Re: Young Players Not Good Enough : Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:02 pm  

They 'golden generation' did come through at an opportune time though. Think back to 2000/2001/2002, it's not exactly the same as now. This team is still winning trophies and still one of the favourites for the upcoming playoffs. Them first few years post Murray we were drastically off the pace of Bradford, Saints and Wigan. When it came to playoffs we not only got eliminated but eliminated with the same ease the likes of a Hudds/Hull/HKR get dismissed nowadays.

2002 Vs Wigan (A) 18-41
2001 Vs Saints (A) 30-38 First week
2000 Vs Bradford (A) 12-46

I honestly think some forget just how far we were off the pace of the top 3 back in those 3 years when they think about how we took a chance on a new generation.....we pretty much had nothing to lose back then.

Re: Young Players Not Good Enough : Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:15 pm  

Since the golden generation we have still had a good conveyor belt of players coming through.

Ablett, Smith, Hall, watkins all internationals
Bjb, ward, Sutcliffe trophy winners, not to mention clarkson, singleton and ward who are regualr squad members.

In 10 tears thats 10 playyers from our academy whohave stayed Iinthe squad, not to mention at least another 10 who are elsewhere in sl

[Ex-Swarcliffe Rhino]

Re: Young Players Not Good Enough : Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:43 pm  

Correct, don't forget also that we have had this core of players "buy in" to our club ethos. Excellent players like Hall, Watkins etc in years past may have been seduced by big money moves to other teams or even codes, now they are part of the Leeds Family that Kev famously spoke about after the grand final. Bringing new players in to Leeds, may mean that they have to sacrifice a few quid and fit in to our systems, if they are not prepared to do that then they don't deserve to be here. Just because Leeds haven't been seen to throw big money at certain players it doesn't mean that they cant or wont in the future. We have been very much spoiled that a special group of youngsters made a pact with one another in the academy to stick together through thick and thin and we have been lucky to see these young men mature and evolve into probably THE finest Leeds team I will probably see in my lifetime. Yes, we have had to sacrifice certain members of the team as we have gone on Diskin, Ali etc but we have kept the main part and crux of the team and that is the belief in each other and thatis that the team is everything. As long as we can keep that, then the hardest part of the battle is already won.

Re: Young Players Not Good Enough : Sun Aug 31, 2014 11:06 pm  

To perhaps make some realise how fortunate we've been.

My closest friends all prefer their football rather than RL. They were all born in the same period as me of mid-80's yet they go on about how great the likes of Bremner, Lorimer, Giles, Hunter, Revie etc. were, the Leeds United golden generation......yet it's a generation none of them ever actually got to see in the flesh.

All clubs have special periods, this is ours......will it go on forever, no. Could some things have been done differently, yes. Would they have improved things, who knows.

But at the end of the day we've had 10 years we wouldn't have believed possible back in 2003, instead of fearing about the future, or thinking "what if" about certain signings.......just soak it in and appreciate and enjoy. We actually got to witness it week-in week-out and not just read up about it like the Revie era LUFC I mentioned previously.....we can all actually say we were there and we experienced it and lived it.

It won't always be smooth running and disappointments will come (note the CC history) but by god for all the talk of value for money, no club has given it's fans memories that'll last a lifetime more than what this club has given us in the last decade.

Re: Young Players Not Good Enough : Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:31 am  

G1 wrote:

I'd be much more inclined to worry about the approach of the coach who left two players unused on the bench in a game where we were a man down than question the abilities of two youngsters who were given no opportunity to show those abilities.

Yup.

Do we need to see Bailey do 3 stints? No.

Could Singleton have done one of them? Yes.

Truly bizarre, when down to 12 men, you would leave 2 resources un-used. Doubt it's happened before. Hope it doesn't occur again.

Re: Young Players Not Good Enough : Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:49 am  

Whilst this has been an incredible ten years is the current success and the fans view of it a reflection of significant under achievement in the past? A club with the financial muscle and potential fan base that Leeds has should have achieved greater success than it did - 2 championships seems a paltry return.