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. 

Near-misses, new beginnings and progress: a look back at 2017

Happy New Year and a big welcome to 2018 from everyone at the Old Peacock and Ossett Brewery. What a year 2017 was. For anybody in the pub trade the busy days and nights can seem relentless, and obviously the festive period can be intense and seemingly lasts forever. When you factor in that we are also a football pub that could not be any closer to the football club that we serve, and that club regularly attracts crowds of over 30,000, then you can imagine that life at the Old Peacock is something of a whirlwind.

Depending on how our staff want to look at it, 2017 couldn’t have gone any better. From a Leeds United perspective it has been the usual rollercoaster of emotions. The year started with Garry Monk’s team looking certainties to reach the end of season play-offs, and the attendances at Elland Road reflected that. By April, however, all was not well and Leeds dropped out of the top six at the very last.

It is inevitable with Leeds United that there is always interest in whatever they do, good or bad. It comes with the territory, and even as it looked like the wheels were coming off, the attendances didn’t drop, we were still seeing hordes of fans swarming all over the pub and making matchdays a unique and very special experience.

Typically with Leeds United, it wasn’t particularly quiet over the summer either. Andrea Radrizzani completed his 100% takeover of the club as soon as the season had ended, Garry Monk resigned and Thomas Christiansen was appointed, plus a tidal wave of backroom staff, executive staff and playing staff came into the club. But undoubtedly the most significant event of the summer and the one that felt most poignant to us at the Old Peacock, was when the club bought back Elland Road from private ownership.

Many people might not know this, but the Old Peacock pre-dates Elland Road by many years. For a long time the various guardians and staff of the pub looked out only on open fields and a dirt track. The pub can be traced back as far as 1826, but there is no evidence of a sports field where Elland Road now stands until 1878, and of course the ground didn’t start to develop properly until Leeds City took it over in 1904 and then Leeds United in 1919.

This shows that the pub has always been a central part of the community and has always served the various industries around it. The football club and the numerous local businesses, and even the motorway network, have all arrived since the Peacock first opened its doors. So we only became a football pub when Leeds United grew and grew throughout the 20^th century. However, we know how special Elland Road is and we know our place in serving its customers. We like to think we are just as much a part of the fabric, and as important to some fans, as the ground itself.

So when the ground was bought back by the club is was a very special night, and we did find that the pub was busier than usual, on a filthy night shrouded by biblical rain, with fans just wanting to be at the ground and wanting to be part of such a historic occasion.

Talking of historic occasions, Leeds United were top of the league just a couple of months later as we started the 2017/18 season like one of those greyhounds that used to race down the road. It was an amazingly exciting time, and while it didn’t last of course, we do feel that there is something special happening at the club now. There is a different feeling about the place and an air of optimism and pride that has been notably absent for a few years. On the pitch, maybe we won’t necessarily achieve everything we want to straight away, but fans can at least see the club moving in the right direction. Off the pitch, the external areas of the ground look so much better and we are really looking forward to the Bremner Square development starting soon.

In between matchdays we continue to serve our regulars, plus staff from neighbouring businesses, including Leeds United, and of course fans who just love to make a midweek pilgrimage, and our food nights continue to be a great success, we also sold out our Christmas Day menu weeks in advance. In 2017 we established live music in the beer garden on matchdays, to really maximise the atmosphere that is created. The reaction has been fantastic. We have also introduced new bars, barbecue food on midweek nights when maybe you haven’t had chance to grab something at home in your haste to get to the game, and to help relieve the big queues on matchdays we have introduced two-pint pots, which have also been gratefully received.

So we are all geared up for another blockbuster of a year in 2018. We ended 2017 with a run of home fixtures, as Norwich City and Hull City visited Elland Road on consecutive Saturdays, while we have already chalked off our first big game of the new year as over 32,000 came along to watch Nottingham Forest on January 1^st. The outlook from now is decidedly more low key, however, with only a visit from our friends at Millwall to look forward to on January 20^th. The only certainty is that life will never be dull around here, and even if Leeds United are largely responsible for that, we know that their fans can also bring something to the party.

In closing we would like to thank all our fantastic staff for their hard work and patience throughout 2017, they really are the best in the business. They play an absolutely vital role in what we do and until you have worked an Old Peacock matchday I don’t think you can appreciate what a truly unique experience that is, and what a brilliant job they do. So thanks to all the staff and we know they are prepared for another year of fun, laughter and pulling pints. See you soon.

Something To Talk About

I should know by now that Leeds United never play by the rules and mostly do the opposite to what I expect them to. In the last Peacock blog post I talked about allowing new manager Thomas Christiansen a little time to settle, I tried to temper expectations a little by pointing to Garry Monk’s first month in charge and suggesting the first few games aren’t always a reliable indicator of how a season is going to go. I pointed to the good things happening off the field in an attempt to direct a focus towards the bigger picture, and away from the short term struggles that ‘could’ happen with an inexperienced coach and a raft of new players. So what do Leeds United do to help me drive home that message?  Go seven games unbeaten from the start of the season; including four clean sheets, a procession of well-taken goals and a style of football not seen since Brazil’s carefree romp through the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico.

OK, so that last bit has a slight addition of artistic licence, but given some of the drab and soulless fare we have been served up over recent years, it is hard not to get excited about Leeds United’s eye-catching start to the season, and it is equally difficult to find rational comparisons to draw upon. 

When you see Samu Saiz pinging 50 yard passes straight to Stuart Dallas, Gianni Alioski reducing a left back to tears and Jay-Roy Grot delivering a defender to a different postcode with an innocent shoulder barge, it takes a special kind of crotchety sourpuss to deny Leeds fans a wry smile and a faint vision of a new beginning. But that’s all it is; a beginning, and while it is conjuring up a definite stirring in the loins, and God knows we have spent many a cold and lonely hour waiting for one of those, it is perhaps wise to remember that we have played just seven games, and while we didn’t want to get too downhearted if things started badly, equally, we shouldn’t be hanging out the bunting to celebrate our inevitable promotion, just because things have started well.

However, they definitely have started well. A 3-2 win at Bolton on the opening day was followed by two slightly deflating 0-0 draws at home, but then Leeds served up two absolute treats for their travelling fans and all those watching on TV, with almost identical 2-0 wins at Sunderland and Nottingham Forest. These weren’t just regulation wins either, both were achieved against big clubs with high expectations, and, particularly against Forest, Leeds dominated from start to finish and looked every inch the charismatic gunslingers that have so often waltzed into Elland Road in recent years and took home the prize.

The scenes in the Old Peacock when Alioski drove home the second goal at Forest were reminiscent of the Champions League days when Leeds toyed with the opposition. Leeds had looked comfortable and superior throughout, and a peach of a goal dressed the victory up perfectly. There was a tangible sense that ‘this’ Leeds United are the real deal, and finally, are people going to be talking about Leeds United again for the right reasons, and not as a joke club or a financial disaster story?

It is testament to the work of Thomas Christiansen of course, who has been supported very well in the transfer market, without spending the amounts of money that rivals such as Aston Villa, Wolves or Middlesbrough are spending, but still has to fit all these individuals into a team formation. One of the most pleasing aspects of the first few games is how we have coped with injuries and suspensions and how any individual slotting in has so easily adapted to the formation and team ethic. There is clearly a plan and everyone is buying into it, and only the head coach, who works with the players every day, can firstly achieve that and then instil it in every player in the squad.

Since those two scintillating away performances, of course, we have seen the end of the transfer window and yet more activity to add value to the belief that Leeds are getting the infrastructure of the club absolutely right. Few fans are lamenting the loss of 30-goal Chris Wood when you look at the proven attacking talent we now have at our disposal, and hats off to Director of Football Victor Orta for that. Looking at the squad we have two strong players for every position and you could conceivably field two separate 1-11 teams and have a very evenly-matched practice game. I honestly can’t remember the last time we could say that, if ever. The key is, of course, how you keep every member of that squad hungry and satisfied. Inevitably, a large chunk of them are going to be continually on the periphery, and few will be satisfied with an occasional Carabao Cup outing, while we still remain in the competition. But the signs are that Christiansen has built a team mentality with a selfless attitude, and there is no doubt that over the course of the next nine months, they will all be needed at some point.

So September brings us a pleasing run of home league games after nearly a month without one. August 15^th saw us draw 0-0 with Fulham, and September 9^th brings the visit of Burton Albion. It’s only our second Saturday matchday of the season and we can’t wait to get the live band on in the beer garden, the kitchen cooking pies, and Paolo the Peacock out of his sleepy hibernation. We will be more than ready to welcome you all on Saturday, and again on Tuesday 12^th when Birmingham City are our visitors, and we will hopefully be firing up the barbecue to deliver our new midweek matchday BBQ menu. That’s not the end of the action for September either, as Ipswich Town will be stopping off at Elland Road on Saturday 23^rd to complete a mammoth and exhausting month. We will certainly know a lot more about who the real Leeds United is by this time, and let’s hope the next International break is just as unwelcome as this last one has been. However much we dislike a fortnight without ‘proper’ football, it’s far more pleasant to go into a two-week break on the back of the 2-0 ‘pasting’ of a supposed promotion rival, so all being well we will repeat the trick in September.

In the meantime, come on down and enjoy the matchday experience at the Old Peacock. As it stands, for all the positivity, Leeds haven’t won a home league game as yet, so they need all the support they can get at Elland Road over the next few games, to show they can back up all the promise demonstrated away from home, and ensure people are really talking about us.

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.