leedsutd365.co.uk

11.30am deadline – today – to enter our Leeds United fans’ fantasy football league (it’s free), run on the Premier League’s website.

Go here http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ and create your team (takes about 15 minutes if you’re choosy about the players)

Then enter our league code: 348529-197592 to join us.

We have more than 40 members at the moment.

You may enter more than one team if you wish.

If you miss the 11.30 am cut-off you may still join our league but you’ll receive no points from game week 1 (today)

Manchester City did indeed fail in an attempt to sign Leeds midfielder Fabian Delph.

In a prime example of “he who hesitates is lost”, Mark Hughes had an offer for Delph accepted but then asked for a week to think about the offer!

Ken Bates, went back to Aston Villa with news of the City offer. Villa kept their nerve, matched the bid and the deal was sealed.

Doubtless the plethora of talent bought into Manchester City over the summer means that few City fans will notice the loss of what might have been. Delph would have warmed the bench for much of the time.

However, for Leeds fans they will at least get to watch what Delph regularly on Sky and can watch might have been as he teams up with another Leeds Utd youth export, James Milner.

Ken Bates commented on the Man City hesitation on www.leedsunited.com:
“We had accepted an offer from Manchester City which they had to go back with to the owner in the Gulf.

“Then apparently they needed a week to think about it which surprised us, considering the size of the deal.

“The problem was that, with a week, they might have come back and said ‘no’ and that wouldn’t have been fair to Delph, wouldn’t have been fair to Aston Villa, and would have eaten into our season.

“We went back to Villa, and it’s a good decision for Leeds and the player.”

We wish Fabian all the best in a Villa shirt – until we get back into the Premier League, of course!

Leeds United have confirmed that a fee has been agreed with Aston Villa for 19 year-old midfielder Fabian Delph.

The club took the unusual step of saying on the website that they wanted to record their “appreciation for the honourable manner in which Aston Villa have conducted their interest in the player”.

Leeds United then confirmed that they have turned down renewed bids from other Premiership clubs, desperate to hijack the deal, in the short space of time since they agreed the terms with Villa.

In a pointed remark, the official statement on the Leeds United website, continued, “Having given Villa our commitment to transfer the player (subject to medical), we had no intention of going back on that”.

That bears all the hallmarks of Ken Bates thumbing his nose at Manchester City and Everton who have been stalling over a price for Delph for weeks. Now Ken Bates is saying, “offer what you like, you can’t have him”, and no one enjoys making the most of having the upper hand more than Ken Bates!