Ken Bates has blasted the Leeds United Supporters Trust, branding the organisation as "idiots" and even accusing them of hindering the takeover process by putting out "wildly inaccurate" statements.

The takeover appeared to be lurching towards a conclusion at last as four members of the Bahrain based investment bank attended yesterday's hard-fought 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest - a club who managed to complete their own Middle-Eastern investment with the minimum of fuss.

The Leeds chairman used his pre-match address to go into arguably more detail than he has previously done so, citing a variety of reasons why the deal has taken so long. The group apparenty have interests as far afield as the Gulf, North Africa and India - as well as potentially Leeds 11. Bates mentioned holidays and mused that people in the Gulf leave in the summer to escape the heat, whilst we Brits seek the sun.

He said the lawyers were discussing the "finer points/technicalities" following what he described as a "big meeting" on Friday. Bates also mentioned the chairman of the consortium being unable to attend for "personal reasons" however with the four bankers sitting in the executive area as his guests, it appears the end of the saga may be imminent just weeks after it was believed the deal had totally collapsed.

Bates took a swipe at the Leeds United Supporters Trust, he spoke of the "disgraceful" personal abuse he has received and also branded the organisation as "idiots" alledging that some of the statements from LUST were wildly inaccurate. He told LUTV "Since we signed the agreement in June – and told people what we had done – there has been a lot of speculation and agitation, especially by the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust.

“I have to tell people that a lot of the statements that have come out are inaccurate.”

With Neil Warnock saying something about it should be sorted out "in ten days" last Thursday and Bates talking of "good progress" dare we believe that we can get our pens poised to draw a line beneath this typically complicated period in our history in the next couple of weeks?

As for LUST, I know they have their detractors but really Twitter et al was all we fans had during the summer to satisfy our curiousity, which turned to panic and anxiety as time wore on and the silence from the club was deafening. Yes most fans will appreciate big business deals are not conducted through social media networking, but in the absence of anything meaningful from the club to say that all was fine and things were still ongoing, little wonder the rumour machine went into overdrive. Bates also said something about disappointment on "both sides" that the August transfer-deadline was missed, three weeks after the event surely this is a case of "too little, too late"?

My biggest concern is that it will be a case of "investment" which was said at the outset, rather than "takeover". Remember Bates and Matthew Harding and the power struggle that followed at Chelsea prior to Harding's untimely death?Can a white-man in his 80's, who once urged Leeds fans to vote for the "Icelandic volcano party" on the basis that Eyjafjallajokull had done more to quell migration to the UK than the then governing Labour party, work alongside an Islamic investment bank?

During his address, Bates also revealed the consortium were "not football experts", yet another reason for the long, drawn-out process, so I am sorry to say that my horribliest hunch is Papa Smurf will stop on in a "consultancy" type role. This may also explain the olive branch offered to the Leeds United Supporters Club, the first of one of many of the organisations Bates fell-out with when he arrived seven years ago.

As for LUST, I doubt any peace-offering will be coming their way from Ken in the near or distant future.

Photo: Action Images

fringo added 14:54 - Sep 23 So no take over, just investment. The Leeds faithful have been sold another pup!
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LUFCAT added 17:14 - Sep 23 I have seen lots of comment from the club and Bates re 'investment' and nothing referring to take-over. Some of the supposed insider comment coming out has sounded at best iffy, and some has been deisgned to wind-up the more easliy lead. Let's just wait and see, and hopefully the 'investment' will lead to us being able to field a team capable of promotio.
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