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Recorded on Yorkshire Day, episode 32 marks the Square Ball’s return for the 2011-12 Championship season. Dan Moylan, Michael Normanton and Daniel Chapman (Moscowhite) are joined by Paul O’Dowd (Oddy) for the longest and most wide-ranging episode of the summer.
The episode opens in good spirits with an account of the team’s trip to London to collect the Football Sports Federation Fanzine of the Year award, presented by comedian Kevin Day. The glass trophy did not survive the evening intact — Dan accepts responsibility. The magazine itself is formally announced for the new season at £1.50 a copy, up from £1, with the price rise explained by rising paper costs and an expanded format of 56 pages. Digital subscriptions remain at £1 per issue.
Pre-season comes in for a measured assessment. Leeds were unbeaten across friendlies in Scotland, Rochdale, Sheffield Wednesday and Norway before beating Newcastle 3-2 at Elland Road. The Wednesday game had been the exception — Simon Grayson publicly called his squad’s performance “slow, pedestrian” and made clear there was a significant amount of work to do.
The summer’s departures are covered at length. Bradley Johnson has joined Norwich and is already scoring from distance; Neil Kilkenny has doubled his wages at Bristol City; Kasper Schmeichel has joined Leicester; and loan players including George McCartney have returned to their parent clubs. The panel are pointed about how each exit was managed — players publicly briefed against in the press while the club simultaneously claimed to have offered them contracts.
On new arrivals, Michael Brown is welcomed as the sort of physical, experienced midfielder the team has needed for two seasons, though his age and a one-year deal give cause for concern about longer-term planning. Goalkeeper Andy Lonergan arrives as a cheaper replacement for Schmeichel. Trial players including a French winger referred to as Mendy and a Hungarian known as the Bulldozer are assessed with scepticism. Ramon Nunez draws quiet optimism after promising pre-season appearances.
The major structural talking point is the East Stand renovation — reported to cost around seven million pounds — set against a playing budget that has been too tight to replace departing first-team regulars. Ken Bates’s defence of separate budgets for building and for players is taken apart piece by piece. The parliamentary football governance inquiry is referenced, which named Leeds United explicitly as the most blatant example of a lack of transparency in club ownership, calling for an FA investigation and potential HMRC involvement.
Season ticket pricing — the highest in the division — and falling sales figures prompt a frank discussion about the sustainability of the model. The point is made clearly: charging more from fewer fans is not a business strategy, it is an early sign of decline.
The new kits prompt the episode’s lighter moments. The home shirt is a shiny retro tribute to the 1991-92 design, complete with blue and yellow sleeve details that bear only passing resemblance to the original. The away kit — fluorescent yellow pinstripes on black — is described as looking like a child’s colouring-in job on a photocopy, and prompts a brief discussion of Italian fashion norms.
The episode closes with previews of the opening three fixtures: Southampton away on the television, Bradford City in the League Cup, and Middlesbrough at home. The consensus throughout is that the squad, on paper, is not as strong as it was at the end of the previous season — and that the summer has squandered rather than built on what was there.
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