These past two weeks or so have proved to be very testing for even the most ardent Leeds United supporter, but no one has felt the full effect of the latest twists on the Leeds United roller coaster more than first team manager Brian McDermott.
Brian came to us on the back of his sacking from Reading, having previously guided them into the Premier League as champions. When his name was originally touted for the job, I must admit, I was a little dubious. His only managerial experience had come at Reading, who with all due respect are not quite the same club as Leeds. The board opted for McDermott as their first choice, so as a loyal fan I immediately got behind him.
In Brian’s first press conference there was something that endeared him to supporters immediately, I can’t quite put my finger on it, perhaps it was his open and honest personality, or the way he spoke with such pride at having landed the job. He seemed to have the right attitude, vision and determination from the word go.
Summer time as a Leeds fan hasn’t been that much fun of late, given the amount of empty promises we have received from the powers that be, not to mention sale after sale of much loved, key players. The summer of 2013 seemed different though; new owners, new manager and a new sense of optimism, however things weren’t too different from the norm. McDermott signed old colleague Noel Hunt, who while lacking the record of a goal poacher seemed a decent acquisition. Hunt came on a free, as did Matt Smith from Oldham, both lacking the wow factor that the fans craved. McDermott then did what no manager at Leeds had done since 2005 and spent £1million on one player- Luke Murphy from Crewe, a promising young player. We had beaten Blackburn to his signature, a promising sign given our recent transfer record. He was followed through the door by Scott Wootton, a player making the trip across The Pennines- the right way.
All in all I think we can all agree that the summer did have some very promising signs, but fell short of most fans’ expectations. The season itself was going quite well, all things considered… then along came January and Massimo Cellino.
January saw the chance for McDermott to strengthen, which he himself admitted was absolutely necessary. Other than the loan signings of Cameron Stewart and Jimmy Kebe (both of whom are yet to live up to the hype), January was a thankless month for McDermott. He tried and failed to bring new faces in, with the people above blocking a transfer on at least one occasion. Leeds were supposed to have been taken over by Andrew Flowers and his consortium, put together with current MD David Haigh, but in true Leeds United style it wasn’t that simple. Pages and pages could be written about the takeover saga(s) of January. The current Leeds board started to flirt with the idea of Massimo Cellino’s money (opinions on him can be saved for another day), even though they had supposedly already agreed terms with Flowers.
The second part of the 2013-14 takeover saga seemed to go really quickly and before we knew it, Massimo Cellino was all set. Within hours of his touchdown on English soil, McDermott was out of a job, bizarrely. The worst possible thing Cellino could have done in terms of annoying the faithful. McDermott has quickly become a cult hero in Leeds. As Leeds manager his record isn’t flattering, but his honesty and the way he speaks about the club had given the fans a bit of pride in a Leeds United manager again. Cellino’s decision backfired immediately, with hoards of fans marching down to Elland Road, and even more standing up to be heard the next day; before, during and after the 5-1 drubbing of a local pub team called Huddersfield.
Roll forward a few hours and McDermott is back in work, as it turned out the Cellino wasn’t even the owner, shambolic chain of events to say the least. Brian took his usual Monday press conference, which had an awful lot more attention from the media than normal, quite expected really after the weekend’s surreal events. There he was, sat there smiling. The first thing he said was a joke “you didn’t expect to see me here did you Bryn (Law- SSN reporter). That epitomises the man that is Brian McDermott, smiling in the face of adversity. He doesn’t know how long he’s got, and neither do we. One thing is for sure, he is more committed to the cause more than any Leeds manager in the last two decades, perhaps with the exception of Simon Grayson.
A lot of Brian’s work behind the scenes has gone unnoticed. He has re-established a scouting network, something which was non-existent previously, and something which is surely essential to the running of any top level club. Then there was his revamping of Thorp Arch, Prozone, the obvious togetherness of the players and staff, and even little things like changing dugouts to be nearer The Kop. While results on the pitch haven’t been spectacular of late, you can guarantee that nobody will be hurting more than Brian McDermott, I think that showed in his reaction post-Rochdale and post-Sheffield Wednesday. He will be working harder than anyone to fix things.
Brian is simply a man that gets Leeds, he is almost an adopted fan. Admittedly this could buy him more time than other managers, but after such an encouraging start it would be a shame to dispose of services so soon into a three year project. The man has conducted himself with such dignity and oozed class from every pore during the ongoing saga, the players love playing for him, none more so than our beloved captain Ross McCormack. He has become a hero amongst the majority of fans who have quite rightly turned on the villains that are Haigh, Patel, Nooruddin and Cellino. We should all back Brian to bring to the good times back to LS11, a real class act.
The Mighty Leeds 