Ironing the grid
2024 was going to be the Niners' big year, but they swung and missed. Oh wait, that's the other thing isn't it. Um, they dropped the puck? Does that sound right?
Tag
Essays
A collection of 118 posts
Taking the time to build, and protagonism versus pragmatism
Squad rules mean extracting bang from buck is not an easy task. When you only have to beat the bottom three, how do you do it?
Tuftyball, or Leeds United adapting to the realities
The tension of watching Daniel Farke's Leeds was summed up in these moments against Sunderland, football that pushes you to the brink of frustration then seesaws suddenly into giving you what you want.
Fear, fascination, and the 'swelling power' of fans uniting behind players
Football is a game about players watched by fans — monetised by clubs. What happens if fans start cutting clubs out?
The Premier League, managers, and minding the gap
Here was a look behind the scenes of a Premier League club, a chance to taste the sauce they call their science, and it made me wonder if Don Goodman and Andy Hinchcliffe might qualify as deep footie thinkers after all.
Even heroes need something to do
The declines of Gelhardt and Meslier are regarded as mysteries but their underperformance might be quite simple: neither of them, in different ways, has had enough to do.
What if Leeds, the one club city, had two?
Leeds would be a very different place after a century of intra-city rivalry, maybe solving professional Mancunian and Factory Records impresario Tony Wilson's 1990 assessment of Leeds as a city full of "fucking psychopaths".
The path to 105 points is through Ethan Ampadu's knee, probably
If away form was that easy, Leeds United would have been the first Premier League champions as well as the last First Division champs.
There goes Jonny Howson
Let's have a party and invite everyone. Even if they play for Middlesbrough now.
Spoiler alert
Daniel Farke's Leeds exist in an anxious atmosphere of TripAdvisoring the heck out of a pub before crossing the threshold but a football team can not, no matter how predictable it might seem, guarantee anyone a good time.