Ian Westlake !! Hearing raving things about him in this loan spell ?

[billy_bremner]

Yes mate , those 40 yard free kicks of his were one of the best sights of this season !!

 

[Easy 10]

If that Westlake volley from the corner had gone in, I think that would have been the greatest goal I'd ever seen "live".

 

[BensGrandad]

I didnt think Leeds paid £1m for him I thought he was part of the deal that took Harding to Ipswich or was it the other way around.

 

[mona]

I didnt think Leeds paid £1m for him I thought he was part of the deal that took Harding to Ipswich or was it the other way around.

No Harding was the makeweight in the deal. At the time Ipswich had a lot of debt to clear. Westlake was highly rated by Ipswich fans and the club were reluctant to sell.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

If that Westlake volley from the corner had gone in, I think that would have been the greatest goal I'd ever seen "live".

Agreed, the guy is pure quality, thing here is that Billy says that he was criticised for lack of pace at Leeds, I don't think that he was ever going to be a pace player but by God he is a clever one.

The reason he makes a difference at Brighton is because his positioning is so good and he can keep hold of the ball under pressure. If McAllister wants to restart Leeds season knows he has to rely on his teams pace and Westy is never going to tick that box otherwise why lend him out?

 

[Basil Fawlty]

I can see him going back to Leeds, but hopefully we can keep him for alittle longer. Because he is someone we have missed throughout this season. A player who can run at left backs, and give a good decent cross. If you paid Million for him, then I can't see us signing him permanently through.

 

[blue'n'white]

No , we were just a team capable of winning battles but not football games , under Wise n co ! Fair enough , it worked well untill our captain got injured and some key players were missing ( Clapham , Casper etc ) . We never had a back up plan and the replacements that came in struggled to match that intensity we had earlier !

Those fortunate wins you talk about , it came from the winning mentality that Wise set up for the team. The never say die attitude and the siege mentality that prevailed , really took us through in the last few minutes of every game with belief. We lost all of that after our first dip in form.

Also , Jermaine Beckford himself admitted that many players became complacent after that fantastic start and they let it affect their performance. Now that didn't do Wise any good , especially when Poyet left , the complacency turned into disorganization amongst the team.

The final blow was when Wise spent loads of money this january on players who might be good for this level but were not filling critical positions in the squad that needed to be filled immediately !! Macca really has his hands tied at the moment . There are a lot of players out there who think that just because they wear the white shirt of LUFC , they are bigger and better than any other player in this league. It's a stinking attitude that needs to be thrown out of the system !!

I think the reason you lot did well at the beginning of the season was that Wise (or more probably Poyet) was able to motivate the team well. Not that it probably took a lot of motivating as he was able to dangle the "15 points deductions nobody likes us lets show the bastards" card. And it worked - very well for a bit too. However when you beat us down at the Albion I thought then that the team looked fragile and that if they were to go and start losing that would be the slippery slope down to the foot of the table - obviously that isn't going to happen but how likely do you think it is that you'll get promotion ? If the football has been as poor as you say it may be advisable to stay in this division an extra year and lrt McAllister get his own men around him.

 

[BensGrandad]

According to a person on SCR phone in he wants to stay here permanently so perhaps Leeds are either not wanting a lot for him, as they dont pay their bills anyway, so probably didnt pay the £1m, or he is out of contract soon.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I don't understand why Leeds fans hate Wise, who led them into promotion contention despite starting off 15 points down but defend McAllister who was shite at Coventry and is doing a shite job at Leeds. Baffles me

 

[bhaexpress]

We could always sign him on Ken Bates' terms, offer 5% of his price ?

 

[billy_bremner]

How likely is promotion someone asked ? Well I would say , 50-50 chances. We have a squad filled with some fantastic individual talents for this level but you try and put them on paper and form a decent 11 with a shape and system , you would struggle as it is highly imbalanced ( just 1 proper winger in our squad and he is inconsistent, our only decent left back is out on loan etc )

So even if some of the players take the finger out their ass and start performing , it will secure us the playoffs spot but I'm not sure about beating some attacking teams like Doncaster , Forest etc in the playoffs ..

I don't hate Wise but I don't like him as well because he had a job to do out here and he left things unfinished and completely topsy turvy ! Our team were in the middle of a terrible slump when he left out of the blue. He bought 3 midfielders this January who didn't add anything more than the plethora of midfielders we boast of. He didn't use the money to rectify our primary problems which he himself openly identified ! So after f***ing it up in the transfer window , he leaves us with a jaded , overflowing low IQ team .

What he did for us with the 15 points debacle was fantastic , no doubts ! I dunno how many managers could have had the mental grit to have gone through such a traumatic summer with the transfer embargo and still managed to perform wonders. But once that aura started fading before Christmas , we started to show some cracks and Wise lost his heart over the job and was lured by Mike Ashley's money.

It's not a coincidence that Wise's last 5-6 games have been terrible for us as he had one step outside the club already ! Thats where the man loses our respect as it was his duty to finish what he started as many feel he was responsible for taking us down when he had so many games in charge last season but never really brought quality players in or used our squad that reached the playoffs final the year before ! So , taking that into consideration , It would have been honourable if Wise completed his task for this season and then left . But that little midget didn't and left us at a wrong time in a wrong shape with the wrong players for a manager like Macca to take over after the transfer window closed !!

 

[billy_bremner]

As for Westy , yes , we did pay 1 Million for him in terms of value . You lads know how much Harding costed us ( including the appearances bonus ! ) and add some 350k to Harding's value and you will know how much we gave up for Westlake !

and with regards to any dig about us going to administration , let me just say that the deal that was eventually accepted by KPMG was the highest pay ever in the history of administration !! You can go back and check any records if you want . No other club came close to our final deal for the creditors . Just clearing things here

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

So how much in the pound did the creditors get? Just to clear things up and be factual

 

[The Large One]

What I did like on Saturday was one - the way Westlake turned the two Donny defender like that weren't there to fire in the cross-shot that Sullivan, to which he then saved again from Murray's point blank follow-up.

Secondly, when Donny were pushing forward, he beat one player on the wing, cut inside and nutmegged the second player. That was great, but it was the Donny player's reaction - just throwing up his arms in pure exasperation that made me think 'yep, I like this Westlake bloke - sign him up, please'

 

[Yorkie]

What I did like on Saturday was one - the way Westlake turned the two Donny defender like that weren't there to fire in the cross-shot that Sullivan, to which he then saved again from Murray's point blank follow-up.

Secondly, when Donny were pushing forward, he beat one player on the wing, cut inside and nutmegged the second player. That was great, but it was the Donny player's reaction - just throwing up his arms in pure exasperation that made me think 'yep, I like this Westlake bloke - sign him up, please'

If Sullivan hadn't been the best keeper in this division, we'd have won that match 3-0.
I think the same TLO, but is he out of our price range?

 

[The Large One]

If Sullivan hadn't been the best keeper in this division, we'd have won that match 3-0.
I think the same TLO, but is he out of our price range?

'Price range' is a highly-flexible noun. A whole host of things have to be considered when considering a price. Two things are very much working in our favour at present if we wanted to sign him.

One. Leeds United appear to have little use for him.
Two. He WANTS to be here.

 

[billy_bremner]

Ken Bates led bid was the best by a country mile, paying non football creditors 35% of their debt, a 3500% increase on the first bid.

 

[Yorkie]

'Price range' is a highly-flexible noun. A whole host of things have to be considered when considering a price. Two things are very much working in our favour at present if we wanted to sign him.

One. Leeds United appear to have little use for him.
Two. He WANTS to be here.

But if they think we want him then the price ticket will go up proportionately.

 

[billy_bremner]

If he continues this good form and we continute to struggle , I think Macca will end up finding a use for him !!

But if we sort ourselves out , then his value will definitely increase as we would be looking at selling him this summer as we have loads of midfielders at our disposal and there would be championship clubs vying for Westlake's signature if he continues the form he is showing now !!

So its a win win situation for us !

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Billy....

Starry on here ( bloke called Paddy - own a haulage company and apparantly a big player at Leeds-) recons he prefers playing in the third division as its a more "genuine " sort of game, ie genuine fans, players etc rather than the plastic Premiershite and Championship.

is that the view of most Leeds fans or just one or two?