Leeds United Managing Director Angus Kinnear spoke to the media ahead of the Whites’ upcoming campaign, and shared his confidence in the squad that we’ve got at Elland Road.
“They came very close. We believe they deserved to go up so we have absolute confidence in the squad, but as always we’re looking for opportunities to strengthen. If those opportunities come along, we’ll take them.”
Whilst you think that should be the case for a team that came so close in the Play-Offs last year, there certainly has been a recent trend in teams using the Play-Offs as a stepping stone to promotion. Aston Villa lost in the Final to Fulham the year before clinching promotion at Wembley against Derby County. Fulham had lost in the Semi-Finals to Reading the year before they beat Villa at Wembley, too. While Middlesbrough were defeated by Norwich in the Play-Off Final the year before they were automatically promoted.
Now, whilst you may think that such positive words of wisdom would spark joy in the hearts of Leeds fans, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The are some who believe Kinnear’s message was an ominous sign about how we’re going to attack the transfer window.
They made their voices very clear over the matter, saying that it’s up to the board to put them in a position to compete, and that means providing them with funds to make it happen.
Here’s some of the best replies…
To be honest, if we deserved to go up, we would have gone up, simple as that really!
— Paul Medforth (@MedforthPaul) June 20, 2019
you get what you deserve and we crumbled(again) #lufc
— Sheppey1919 (@Sheppey1919) June 20, 2019
don’t like the sound of this, seems to want to manage our expectations about signings
— James Carroll (@JimboC1974) June 20, 2019
This sounds like they’re saying “no signings”.
— Danny????⚽️????Osborne (@Kingdanny30) June 20, 2019
No signings = No promotion
— Benno (@Benno62413391) June 20, 2019
It was almost good enough…
January screwed us we all know this so why pretend otherwise.
Investment in the team is very much needed in a few areas.
— Paul (@Psych_Squirrel) June 20, 2019
Don’t seem many players coming coming in then????
— phil wadsworth (@PhilPhilwads47) June 21, 2019
I like that we’ve got confidence but I think we may have too much faith in some of the squad
— Dan Paton (@DanPaton5) June 20, 2019