There's alot of things behind the scenes we are not privvy to. It's much more complicated and political than just team A has money and wants player X from team B, team B will accept offer so it's an easy signing for team A.

You also don't know they weren't thinking of the long run. E.g. hypothetically If aiton is going to do they job they need within the team going forward and he's cheaper on the cap, then that makes replacing some of the other big guns easier over the coming years with more cap space.

Aiton is another pointer to the fact we are not producing quality players through the academy , he is an average hooker yet still prefered to Mcshane , Hood and Ward who have come through the youth system

Aiton is a better player than McShane, Hood and Ward.

That was the point i am making

Right investment? Under investment? Who can say. The club seemingly guilty of under investment has just lifted a trophy while the best half back pairing of the other seems a mystery to coach and fans alike. As for Clark, he's yet to pull on a Wire shirt.

Minchella,sutcliffe will be in this team for a long time. The former will be the club captain in years to come I reckon.

Ahh yes Warrington, whose real replacement for Morley was the useless Asotasi not Hill and who went out and re-bought Kevin Penny last year, also seems their real replacement in the halves for Briers is Bridge, a utility player they bought several years ago.

That's a big call on Minchella who thus far has shown little in his admittedly sp cameo-like 1st grade opportunities although as he's still under nineteen he's got time on his side.

Don't think the youth players are as bad as some make out. Think we were spoilt with "the golden generation" all coming through at the same time, something we won't see again for a long time.

I think singleton has potential but if we are honest is a bit to flabby and needs to bulk up quite a bit which I am sure will happen. Interested to see baldwinson develop, again with a bit more beef on him. The young prop who has impressed me in granted very small first team cameo is Mulhern. Also looks the most physically ready to me

This golden generation really becomes a bit of a cliche in how it is banded about. They were golden because they have being successful together, having being backed by the club and coaches, after developing their game in the first team and learning.

We have let go players who were their equal and sometimes better than the "golden generation" at the same age. However, we were never going to fix something that was not broken, hence not the same backing/opportunities to develop, and show whether they were better.

We have continued in that vein, where new younger players know if they do not shine they are out. This was not the case 2001/2002, and into 2003.

Not disagreeing but I genuinely cannot think of anyone coming through our youth squad better than "the golden generation" who we let go?

I did say "at the same age", meaning young. I.e at 16/17. Not someone let go who was a better player then than current ones now.

The point is without backing them and giving a run, you won't see the same benefits.

Yes I got that, but still struggling to think of some. Used to watch a lot of the youth teams, not so much in recent times, but the ones that stood out generally broke through into the team, ablett, Watkins, smith, BJB, hall etc

Tricky balance.

Had we moved on more of the golden generation earlier for promising youngsters and they then failed then you still leave yourself open for criticism.

Had we opted to gone forwards with the likes of McShane and Amor and Pitts and seen the likes of McGuire, JJB and Peacock go to other clubs and produce whilst Leeds struggled then the knives would be out. Point in question, some have since his departure questioned if we should've retained Lauitiiti as he could give us more off the bench than a Clarkson/Ward/Achurch.

I agree with that. Doesn't change the point however, that the reason we have this "golden generation" is because they were backed by the club and coaches, and developed their game in the first team. Without that we may never have had this period of success.

Perhaps expectation levels due to that success era, doesn't help with finding a new generation. And now writing off players without the same backing.

They 'golden generation' did come through at an opportune time though. Think back to 2000/2001/2002, it's not exactly the same as now. This team is still winning trophies and still one of the favourites for the upcoming playoffs. Them first few years post Murray we were drastically off the pace of Bradford, Saints and Wigan. When it came to playoffs we not only got eliminated but eliminated with the same ease the likes of a Hudds/Hull/HKR get dismissed nowadays.

2002 Vs Wigan (A) 18-41
2001 Vs Saints (A) 30-38 First week
2000 Vs Bradford (A) 12-46

I honestly think some forget just how far we were off the pace of the top 3 back in those 3 years when they think about how we took a chance on a new generation.....we pretty much had nothing to lose back then.

Since the golden generation we have still had a good conveyor belt of players coming through.

Ablett, Smith, Hall, watkins all internationals
Bjb, ward, Sutcliffe trophy winners, not to mention clarkson, singleton and ward who are regualr squad members.

In 10 tears thats 10 playyers from our academy whohave stayed Iinthe squad, not to mention at least another 10 who are elsewhere in sl

Correct, don't forget also that we have had this core of players "buy in" to our club ethos. Excellent players like Hall, Watkins etc in years past may have been seduced by big money moves to other teams or even codes, now they are part of the Leeds Family that Kev famously spoke about after the grand final. Bringing new players in to Leeds, may mean that they have to sacrifice a few quid and fit in to our systems, if they are not prepared to do that then they don't deserve to be here. Just because Leeds haven't been seen to throw big money at certain players it doesn't mean that they cant or wont in the future. We have been very much spoiled that a special group of youngsters made a pact with one another in the academy to stick together through thick and thin and we have been lucky to see these young men mature and evolve into probably THE finest Leeds team I will probably see in my lifetime. Yes, we have had to sacrifice certain members of the team as we have gone on Diskin, Ali etc but we have kept the main part and crux of the team and that is the belief in each other and thatis that the team is everything. As long as we can keep that, then the hardest part of the battle is already won.

To perhaps make some realise how fortunate we've been.

My closest friends all prefer their football rather than RL. They were all born in the same period as me of mid-80's yet they go on about how great the likes of Bremner, Lorimer, Giles, Hunter, Revie etc. were, the Leeds United golden generation......yet it's a generation none of them ever actually got to see in the flesh.

All clubs have special periods, this is ours......will it go on forever, no. Could some things have been done differently, yes. Would they have improved things, who knows.

But at the end of the day we've had 10 years we wouldn't have believed possible back in 2003, instead of fearing about the future, or thinking "what if" about certain signings.......just soak it in and appreciate and enjoy. We actually got to witness it week-in week-out and not just read up about it like the Revie era LUFC I mentioned previously.....we can all actually say we were there and we experienced it and lived it.

It won't always be smooth running and disappointments will come (note the CC history) but by god for all the talk of value for money, no club has given it's fans memories that'll last a lifetime more than what this club has given us in the last decade.

Yup.

Do we need to see Bailey do 3 stints? No.

Could Singleton have done one of them? Yes.

Truly bizarre, when down to 12 men, you would leave 2 resources un-used. Doubt it's happened before. Hope it doesn't occur again.

Whilst this has been an incredible ten years is the current success and the fans view of it a reflection of significant under achievement in the past? A club with the financial muscle and potential fan base that Leeds has should have achieved greater success than it did - 2 championships seems a paltry return.