Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 11:34 am  

Once were Loiners wrote:

Its been so badly managed that the years of 'transition' to date have been completely wasted. The clearout that was so obviously needed is almost done - there will be hardly any players left at the start of next year who were here at the start of 2022, and even fewer starting in key positions. That should have happened years ago. It didn't and we are still right at the start of developing a quality team.

Smith is right in saying that the best way to success is to develop as many quality players as you can, and then bring in quality. Problem is that while we may have a lot of talented kids at the club now, it will be at least 3-4 years before we have enough of them at the right stage of development to make a real difference. Even that approach only works if you bring in real quality to fill the gaps. Ali, Senior, Bai, Webb, Donald, Peacock, Leuluai, Ellis etc were as important to the Golden Generation succeeding as having Sinfield and co come through the juniors.

Unless we get the signings right - and its looking shaky right now - we will still be struggling even if the kids turn out as hoped.

The club have shown an inability to develop from the academy for many years and an inability to sign quality players and coaches from other clubs. So the two main elements of a successful team Leeds have shown no skill in achieving - why does anyone think this will improve. When was the last time Leeds produced a half back, FB or hooker of quality through the academy? Jack Walker?

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 12:01 pm  

One of my biggest disappointment's from the last decade was the wasted talent of Josh Sunley, what a player he could have been.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 12:05 pm  

Simmo71 wrote:

Wilkin spouts a load of garbage most of the time.
But I'm afraid he's right with this.
Our season is panning out as the most disappointing in SL.
Obviously because of results.
But also how the squad has totally disintegrated.

Fixable for 2024 with a few more quality signings.
But 2023 is a total disaster.

Maybe Wilkin posts on this site under various guises. That would certainly explain the complete loathing some show for the club. While I would say that we have strong competition for the biggest flops (Hudds, Hull and even Wire given the money they spent) the sheer size and resultant expectation of Leeds makes yet another year outside the top four seem like huge failure. There have been mitigating factors but next year there will be none.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 12:19 pm  

The problem is that many fans are feeling the cumulative effects of years of promises and false dawns. Outside the top 4 wouldn't be awful in one year, but this is the longest run since the 1950s, and right now it feels like next year won't be much better. We'll have to wait until the end of the season for more player announcements, but I don't think there's a huge amount of faith that we'll get the right players in.

Regardless of who comes in as you say there can be no more excuses. If we start badly I really can't see Smith surviving even if we do have some big name additions. The amount of goodwill that's been chewed up this year is astonishing.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 12:29 pm  

ArthurClues wrote:

Maybe Wilkin posts on this site under various guises. That would certainly explain the complete loathing some show for the club. While I would say that we have strong competition for the biggest flops (Hudds, Hull and even Wire given the money they spent) the sheer size and resultant expectation of Leeds makes yet another year outside the top four seem like huge failure. There have been mitigating factors but next year there will be none.

Don’t know if you’re on twitter but theres a section of fans who seem to absolutely despise everything about the club!

Agree about next year

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 12:56 pm  

Well, for a while it seemed as if Richard Agar was steering us out of transition, until the start of 2022, which seemed like yet another false dawn.

With Agar leaving, JJB and Long taking charge, and the club looking like relegation contenders, Smith's arrival effectively meant the start of a new transition. Remember the statements put out by GH at the time - they were looking to build something longer term over the duration of Smith's contract. He was not coming with the expectation of winning silverware within 1-2 years.

The amazing run to the GF at the end of 2022 showed the potential of Smith and the playing group at the time, but we also had a bit of luck going for us (although not much before that in the season, so these things can balance out!).

At this point a number of things went wrong. We didn't invest enough to improve the squad - largely because of players on big contracts from the Agar/Sinfield era. It may have been much better if say Sezer lived up to the club's expectations, and we didn't lose further players later on in the year. In hindsight we needed to keep Hardaker and sign MacDonald.

I don't know what happened in the pre-season, but it was clear that Smith didn't see much value in testing the squad in pre-season friendlies, and it seems we were undercooked in round 1. Obviously there's a danger in coming out of the traps too fast as Warrington did, but as bad as they have been they have managed to hold on to a higher league position.

During the season there should have been more foresight and better man-management regarding retention decisions over the current squad. This caused far too much disruption to the first team - I can't remember a season as bad as this since 1996 (which admittedly was far worse!).

Coaches all have their idiosyncracies. Smith's insistence on tactics like the passive defence, short kick-offs, and odd positional switches have not proven to work in the long-term (or ever). The passive defence may have its place in some circumstances during a game, especially in the summer heat, and perhaps if we are confident that the team is connected enough to defend the line when needed. But I agree it was naive of Smith to think this would carry on working at the start of the season in the winter when games are tighter and more about field position and possession. The signs are that he is learning but increasingly lacks the players to use tactics in which Leeds can better impose themselves on the opposition or the scoreboard...

On a positive note, Smith has been more willing than Agar and Brian Mac to pick younger players, and we know that the four interchange players will all probably get on the field at some point

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:28 pm  

ArthurClues wrote:

Maybe Wilkin posts on this site under various guises. That would certainly explain the complete loathing some show for the club. While I would say that we have strong competition for the biggest flops (Hudds, Hull and even Wire given the money they spent) the sheer size and resultant expectation of Leeds makes yet another year outside the top four seem like huge failure. There have been mitigating factors but next year there will be none.

It is I, Leclerc…

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 5:01 pm  

and I will say this only once....

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 5:42 pm  

tad rhino wrote:

and I will say this only once....

Let's not get into fallen Madonna territory.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Thu Sep 14, 2023 5:57 pm  

ArthurClues wrote:

Let's not get into fallen Madonna territory.

You mean the one with the....