With so much negativity around the place at the moment, it’s easy to get drawn in and lose sight of the reason you actually dedicate your Saturday afternoons to football. I used to get a real buzz from walking through the turnstile at Elland Road. These days, when I approach the stadium the overriding emotion is one of dread. The atmosphere is nowhere near as passionate and as vibrant as it used to be, the stewards do their best to ruin what atmosphere there is and there are more chants about the chairman than the players on the field. It’s not a nice environment and plays into the hands of the opposition. The atmosphere this season is the worst I can remember. It’s been on the decline for a while now but it’s hit a new low during this campaign. A couple of exceptions aside, the place has been more...

Lady Luck shone on Leeds United again yesterday as Ipswich Town imploded in the last 20 minutes of their game at Elland Road. Simon Grayson owes a debt of gratitude to former loanee Alex McCarthy. Up until his inexplicable error, Leeds weren’t in the game. It was dour, to put it mildly. There was no spark, no direction and the side looked devoid of confidence in front of a disgruntled crowd. Again, that’s putting it mildly. Protests before the game showed the ill feeling towards Ken Bates and the protests continued in the stadium. The ‘Bates out’ chants were as loud as I’ve heard them and that was all we heard all game really. There was no real support for the team, which was disappointing, but there is just an air of resignation around the place. The fans feel we can’t move forward with Bates in charge. He is holding us...

Leeds United today completed the signing of former star Fabian Delph on an initial loan deal until February 25, but the move will do little to ease tensions between the club and the fans. Whilst it is great to see Delph back, it is yet more short-sightedness by the club. Ken Bates often talks about Peter Ridsdale’s short-termism, but he and Simon Grayson are exactly the same in building a squad. We hedge our bets with loan signings and in doing so risk losing our top players if we don’t achieve promotion, then we have to rebuild again in the summer. Last season, we didn’t invest in January, gambled on Jake Livermore and Barry Bannan and it backfired. We lost Neil Kilkenny, Kasper Schmeichel, Bradley Johnson and Max Gradel in the summer. We don’t seem to have a clear transfer strategy in place. We should be building our squad around...