compared to the cacophonous sensory overload that is a proper full-on Leeds United matchday. That day will be Saturday August 12^th when Preston North End are our visitors, while the following Tuesday (August 15^th) we welcome Fulham to Elland Road. Before you know it we will be right back in the groove, with a sea of happy faces, a landscape filled with yellow, white and blue, live music pumping out of our beer garden and happy revellers dancing off to the ground with a happy expectation of three points for the Whites.

Of course we couldn’t let this blog post pass without mentioning the other seismic announcement coming out of Leeds United in the last few days. This was something that went far beyond hiring another manager, or buying a player, or releasing another new all-white home kit that was ever-so-slightly different to the previous one. This was something that brought the very fabric of the club back under its own control, something that put the heart and soul back into Leeds United, and something that all three previous owners had promised to do but not got anywhere nearer than simply making empty promises in the media. This was something that made Leeds United whole again; after 13 years in the hands of an anonymous owner, Elland Road was back under the ownership of Leeds United.

It was an emotional day for all sorts of reasons. This news was about more than just bricks and mortar; it was righting some wrongs and making our house our home again. It was a bold move of Andrea Radrizzani to announce his intention to buy back the stadium so early in his tenure. We have been burned before in exactly the same way and his reign was open to irreversible ridicule if he fell short of his promise, which he will have known, and this is why I was quite confident he would come up with the goods.

Whatever happens now, Radrizzani has delivered something significant that no other recent owner could do, and it has instantly made the club stronger, both financially and structurally. It has also bought him some time and some patience from Leeds fans who can maybe see the bigger picture, and sense where the club is now heading. It’s true that nobody wanted Garry Monk to leave after the progress seen last season, and we were dealt a blow. But events since then have been a fantastic response and now Leeds United are looking lean and mean; fighting fit and fighting back. So let’s keep building in July and by the time August comes into view we expect to see Leeds United very much in the same state as our pub; ready to explode into action.

       

Not really ready for summer

Hey! Summer’s here! It’s great; wall-to-wall sunshine, Saturday afternoons in the beer garden, barbecues at home with friends and family and endless late nights where it never seems to get dark. But…..hang on, you’re still thinking about the nine months of biting wind and rain and the hard slog that we call the football season aren’t you? And let’s not kid ourselves, we don’t really care too much about summer right now because we are stuck in a sense of interminable doom brought about by Leeds United’s late season slide out of the play-off zone. Too soon to think about holidays and al fresco dining on the decking of an evening? Yeah, probably. We’re still thinking about Burton away and that injury time equaliser conceded at Fulham and how Reading have managed to stay in the top six and well, um, erm…..yeah.

So it’s over for another season and Leeds United have done yet another impossibly ‘Leeds United’ thing; raised hopes out of nothing, delivered some scintillating afternoons and evenings and then let us down at the end, like a jilted bride left high and dry at the altar.

At times like this, we could console ourselves with the fact that there is a 75% chance this sense of crushing despair would hit us 100 times harder in a few weeks, as only one team out of four can prosper through the play-offs system. There is a tendency to forget the odds are stacked against you, and people call the play-offs a ‘lottery’ because that is pretty close to what they are. Right now though, we would gladly sell a limb for the opportunity to chuck our ticket into the pot and line-up in the tension-filled, nerve-shredding vortex of potential calamity that makes up the play-offs, even in the knowledge that anguish and pain is more likely than not to arrive on your doorstep at some point, be it in the two-legged semi-final or at Wembley Stadium in the final.

But let’s face it, we’d rather take the chance. We had all started making plans of some sort and had dropped some pretty subtle hints to our other halves that we would be disappearing for a long weekend at the end of May, and we had started drip feeding funds into a large pot to cover the enormous cost of a Play-Off Final weekend. But it’s not to be, that £500 can be put to better use and those brownie points can be saved for something that does actually happen. Leeds United’s season is over.

Of course, we should remind ourselves that this season has been beyond all our expectations, looking at the squad and another new management team walking into the unknown back in August. Few people predicted anything other than another arduous nine month battle to stay anchored in mid-table. That we have enjoyed countless exhilarating games at Elland Road and on the road this season is testament to the amazing job manager Garry Monk and his coaching staff have done, and while we can get frustrated that we perhaps didn’t do enough in the January transfer window, and that with eight games to go we were in a very strong position, a seventh-placed finish shows incredible progress from last season, and notwithstanding the shattering late loss of form, ‘progress’ is all we ever wanted to see this season.

At the Old Peacock we are used to the big crowds before Kick-Off of course, but on many occasions the atmosphere has been just as vibrant after the games too. We are conditioned to seeing fans flowing back in with sullen faces and muttering obscenities about another Leeds defeat, but this season there has been a natural buoyancy all day and all night, which we would love to bottle and sell for you to take home. But I guess, it is unmistakably the Old Peacock. We think back to home wins over Barnsley, Aston Villa and Derby, and then Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton and Preston and these were special occasions that we hadn’t seen in a long time. Happy faces, genuine pride in the team and the club, and essentially, a belief that ‘something’ was happening again at Elland Road. It is important that we remember those occasions whilst we feast on the disappointment of missing out on the play-offs, and if the club do the right thing over the summer, hopefully this is just the start.

Naturally, with Leeds United, that is a big ‘if’. But the overriding hope now is that the club is more settled, there are full takeover plans in place and with a more stable ownership structure only good things can happen; and that means keeping Garry Monk for next season and beyond and making the most of the progress we have undoubtedly made this season.

As I write there is just one game left in the 2016/17 campaign, away at Wigan Athletic; a dead rubber of a game, with Leeds needing to win 13-0 (and rely on Fulham losing) and Wigan already relegated. We should be thankful that there has only been one meaningless game this season, when usually that is the case from January onwards, but certainly Leeds fans have had a taste of what actually competing for promotion feels like and we all want more, so it is up to the club to manage the summer in the right way, and to bring us back in August with a genuine feeling of optimism.

For our part, we would like to thank our loyal, dedicated and extremely patient staff, who we think do an amazing job in very challenging circumstances on matchdays. Each Elland Road game involves an enormous amount of planning and we think we have got it just about right. We will make improvements for next season, just like Garry Monk and the team will, and we hope to see you again in August, if not during the close season when our quality food menus continue and you can sample the unique Old Peacock atmosphere seven days a week. But on that note we also want to thank you our loyal customers for your unstinting thirst during this and many other seasons. Chin up, we will all be back in August and we will start again afresh. Keep marching on together and enjoy the close season, from everyone at the Old Peacock.  

Seasons Change

Upon certain moments, seasons change. Kyle Bartley’s last minute header at home to Brentford, Ronaldo Vieira’s long distance winner away at Norwich, maybe Chris Wood’s late overhead kick back in August against Fulham. They all instilled belief in individuals and the team as a whole, and played a big part in this season turning out like it has. At the other end of the scale we could point to Reading’s winner last Saturday, a poor performance in the 2-0 defeat to Brentford this week or the decision to drop Pontus Jansson against Brighton and the potential fallout from that, as reasons why Leeds won’t get automatic promotion and may fail in the lottery of the play-offs. But we don’t really want to think about that right now, do we? Plus, it’s all conjecture anyway while we don’t know the conclusion to the captivating joyride of season 2016/17.

At the Old Peacock seasons are changing for us too. The sun has a bit more warmth in it, the trees have some colour and our beer garden is looking more alluring and a bit more invigorated with life. While the sheer number of Leeds fans that converge on the pub on matchdays means an overspill outside is inevitable, whatever the weather, it is always nice to see the sun shining and the odd customer venturing outside during the week and on non-matchday weekends. We are blessed with plenty of space on our much-treasured patch of LS11 and it is great when we can use it a bit more.

For Leeds United the term ‘seasons change’ refers also to the bigger picture. Not many Leeds fans would admit to having predicted this season would play out the way it has. Garry Monk was always a great appointment in the context of the other managers the club were seen to be approaching last summer, but with meagre resources at his disposal and a number of low-key punts in the transfer market, nobody was expecting too much other than another hard slog towards maintaining our birth right of 15^th place in the Championship table.

What has happened since has reawakened the club in terms of attendances, expectancy and excitement, and has elicited this strange new phenomena; being interested in the league table after February, and not only that, taking a vested interest in the play-offs rather than looking on green with envy at them, like a party we are never invited to. Suffice to say, this time next month we will be about to play our last regular season game at Wigan Athletic and we should have a pretty good idea who we are likely to be playing in the high drama of the Play-Off Semi-Finals, assuming of course that we can hold onto the top six spot that has been ours since October.

Standing between Leeds United and a certain play-off spot are six remaining games which will shape the club’s destiny and play a significant role in whether this truly is a season of change. Three of these are away games at Newcastle United on Good Friday, at Burton Albion on 22^nd April and the final game of the 46-match Championship campaign at Wigan on 7^th May. The other games are the three remaining home games that all reside in April and all now carry major significance.

First up we have Preston North End this Saturday 8^th April, followed by Wolverhampton Wanderers on Easter Monday and finally Norwich City on 29^th April. The smart money says that if Leeds win those three home games then they should be safe in the play-offs, but depending on other results, the odd win on the road certainly won’t do us any harm. What we can be assured of is three more mammoth occasions at Elland Road, most likely drawing in crowds in excess of 30,000 once again, and all being well, these will culminate in a Play-Off Semi-Final at Elland Road. So let’s hope that we will be seeing each other again – over the bar, in the beer garden or in the marquee outside - in May.

Another huge change for our parent company Ossett Brewery is going on down at Granary Wharf in Leeds at the moment. Over the last couple of years this area has changed considerably, and the extra pedestrian traffic created by the £20m invested in the Leeds rail station southern entrance, which opened in 2016, has been a major factor in the success of the three bars operated by Ossett Brewery in that area; The Hop, Archie’s and the Candlebar. Another part of that success has been the standard of food offered, with the Candlebar in particular taking the plaudits for the quality of the stone baked pizzas coming out of its wood fired oven. Over the years, however, Ossett Brewery haven’t been known for resting on their laurels, and the success of the Old Peacock shows how wise they were to invest heavily in this iconic pub in 2013. Now, a new era of culinary experiences is coming to Granary Wharf, as the wood fired oven is being transferred to Archie’s so pizza fans won’t be denied their regular fix, while a food revolution is taking place at the Candlebar.

April sees the launch of ‘edo sushi’ at the Candlebar; a unique partnership of quality craft and cask ales with fresh and authentic Japanese cuisine. Ossett Brewery are introducing Japanese chef Tomonori Hasegawa to the Leeds public in a bold move to push the culinary barometer up a couple of notches, and we are confident the tranquil and high quality surroundings of Granary Wharf will embrace the fresh, light and aromatic delights that will be emanating from the Candlebar’s kitchens. So if you are venturing into Leeds city centre on a non-matchday, you will be sure of a friendly welcome and a new and exciting food experience at any of our Granary Wharf sister bars.

So there is plenty of change going on around the Old Peacock and the city of Leeds at the moment, and let’s hope that the biggest change is the one that we have waited longest for; Leeds United back in the top division. See you in May.