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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!

Yorkshire Radio are looking for Leeds United supporters to join a fan panel that will take part in The Matchday Replay on Monday nights and help review the weekend’s action.

The real bonus is that members of the Fan Panel will be eligible to be chosen to be part of the Yorkshire Radio commentary team and join Eddie Gray and Thom Kirwin on a matchday.

Fans must be aged 18 or over. The commitment will only be to appear on two Monday night appearances and just one home matchday.

So if you think you are up to crossing mental swords with Eddie and Thom, then email onair@yorkshireradio.net with your full name, age and address and a reason why you should be chosen to join the Fan panel. If your email doesn’t work then post your details to Fan Panel, Yorkshire Radio, Elland Road, Leeds, LS11 0ES.

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Everyone seems to be getting worked up over the ownership of Elland Road.

Once again there’s plenty of smoke but no fire.

Leeds United confirmed today that Elland Road is still owned by Teak Commercial Limited.

Ken Bates spoke to the YEP,

“The allegation that we’ve bought back the ground is absolute rubbish. The long and short of this is that we haven’t bought the ground back and we don’t own it. The ownership hasn’t changed at all.”

Elland Road and Thorp Arch were sold off by Gerald Krasner in 2004 to try and avoid administration, before Ken Bates took over. Doubtless Ken and the board of Leeds United 2007 Ltd would love to re-acquire the properties, and currently they have the have a right to do so, but the cost was recently quoted, by Bates himself, at £19,142,806. So the League One club must continue to pay £2m in rent annually.

Shaun Harvey, United’s chief executive, said,

“We do have an option to buy Elland Road and Thorp Arch back, but we have not as yet exercised that option. We still intend to do so at the earliest opportunity but the situation is as it was.”

The interest in the fate of Elland Road seems tied to the fact that the owners, Teak Commercial Limited are registered in the British Virgin islands and, therefore, the details of the owners of the company are confidential and protected by law – it is a criminal offence to reveal the shareholders of such a BVI company. Once you tell someone they can’t know something ,that’s all they seem interested in!