Mark Mann 🇺🇦

The traffic on Wigmore St on Day 1 of pedestrianised Oxford St 😬

Yesterday, after his rally in Iowa, President Trump was heading to the airport when he saw an old woman walking home — in the dark and all alone. “Stop the car, Daquan!” He told his driver. He got out and walked her 2 miles home. No cameras. Just kindness. That’s Trump.

🚨BREAKING🚨 New polling conducted for City AM, published in the last hour, shows that two thirds of Brits would OPPOSE rejoining the EU if it meant a commitment to adopt the Euro at any point in the future. Which it would. This is terminal for the Rejoin campaign. Terminal.

I bring you news that Liz Truss thinks the Bank of England was set up by Tony Blair, which would make him well over 350 years old, unless he set it up before his 18th birthday.

Alright Leeds family, I went down another rabbit hole after yesterdays Paraag post. Someone in the replies said Leeds currently have the biggest debt in the club’s history. I didn’t know enough about the finances to say whether that was true, so I spent some time digging through the numbers. I cross referenced multiple sources, went through the available financials and used AI to help me make sense of some of the accounting terms and compare everything. And unless I’m completely misunderstanding something, Leeds do NOT currently have the biggest debt in club history. The latest Leeds accounts are from the 24/25 promotion season. £137m revenue £103m wages £49.2m pre-tax loss That £49m loss came after another £60.8m loss the year before. So Leeds have absolutely been spending money. But losses, liabilities and debt are three different things, and I think they get thrown together a lot when people talk about the club’s finances. When Leeds nearly went off a cliff in the early 2000s, the club had around £82m in net debt after betting heavily on Champions League money continuing to come in. Then came the player sales, relegation, the sale of Elland Road and the training ground, and eventually administration. Knowing that history makes it pretty easy to understand why Leeds fans are sensitive to this stuff. You guys have already watched bad financial decisions nearly destroy the club. Today is a different situation. Ownership has been putting money into Leeds rather than simply financing everything through borrowing. Leeds control Elland Road again and they’re now expanding it toward 53,000 seats. There’s also reportedly around 32,000 people on the season ticket waiting list. Another 15,000+ seats. More hospitality. More matchday revenue. More commercial opportunities. That’s not transfer money today, but it’s how you build a club that can generate a lot more of its own money tomorrow. And with PSR and the new squad cost rules, how much Leeds can generate matters just as much as how much ownership is willing to spend. So when you zoom out, this is a lot bigger than who Leeds did or didn’t sign this summer. Get promoted. Stay in the Premier League. Build the squad. Grow revenue. Expand Elland Road. Give yourself more room to spend as the club grows. None of that means ownership gets a free pass either. Losing roughly £110m over two seasons is serious. They spent aggressively to get Leeds promoted and there was obviously risk involved if that didn’t happen. But after going through all of this, I don’t see the evidence that Leeds currently have the biggest debt in the club’s history. And I definitely don’t see an ownership group that’s afraid to spend money. They’re spending a shitload of it. #lufc #MOT