The Next Month Is Crucial To Leeds’ Season!

Article by Alex Schroeter

Approaching the half-way point of this season, we appear to be in real contention for promotion and over the next month we’ll get a real look at how serious the owners, the manager and the players are about that prospect.

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Our next three fixtures will give us a clear indication as to where we sit among the other promotion hopefuls. The first is a home tie against Barnsley, which at first glance could just be seen as an easy three points; however, we played them last season in Gary Flitcroft’s first match and fell to a dismal 2-0 defeat at Oakwell, so we have to make sure we are not as complacent as we were last time round, in Danny Wilson’s first game in charge of the Tykes. The next two are tricky away ties, against Blackpool on Boxing Day then Nottingham Forest. Both, so far, have been right in the mix for promotion as well as having impressive home records this season. These are the matches we need to win, if we are to be there, or thereabouts, at the end of the season as so far this season, we have not impressed against our contenders, losing to QPR, Burnley, Derby and Reading.

Away from our upcoming fixtures, the January transfer window will be pivotal to us maintaining our promotion hopes and there appears to be great optimism over the new ‘significant’ investment. With this investment, we will no longer have the need to sell the likes of Byram, McCormack, Austin etc. as we have in recent years and we can now invest in some more talented players, without the need to sell first which now seems to be the intention of David Haigh. One of those players who were sold by Bates, much to our displeasure, was Max Gradel and during the last week has been strongly linked with a return, after falling out of favour at St. Etienne. This signing alone would put a smile on every Leeds fans face and would surely be a statement to the rest of the Championship, as well as a reminder of the weight the club still carries in the transfer market.

I for one have not experienced such a positive feeling around the club as a whole for a long, long time and if we can put a good run of results together and strengthen the squad, preferably with Gradel, we should be challenging at the business end of the season, and who knows promotion may be beckoning. The Premier League has never been the same since those dark days of 2004!

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