Play it from the back...

I feel as this is my first contribution to the Trequartistas blog I should just put it out there; I’m a Leeds fan. Quite possibly the zenith of the bittersweet football club, the ultimate marmite team. No matter who has donned the classic white strip from the delightful and legendary Bremner, Gray and Radebe, the likes of Hunter, Smith and Bowyer will plague my beloved club with its ‘Dirty Leeds’ stigma. By the time I realized I was a born ‘White’ Leeds had just been knocked out of the 2001 Champions League semi-final to Valencia, I never knew what I had missed.
The early 2000’s were a heady mix of pure elation and then misery after misery after misery as Leeds were one of the only few teams apart from Everton to break the ‘top four’ of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle before the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham and now Manchester City with the help of what seems like infinite financial backing pushed everyone aside. Then in the 03/04 season Leeds’ reign in the top flight came to a pathetic end as we were finally pulled into the black hole of the Championship.

The Premier League today now feels like a league spilt into three. You have the contenders, a list which has got smaller and smaller just over the last five years. Who can look any further than the two clubs of Manchester. Even as late as last season we would all have said Arsenal and Chelsea are at least in with a chance but after two thirds of this season could anyone honestly say that these clubs can realistically compete with thestalwarts of United and the financial juggernaut of City? What’s to say in fewyears that even Manchester United will be competitive with their blue neighbours.

Then there are the mid-tablers and Europa league hopefuls, practically the same thing, the race for 6^th, 7^th or 8^th is an open game for the likes of Fulham, Newcastle, Everton, Sunderland and though they wouldn’t admit it Liverpool. However, these are the clubs that decide the title. We have recently seen the Man City drop points to Everton and Sunderland and Man Utd have done too with Newcastle and West Brom. As most ‘heavyweight’ clashes turn out to be canceled out draws and 1-0 results it is the teams who have little to play for but playing itself that can shape the title.

Finally, you have a small pool of five or six teams starting with the recently promoted teams and then teams such as Blackburn, Wolves, and Wigan who’s grip on the top flight constantly feels like a man trying to pull himself from quicksand, it is an inevitability and in a case such as Wolves this season, panicking just makes you sink faster.

The only exception to my league theory seems to be Aston Villa, a club I have always had a soft spot for and yet their fans must be pulling their hair out at their sheer inconsistency. Two years finishing 6^th under Martin O’Neil, mid-table mediocrity with Gerhard Houlier and now near flirtations with relegation with former Birmingham mangerAlex Mcliesh. The mind boggles at how a club of this size can be getting itthat wrong but then im sure fans of West Ham and Leeds would be feeling deja vu watching Aston Villa.

At the risk of this article being a rant about money I believe that unless you are the likes of Samuel Eto’o, a player who has achieved everything there is to play for and the sound of one last astronomical payday in the hostile conditions of Russia sounds too good to be true, I believe that money is now only a fraction of what a club has to offer. It is no surprise that the two most successful clubs in Europe are situated in the climate pleasing country of Spain, I feel location is as vital as salary, who can blame Cristiano Ronaldo for leaving dreary, wet Manchester for the heat of Madrid, you could argue that he had won everything and has gone for a new challenge but then if this was a mantra for most players then surely Raul would have left a lot sooner and the likes Xaxi and Puyol should have gone to seek anew challenge?

As an avid Leeds fan I am now by force a football league fan with my eye occasionally being drawn to the unavoidable Premier League. However, go back 20 years and this years Championship could well be mistaken for a Premier League table, give or take a few obvious examples. Out of the 24 teams that make up the championship 18 have tasted the sweetness of the Premier League since its creation in 1992 with the likes of West Ham, Southampton, Ipswich, Nottingham Forest and my dear Leeds United all with acclaim to be bigger clubs then the likes of Wigan, Swansea and Norwich who are fighting to stay in there for another year. Yet these clubs with their impressive stadia and support in some way messed up and from a Leeds supporter who has watched his team fail in two play-off finals, it is a deviously difficult league to get out of.

These a just few short rants of which I hope to come back to in much more detail as well as many other topics but I felt that to get this first blog underway will hopefully give an idea of who I am and hopefully of more to come.

I bloody love football.

Aidan.