Making History in LS11

The noise was deafening.

The unmistakable sound of heavy summer rain pouring down onto the roof of the taxi was making a horrendous racket. I would have brought a coat to stop my nice suit from getting wet, but it was sunny and warm when I stepped out of the house, and that was only 15 minutes ago. That's the British summer for you.

I looked across the rain-soaked pickup area outside the front of the building my interview was going to be in and then up at the large facade. It was a faded white, with many windows. At the bottom right was the entrance to Leeds Station and round to the left was the array of bus stops that surrounds one of the station's other entrances. In large, bold letters read "QUEENS HOTEL" in a style befitting of the city's grand size and economic power in the North of England.

I strode forward and in through the hotel's entrance and made for the restaurant, which was kind of at basement level, but because the ground floor was raised above the surface outside, part of the basement floor peeped up above the surface.

The restaurant itself was comfortable. It was nice and warm, so the drenching I had received in my short spell outside dried out promptly. No sooner, but bang on time was the arrival a middle aged man.

He was average size, around six feet tall and was wearing a black suit with a white shirt. His black wavy hair reached shoulder length, and he held a pair of sunglasses in the front of his shirt collar.

He was accompanied by a man who I would say was in his fifties. He was a tall figure, around 6'3. He had a full head of silver hair, eloquently combed over to one side. He was wearing a navy blue suit but like the first man, he had a tie-less white shirt.

They approached my table. I stood up and shook the first man's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Townend. I'm Massimo Cellino and the man next to me is Adam Pearson" he said as he shook my hand firmly.

"Nice to see you, Mr Cellino and you, Mr Pearson. Are you both well?" I said to the pair of them.

They both nodded and we all took our seats.

Massimo Cellino is the President of Leeds United. He took over the club in April last year when he bought it from Bahrain-based investment bank GFH Capital. Adam Pearson is his Chief Excecutive. Pearson was actually a part of a rival bid when Cellino took over- he formed a consortium known as Together Leeds with former Manchester United director Mike Farnan and then Leeds United Managing Director David Haigh.

"This interview shouldn't take too long, just try to answer as well as you can" began Cellino. "Why do you think you are the best candidate for this club?" he asked.

This one was easy. "I'm a massive fan of the club so I know exactly what the fans want to see each week. I'm aware of the club's youth development system and fully believe in my abilities to help nurture the club's future stars. I expect nothing less than 110% effort from the team and I'll be sure to tell those that aren't giving me it. I have five years of coaching experience behind me and a strong tactical understanding which will help when getting the players playing the way I want."

I watched Adam Pearson take notes and I could tell by the expression on his face that he was impressed with what I had said.

"Why do you want to manage this club?" was Cellino's next question.

"As I've said before, I'm a big fan of Leeds United. I first went to watch them when I was five, it's the club that gave me a start in my professional career so it holds a special place in my heart. I won't sleep until I can make this club successful once again" I meant every word. Make no mistake, Leeds United is the love of my life and now I had a golden opportunity to manage them.

"This club has had trouble with players who think they are bigger than the club. How would you deal with them?"

"I suppose it depends on the circumstances. If that player is the best player we've had in that particular position for a while, I'd go about it calmly and try to help that player see sense because I want good players at the club. If that player is pretty average however, he'll be gone before he can say 'contract extension'. A player has to earn the right to make certain demands, within reason"

"Let's assume I hire you as Head Coach. Where do you see the club in five years time?"

"In the Premier League" was my prompt response. "Maybe even in Europe by then. I want this club to be promoted by 2017 at the very latest and at least in the top half of the Premier League by 2020"

"I think that's everything we need" said Cellino. "We'll be in touch on 30th June. If you're successful, you will be expected to turn up at Thorp Arch at 9am the following day"

You know how it goes.

I got the job, in case you hadn't guessed. Suppose there wouldn't be a story if I hadn't.

*LEEDS APPOINT JOSH TOWNEND AS THEIR NEW HEAD COACH* was the headline on the Breaking News banner on Sky Sports News HQ. I was quite surprised. Not that I'd got the job, but how quickly word had got out.

I had only put the phone down five minutes ago when I accepted the job and the press officer had already blabbed.

Suppose I had better get that suit and tie washed again I thought to myself. With the management of Leeds United now on my remit, I had to pack in my coaching job at Guiseley, where I was coaching youngsters.

I retired from playing five years ago. Started my career as wide-eyed 17-year-old in 1992 before I was sold to Birmingham seven years later. I enjoyed a two-year stint with the Blues, and we made it all the way to the League Cup FInal in 2001. I left to join Portsmouth where I spent eight years, winning promotion in 2003 and the FA Cup in 2008. After being released, I joined Fulham on a one-year deal, making it to the Europa League Final before I hung up my boots.

I've spent the last five years coaching. I did a year coaching the first team at Kingstonian before FC Halifax Town offered me a job. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to move back up home so I joined the Shaymen. I spent two years at Halifax before signing on at Guiseley as a youth coach. Now though, I was ready to make the step up to management.

I got up off the couch and put my suit in the wash. I had a big day ahead of me tomorrow.

When I arrived at Thorp Arch, the players were all waiting for me on the training ground. There were some new faces at the club as well as some familiar ones. The backroom staff were there too, keeping order amongst the players as they all awaited my arrival.

I strode on to the pitches and was faced with over 30 players and around 15 members of staff. I rubbed my hands together and began my address.

"Morning lads!" I shouted.

"Morning" they replied in unison.

"I'm your new manager, Josh Townend, but 'gaffer' or 'boss' will do fine. I'm aware some of you are new here, if so, welcome to Leeds United. I'll start off telling you a little about my self, what I expect from you and what plans I have in mind.

So about me, I'm a Leeds lad born and bred, been a Leeds fan since most of your dads were learning to spell. I started my playing career at Leeds, spent seven years here before moving on to play for Birmingham, Portsmouth and Fulham. I've been in coaching for five years now so just because it's my first management job, don't go thinking you can get away with arsing around.

What I expect to see from you is simple. Passion, desire, energy and a dash of common sense. In my opinion, the fans pay far too much to see football at this level so the least we can do is show we're trying our hardest to get out of this division, preferably to the one above. I also want to see respect. It's a two-way thing, you respect me and I will respect you. Respect the officials, yellow cards for dissent are every managers pet hate. Most of all respect the fans and the club. You're paid to win, I expect you to fight tooth and nail to do so.

As for my plans this season, some of you will be heading out the door I'm afraid. It's just the way it works when a new manager comes in and tries to implement his own way of playing. Not all of you will be leaving but maybe three or four, and I might have to shuffle the pack in the backroom staff as well. Do any of you have any questions?"

The silence told me I'd made my ideas absolutely clear.

"Right lads, 11-a-side, First Team vs Development Squad. Messrs Silvestri, Byram, Cooper, Bamba, Taylor, Adeyemi, Cook, Mowatt, Botaka, Dallas and Wood will start for the First Team. The rest of you will be subs. Paul Hart will take the Development Squad. Let's see who can play football"

Pre-season fixture 1: Leeds United (CH) vs Arsenal (PRM)
Venue: Elland Road, Leeds
Kick-off: Sunday 5th July 2015 3:00pm
Weather: Breezy 23C

My first challenge as Leeds United manager was to be one I set up by myself. When I looked at the fixture list upon my arrival, our first friendly wasn't for three weeks, so I arranged a few more, including a home game against Arsenal to make a bit of money for the club.

From what I had seen in training in the run up to the game, I didn't have a complete squad. Where we're good, we're really good; but in areas where we're not so good, it's going to cost us if we don't strengthen those areas over pre-season.

What impressed me was how fast tickets had sold for this game. The fixture was announced on Wednesday and I was told in an email from the ticket office that we were expecting around 29,000 to turn up.

That's really incredible. Even as a Leeds fan myself, that stunned me when I read that email. The excitement in and around the ground was tangible in the buildup to kickoff. Both ends were packed to the rafters with white shirts.

I took a moment to take in the pre-match atmosphere and headed down the tunnel to address my troops.

"Right lads, big test today. We're expecting nearly 30,000 today and they're not expecting you to win, but they are expecting a good old fashioned fight. I want to see you lot give it 110% today.

Marco (Silvestri), I want you in between the sticks. Mr Bellusci and Mr Bamba, you two start at centre-back. Sam (Byram) and Charlie (Taylor), you're our full backs.

Cook and Adeyemi will be our holding midfielders, Alex (Mowatt) you'll be our playmaker. Jordan (Botaka) you're on the right, Stuart (Dallas) on the left and Chris (Wood) up top.

Give it your best, these fans have flocked in their numbers on pretty short notice so let's show them what they mean to us."

Leeds United starting XI (4-3-3): Silvestri, Byram, Bellusci, Bamba, Taylor, Adeyemi, Mowatt, Cook, Botaka, Dallas, Wood

Subs: Turnbull, Cooper, Sloth, Antenucci, Wootton, Philips, Doukara, Doukara, Bianchi, Dawson, Erwin

The game kicked off to a roar of anticipation from the 29,000-strong crowd packed inside Elland Road.

The offside trap we looked to employ worked it's magic inside two minutes, when Ozil put Walcott through on goal ten yards out, but the flag went straight up for the England international.

This became a theme throughout the opening 20 minutes, and it was mostly their fast players such as Sanchez and Oxlade-Chamberlain getting caught offside. I was also pretty pleased with the fact we were seeing more of the ball than they were.

This encouraged me, so I encouraged the players by getting on the touchline and shouting my encouragement to them, telling them they were doing a good job and to keep it up. It wasn't just me that noticed how well we were playing. Our play was drawing applause from the fans, who were in pretty good voice.

It took the Gooners 25 minutes to threaten from an onside position as Santi Cazorla lashed a 30-yard half-volley straight to the grateful palms of Marco Silvestri.

Five minutes later, we fashioned out our own near miss, when a long ball from Adeyemi found Wood. The New Zealand international took it on the chest before unleashing a fierce volley that beat Petr Cech and grazed the top of his bar.

We finished the first half pretty strongly, and had gone into the break with a creditable 0-0 scoreline against a world class Arsenal line-up in a game that was anyone's for the taking. I made sure the players knew that at half-time.

"Lads, you've played spectacularly out there. We've defended brilliantly, the offside trap seems to be working a treat and we're generally looking pretty good in possession. It's anyone's game, so if we keep this up, we might just nick a win here"

Paul Raynor, my assistant, seemed to echo those sentiments and we sent the players pumped up and ready to start the second half.

Six minutes into the second half, Arsenal had their closest effort at goal. After playing a one-two with Ramsey, Sanchez found himself in acres of space inside the box but hammered it harmlessly into the back of the South Stand.

Shortly after, my veteran French counterpart, Arsene Wenger made a couple of changes, bringing Gabriel Paulista on for Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud on for Oxlade-Chamberlain, shifiting Walcott onto the right wing.

Further changes were made, as Debuchy, Chambers, Monreal, Coquelin and Joel Campbell represented the new threats we'd face in place of Bellerin, Koscielny, Gibbs, Cazorla and the permanently offside Walcott. Meanwhile I made a change of may own, introducing Casper Sloth in place of Alex Mowatt, pushing the former into the hole behind Wood.

Shortly after the hour mark, Arsenal spurned another decent chance when Sanchez blazed wide from 10 yards out.

We were almost in on goal seven minutes from time when Byram thought he had found Dallas in the box with an exquisite diagonal ball across the floor from the halfway line, but the Northern Irishman was denied by a last ditch sliding tackle from Debuchy.

Two minutes later, Silvestri kept us level with a heroic save at the near post from a powerful Joel Campbell effort from point blank range.

With tiredness finally setting in, I brought on some fresh legs five minutes from time with Kalvin Philips and Tommaso Bianchi replace Cook and Adeyemi in the middle whilst Lee Erwin replaced Stuart Dallas on the left.

We battled hard for the final five minutes (plus two minutes stoppage time) and continued to give Arsenal a good game.

We didn't get the Hollywood finish that looked to be on the cards at various points in the game, but we gained a very creditable draw and a clean sheet against an Arsenal outfit that will no doubt be battling it out for both domestic and continental honours this season.

Leeds United 0-0 Arsenal
Att: 29,570
Man of the Match: Hector Bellerin

Very nice matchwriting, Josh. I can see it happening in front of me.

Let's see Leeds do great things!

When I got home after the Arsenal match, I set about tying up a few loose ends related to travel. We have a plane to catch on Wednesday morning to Faro in Portugal, from which we will then travel to the Albufeira Professional Football Training Centre.

During our stay in Portugal, we will face two native opponents in Boavista and Maritimo before we face fellow Championship side Reading, who are also touring Portugal.

When I found out there was going to be a training camp in Portugal, I set about finding out all about it. Apparently Roy Keane had taken his side there when he was in charge at Sunderland. Other clients of the company that owns the training camp in Albufeira and other camps across Portugal vary from Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Chelsea to Colchester United and Queen of the South.

As I got into bed, I took a look at my notes from what I had seen in training so far. It was mainly just an overview of the players we have at our disposal.

We benefit from a choice of two decent goalkeepers. Marco Silvestri is the first choice keeper. He was an ever-present in the league last season and his improved performance played an important part of the resurgence that the club enjoyed shortly after the New Year. Ross Turnbull is one of the new recruits, signed on a free transfer from Barnsley. He had mostly been a backup keeper until he joined Doncaster Rovers in 2013, and he provided backup for the Chelsea side that won the Champions League in 2011/12.

We're looking pretty strong at right-back. Sam Byram is our strongest in that position. Byram is an academy product and first burst onto the scene in 2012/13 with some memorable performances, including his silencing of Gareth Bale when playing against Tottenham in the FA Cup. He's in his last year of his contract, so he'll have to get off to a good start if he wants to stick around. Gaetano Berardi is our next strongest right-back. At the start of last season, he gained a reputation as a frankly psychotic defender due to his yellow cards and red cards. It was mostly the manner in which he'd get sent off that caught the attention more than anything else. Nevertheless, he had also proven his worth in the second half of last season, and I expect he'll be giving Byram a close run for his money.

Our strongest centre-back appears to be Giuseppe Bellusci. Bellusci was another one of our Italian imports from last season who performed well for most parts of last season. Most of the time he is a good player, but when you catch him on a bad day, he really is piss poor. I hope to keep him on his toes this season by not having a favoured centre-back pairing, but a pairing based on the most recent game each week. Sol Bamba is the next strongest centre-back. The Ivorian was signed on loan by Neil Redfearn in January, and a succession of commanding displays and matches in which his inner born leader came right out earned him a permanent deal at Elland Road. He was also the most consistent performer out of all of our centre halves last year, so he'll probably be our most regular starter. Liam Cooper is next in line. He's pretty young at 23 years old and he's showing a lot of potential. He was trusted with the captain's armband last year but gracefully stepped down at the end of the season. He's another consistent performer so he'll be champing at the bit should Bamba or Bellusci slip up. Rounding off our centre-backs is Scott Wootton. Although he isn't a natural centre-back, he completes the centre-back department and isn't too bad a centre-back either. I feel it will take him a little while to get re-acquainted with the position after playing right-back for the second half of last season, but he should hopefully provide strength in depth in an area that could use it. I might still look into signing another centre-back so that Wootton can move into his natural defensive midfielder position.

All we have at left-back at the moment is Charlie Taylor. Taylor is another product of the Leeds United academy and will most likely be our first choice left-back for the season even if we do find another left-back. The search for a left-back will mostly just be for backup purposes.

We only have one holding midfielder at the moment and that is Tom Adeyemi. Signed on loan from Cardiff, Adeyemi is a very good holding midfielder, but we'll need another ballsy midfielder to play alongside him to give us strength in the midfield so that the likes of Lewis Cook and Alex Mowatt can play their role freely. We do have Tommaso Bianchi, but having seen him play last season, I think it's time to sell him. I could still get a good £2-3m for him which will really boost our recruitment.

The aforementioned Lewis Cook and Alex Mowatt are our two creative midfielders. Unfortunately, the system will allow only one of them to play, which is a shame because they both came up from the academy and are two of the brightest young talents in this league. It will be an interesting battle to see who manages to earn and maintain a starting spot each week. We also have Luke Murphy. Whilst Murphy is a gifted player, he may struggle to find first team football, and I don't want to be paying him £14,000 each week to play in the reserves. He'll most likely be loaned out or sold. Kalvin Phillips and Chris Dawson- both academy graduates- round off the creative midfielders, but they'll mostly be playing in the Development Squad.

All we have for wingers at the moment are Stuart Dallas and Jordan Botaka. Whilst they are very capable wingers, it will force us to change our shape should one of them be suspended or injured. This is the area that will require the most investment.

Finally, we come to our strikers. My first choice is new signing Chris Wood, who arrived from Leicester City in the summer for £3m. It's the most the club have spent on a player since the arrival of Nick Barmby from Liverpool in 2002, so I will be expecting big things from him this year. Another very competent striker in our ranks is last season's top scorer, Mirco Antenucci. Antenucci finished last season on 10 league goals from 36 appearances, and became a cult hero amomgst the Elland Road faithful for his big bushy beard. He even has his own song, Antenucci Baby to the tune of The Human League's 1981 hit Don't You Want Me. Next in command is Souleymane Doukara. Doukara played well in the first half of last season, but later on became known for his immobility and it has shown in my first week at the club. Lee Erwin rounds off the strikers but he is quite young and unlikely to find first team football here. His purpose may be better served on loan until the end of the season.

tenthreeleader: Let's hope so, eh? After a few practice runs, I've got a pretty good feeling about this one

Monday was very busy. When I sat at the desk in my office, I found I had emails from four different clubs, all with offers for players I had transfer listed just last night.

We had three bids for Casper Sloth. One of them was from Fulham, a team in our league. I was a little apprehensive about letting him go there but I figured we don't need him and he'll only go there if they offer us the most money. The other two were both from his native Denmark. There were offers from Midtjylland and Brondby IF.

The first person I got on the phone to was Fulham manager Peter Grant. His initial offer was a £500,000 straight cash deal, even though Sloth's market value was £800,000 and his asking price was £1m. After five minutes of negotiating, we struck a deal I was happy with. We settled on £675,000 up front, with £125,000 to be paid in monthly instalments for the next 12 months. I couldn't quite get him to meet the asking price, but at least we got market price for him.

My second conversation was with Midtjylland boss Jess Thorup. He too initially offered a £500,000 straight cash deal. I tried to get him to at least meet the market value of £800,000 even if it included monthly instalments, but he was unwilling to meet the price. After ten stressful minutes of trying to get him to pay up, he offered me a take it or leave it deal at £650,000. Needless to say I left it.

Next in line was Thomas Frank, manager of Brondby IF. As with the previous two, he also offered a £500,000 straight cash deal. We negotiated for a while but he simply refused to meet the market value. The discussion was soon over, and out of three clubs to approach us, we only allowed Fulham to speak to Sloth.

My fourth email came from Eusebio Di Francesco of Italian side Sassuolo. Funnily enough, it was an offer for Tommaso Bianchi, a player signed by Leeds from Sassuolo last summer. This was a much more straight forward offer- £2.5m straight cash for a player whose asking price was £2.5m. I didn't even feel the need to ring him up. I emailed him straightaway giving him the go-ahead.

After accepting two offers, I sent emails out to the agents of the players concerned, informing them that we had granted Fulham and Sassuolo permission to speak to Casper Sloth and Tommaso Bianchi respectively. I also sent out a separate email to Massimo Cellino and Adam Pearson, trusting that they would inform the media department to put the news on the club website.

Surely enough, they did and before long, "Bids Accepted for Midfield Duo" was the headline. Looking at it I felt the headline would shit some fans up, thinking that we'd accepted bids for our golden boys (Cook and Mowatt). However, I'm sure their minds will have been put at ease when they read the article.

I couldn't hang around, I was a busy man. I had to make my way to Elland Road for a board meeting arranged by 'Il Presidente' Massimo Cellino.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, gents?" I said as I entered the boardroom.

"Take a seat, Josh. We just want to discuss club philosophy and any other concerns you may have" said Adam Pearson, sat to the right of Massimo.

I nodded and said "One philosophy that I really want to push at this club is the development of youngsters produced by our academy. We have some brilliant academy graduates in the first team and this club have produced some fine talents over the years so I'd really like to put an emphasis on that"

"Any other philosophies you'd like to be judged on?" Pearson asked.

"That is all" was my short reply.

"Do you have any general requests you'd like to make?"

"I'm glad you mentioned that" I said, leaning in to take a look at a few notes I had scribbled down. "I've noticed that for transfer fees, I only get to keep 60% for the budget. In any other situation that would be fine but I only have a £150,000 transfer budget and there are some areas of the squad that really need working on. I have players in mind to sell as we've seen today, but I'd like that percentage increased so as to broaden our horizons in the transfer market"

"We have trusted you with a budget to get a mid-table finish. If you're finding that difficult, you can look for a club with a budget that best suits your style in the transfer market" said Massimo Cellino, who seemed to be staring into my soul as he said it.

"With all due respects sir, you fixed the budget at a set amount to get us up to mid-table. I've taken a look at what we have at the club and how much our potential leavers are worth and what options are available in the transfer market and I think just a little increase in the percentage of revenue retained for the budget could go a long way towards helping us strengthen. I've seen the financial reports and that the club is set to make a profit of just over three and a half million pounds. It's not like we're struggling financially so if we're doing so well, why not invest the money in players that could take us above and beyond our aims? I'm not saying I can guarantee promotion this year if the request is granted, but we could have a squad that's much closer to achieving it than it is now"

I really wanted this, and I could see by the way that Adam looked at Massimo that he (Adam) thought I had a point, particularly when I went into the financial side.

Massimo thought long and hard before he finally said "You seem like a clever guy. Someone who is wise, particularly with money. We need that at this club, so you can have your increase. You will now be allowed to keep 75%"

I was delighted. The smile on Pearson's face said it all. Now that I had the tools I needed in the short term, I shook the hands of the board members before making a polite exit from the boardroom. This was a good day to be the Leeds United Head Coach.

My board tells me to get lost when I ask them for money. I'd like to bottle whatever it is you are doing.

It wasn't necessarily a request for money, I just needed more room than I was being given to manoeuvre in the transfer market. So basically, I was asking for money

Pre-season fixture 2: Boavista vs Leeds United
Venue: Estadio Do Bessa
Kick-off: Thurday 19th July 2015 7:00pm
Weather: Calm 21C

After early tea in the hotel, we arrived at the Estadio Do Bessa at 5pm. We stepped off the coach to the applause of a small handful of Leeds fans who got to the ground early to see us arrive.

By the end of the warmup, the stadium was nowhere near full, just handfuls a Boavista fans in the stand behind the dugout and in the home end. As for the away end to my left, there was a cluster of between 800 and 1000 Leeds fans in the lower tier. They were low in numbers but loud in voice, as Marching on Together echoed in what can only be described as a box style ground.

Bessa was redeveloped for the European Championships in 2004, and these days comprises four stands, all two-tiered and all of equal height, with what looks to be office buildings filling in the corners to completely enclose the ground.

Because the rules are more relaxed with pyrotechnics abroad, the away end was a sight to behold, with blue and yellow flares filling the air.

I kept my side unchanged, omitting Bianchi and Sloth due to their impending departures. My address to the players was simple.

"You lot performed well against Arsenal, but this is another day. Those who started against Arsenal will start here because you played so well. Anyone who plays well here will start against Maritimo on Sunday. Now get out there and impress me"

Leeds United starting XI (4-3-3): Silvestri, Byram, Bamba, Bellusci, Taylor, Adeyemi, Mowatt, Cook, Botaka, Dallas, Wood

Subs: Turnbull, Wootton, Berardi, Cooper, Philips, Dawson, Doukara, Erwin, Antenucci

We began the half donning our traditional plain all yellow away strip, shooting at the home fans.

I decided we needed to up the intensity now that we were coming up against lighter opposition, and it seemed to be working during the opening few minutes. We were getting up in their faces and putting some dangerous balls into the area which I liked.

We seemed to dominate the first half an hour, and should have been a head when a great long ball from Sam Byram found Wood 25 yards out. He took his man brilliantly but fired a low shot straight into the keeper's arms.

We continued to press, and five minutes from the break we had another good move. Wood picked out Dallas with an excellent long ball. Dallas' cross was cleared, but Adeyemi fed It through to Botaka on the byline who beat one man, but couldn't beat the second as Boavista cleared their lines.

Two minutes later, Silvestri was called upon. It was Boavista midfielder Felix, whose effort towards the top corner drew a brilliant save from our number one.

As the ref blew for half-time, I headed down the tunnel feeling pleased about our performance. We had been on top for most of the half and defended well whenever the hosts came at us. I made sure the players understood this.

"That was a good first half boys, well done. Keep it up and we could have a really good game on our hands!

The players looked happy and they had every right to be, so they went out for the second half feeling pretty confident.

Two minutes after the restart, we got ourselves a corner. Botaka sent an out-swinger into the middle and captain Sol Bamba headed into the bottom corner to give us the lead we deserved.

It was great to see and the Leeds fans behind the goal were jubilant. I was no different, as I leapt into the air with a fist pump that said 'get in there'

Five minutes later, all that hard work was nearly undone by Bamba's defensive partner, Bellusci. He managed to get caught in possession by Chaves, who should have done better when clean through on goal.

Boavista seemed to respond really well to going a goal down and continued to dominate possession for the next ten minutes or so. I noticed our main holding midfielder, Tom Adeyemi, was looking exhausted. I responded with a change, introducing combative youngster Chris Dawson to the field of play to try and break the hosts down again.

The home side threatened once again when Madureira struck the bar in front of an open goal from ten yards out before Silvestri showed superb reactions to put the second effort behind for a corner.

Boavista kept coming at us and it seemed to be because we were tiring. I set about switching to a more conservative style of playing and brought on fresh legs. Philips was introduced in place of Cook, Antenucci replaced Botaka and Doukara was brought on for Wood. These changes saw us switch to a 4-4-2 with Antenucci and Doukara up front, Mowatt on the left and Dallas on the right.

It seemed to work. Over the following ten minutes, we saw a lot more of the ball than what we had been and were being a bit more positive with it again. In fact, the tide seemed to completely turn once more. With our fresh energy and new style, we were the ones dominating play and not letting Boavista have a sniff which I was very pleased with.

With fifteen minutes left, I made the last of my changes to keep the team energy up. Taylor and Bamba came off for Cooper and Wootton with the latter playing left-back, Erwin took up his secondary role as a winger coming on for Mowatt whilst Berardi came on for Byram.

Five minutes later, we doubled our advantage. Dawson whipped in a free-kick from 50 yards out near the touchline which Doukara met on the edge of the 6-yard box. 2-0 Leeds.

We ended the second half as we ended the first- on top and in complete control. The 2-0 scoreline seemed to be a very fair reflection on the balance of play in a match where we showed off the best bits about our team.

Boavista 0-2 Leeds United
Leeds scorers: Bamba 48, Doukara 80
Att: 1,900
Man of the Match: Sol Bamba

The day after the Boavista game, my hotel room became like my office. I had my laptop at the ready on the desk, my phone and notebook by my side and a cup of tea in my hand. Today was business time.

I calculated that from the revenue retained from the transfers, I should be left with around £2.5m to spend in the transfer window. Perfect. I could easily get a couple of decent wingers, a holding midfielder and a backup left back with that.

I took a quick look through my emails and found the scouting update I had requested from my scout, Terry Potter. He replied with an attached database of players he had reports on, with his reports attached to the record of each player.

I started out by filtering out those who weren't transfer listed, thus giving me a list of players whose clubs were happy to let them go.

I only found one player that matched what I was looking for, but I was pretty impressed all the same. I managed to find Matty Taylor, Burnley's 33-year-old left-winger. We could definitely use some quality out wide, and his experience in the Premier League could provide that.

What I was even more ecstatic about was his price tag. Sean Dyche had set the asking price at just £190,000. I thought to myself 'we could probably afford him before the Bianchi and Sloth money comes in'. I had no hesitation in knocking up an email to the address that the report provided me with, approaching Burnley with a £120,000 straight cash deal.

Not long later, I took a call from Sean Dyche. He told me that if I wanted a straight cash deal, I would have to pay the full £190,000. I thought about it a while, before coming up with an offer that consisted of £130,000 up front, followed by £60,000 over the following 30 months. Sean seemed to like this idea, as did the club's financial when I informed him after. We struck a gentleman's agreement and got the paperwork sorted immediately, when I got through to the club's admin staff to get them to sign the papers.

So that was that, soon I'd have an agent to talk to. I decided to leave it at that and take it one transfer at a time. I took a shower to kill time as I waited for the email from Matty's agent.

Sure enough, the email was in my inbox half an hour later. He was asking for £22,000 a week, with £145,000 to be paid in agency fees and £195,000 as a sign on fee, on top of no fewer than six bonuses and clauses.

Of course I got straight on the phone and told him I was having none of it. £22,000 would make him the highest earner at the club, which for a 33-year-old wasn't good for us. After ten minutes of tough negotiation, we came to a conclusion that I wasn't happy with in the short run, but one that I figured would sort itself out once Sloth and Bianchi leave.

We agreed on a £16,000 a week contract until 2017. The agency fee was negotiated down to £125,000 and the sign on fee was taken down to £150,000. In addition, he settled for bonuses for appearances, goals and international appearances, as well as a one-year optional contract extension by the club and a 20% raise if we go up to the Premier League.

Straight after negotiations, I took a look at the news regarding Matty Taylor. There had been no other reports about him being in talks with any other club, just news surfacing that Burnley had accepted a bid from us. It was at this point that my phone went off.

It was Phil Hay, chief sports editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP). He wanted a quote and I gave him the truth. I told him the reports were true that we had had an offer accepted for Matty Taylor and that we had presented his agent with an offer to go and think about.

I also had a similar conversation with Adam Pope of BBC Radio Leeds. I enjoyed a good friendship with Phil and Adam from the days I spent coaching FC Halifax Town, they saw a former Leeds player and local lad managing a team that was once again within their coverage. I often got a good chat with them whenever they were on club premises so I knew them pretty well and trusted them.

In the least surprising article (to me at least) of the day, the headline on the back pages of the YEP the following day read: LEEDS IN TALKS TO SIGN BURNLEY WINGER.

Pre-season fixture 3: Maritimo vs Leeds United
Venue: Estadio Dos Barreiras, Funchal
Kick-off: Sunday 12th July 2015 4pm
Weather: Breezy 28C

One thing that I imagine really irritates football fans in Portugal is going to Maritimo away. Maritimo play in Funchal, a coastal town on the island of Madeira, which is closer to Morocco than it is to Portugal.

This obviously meant that having already flown out to Albufueira in the South of Portugal, we had to get on another plane to Madeira Airport in Santa Cruz, an hour's drive from Funchal. One thought going through my head was that any away fans travelling deserved a gold medal, especially if they'd also been to the fixture at Bessa on Thursday.

Another one developed over time. It was how we were going to set up for this fixture. Maritimo are a good side, but no better than Boavista, and we sunk them the other day. I decided to set up with the 4-4-2 that won us the game on Thursday, I just needed to put the right players in the right positions.

As if the travelling wasn't bizarre enough, the ground was also looking a little topsy turvy. The Esatdio Dos Barreiras is currently undergoing renovation. The aim seems to be to have your typical modern bowl-shaped ground, with steep stands quite like those at the New York Stadium, home to Rotherham United.

For the time being, it was just the stand opposite the old Main Stand and the end to the right as you face out onto the pitch that had been completed. The Main Stand was still there, but closed. To the left was a stand nearing completion, but still not open.

The completed wing stand holds the dressing room and tunnel, on the opposite side to where the dugouts are so I'd have to walk across the pitch to get to my battle station, although I imagine the dugouts will switch sides once the ground is completed.

You would have thought I'd be used to seeing Leeds fans travel well regardless of distance, but the sight of a sold-out allocation (albeit only 500) made me wonder if there was any distance our lot wouldn't go.

As the warmup ended, I strode down the touchline to applaud the away fans and thank them for coming before disappearing down the tunnel to address my team.

"Again lads, you played very well against Boavista the other day. I was pleased with how we played with the 4-4-2 so we'll stick to that today. Like I've said before, impress me and you'll play again"

Leeds United starting XI (4-4-2): Silvestri, Byram, Bamba, Bellusci, Taylor, Dallas, Cook, Adeyemi, Mowatt, Doukara, Wood

Subs: Turnbull, Cooper, Berardi, Antenucci, Wootton, Philips, Botaka, Dawson, Erwin

We were back in our plain all-white kit, shooting at the unfinished end stand to my right.

Maritimo started the game on the front foot, asking questions of our defence. They had a few decent efforts at goal inside the opening 10 minutes, but nothing to worry us greatly. Nevertheless, I decided we needed to start putting in a bigger effort, so I instructed the team to push up and put the hosts under pressure.

Our first real effort at goal came 11 minutes in, when Stuart Dallas found Sam Byram down the right. Byram pulled it back to the edge of the box on his first touch before Adeyemi blazed a first time effort over the bar.

Silvestri's first test came on 25 minutes, when striker Fabio Abreu broke free of the defence and drilled an effort towards the bottom corner. The Italian did well to get down and tip it behind for a Maritimo corner.

There was very little in the game until the 37th minute. Whether it was supposed to be a ball back to a defender or the keeper, a horrendously judged backwards pass from midfielder Rui Torres crossed the path of Wood. The Kiwi's first touch took him past the last defender before he blasted home the opener.

The goal was perhaps undeserved given we had offered very little, but it was just what the game needed, and gave us the initiative we were crying out for.

However, we still continued to struggle against Maritimo's 4-3-3, and I knew I'd need to change the system at half time. We switched to a flat 4-5-1 at half time, as Dawson came on for Doukara.

"Right lads, maybe it's the tactic which is why I've switched things around a bit, but we don't really deserve to be in front. Having said that, we've coped with them pretty well and if we can take advantage of our numerical advantage in the middle, we might just make this look a little more convincing"

Suddenly, we found we saw more of the ball than we did in the first half, and I think it would be fair to say we just about shaded the first 10 minutes of the second half.

The early part of the second half was a bit cat-and-mouse, and midway through the half I made a couple of changes to keep things fresh. Dallas was replaced by Botaka whilst Kalvin Philips came on for Adeyemi.

20 minutes from time, the game swayed once more. Sam Byram put in a brilliant high cross from a deep position on the right hand side which was met with a brilliant volley at the far post by his fellow academy graduate Alex Mowatt to double our lead.

It was this show of creativity from Byram that encouraged me to make a change that would allow him to play in a more advanced position. Berardi came on for Cook, in a change that would see Mowatt play in the middle, Botaka play on the left and Byram push up to the right wing whilst Berardi slotted in at right back.

With the game hurtling towards a conclusion, I saw fit to bring off Wood who despite feeding off scraps in this game, did very well to bury the one decent chance. He was replaced by Antenucci.

The decision to bring Byram into a more advanced role seemed to work a treat. It was Berardi who came forward in a wide position before feeding it into Byram. Byram beat two players before making his way to the byline to pull it back for Philips. Philip's shot was parried straight into the path of Antenucci, who effectively killed off the game.

I guess you could say the result was generous given we weren't at the races for most of the game, but we were clinical and that was the difference between the two sides. Maritimo came at us with a hatful of chances they should have buried and came away 3-0 losers.

Maritimo 0-3 Leeds United
Scorers: Wood 38, Mowatt 72, Antenucci 88
Att: 1,906
Man of the Match: Sam Byram

Nice work man, hopefully you can return Leeds to their glory

Thanks, it's been an encouraging start, albeit just friendly matches

We now had five days to recharge the batteries before we take on Reading. With all the travelling, two games in four days was a real early test not only of the players' fitness, but their character also.

What also drew a lot of character, was to beat Maritimo 3-0 when most players were knackered. It was also a team that were widely expected to beat us, so the victory was satisfying.

Sloth and Bianchi had finally completed their departures to Fulham and Sassuolo respectively just hours before the Maritimo game which finally gave us something to spend on strengthening the side.

But I wasn't going to jump the gun and send in offers for every Tom, Dick and Harry that sprung to mind. I firstly wanted to wait for the Matty Taylor transfer to be finalised so that I knew where we stood on the budget.

I checked Twitter to see what rumours were going around. According to the slightly less informed sources, we were ready to put in a bid for Southampton's Jason McCarthy as well as Norwich's Jamar Loza. Neither players are in a position we need to strengthen so I had no idea where that came from.

Phil Hay was still taking quotes from me, which made his tweeting slightly more accurate. Such tweets have said "According to the club, Matty Taylor should have completed his transfer within the next few days"; "Also rumours regarding McCarthy and Loza are false".

After an impressive first season at the Riverside, Kike seems to be attracting the interest of a few big names in football. One of those is Bundesliga outfit Hamburger SV, who are reportedly ready to present Middlesbrough with a £5m offer for him.

A part of me was hoping he'd leave, then we don't have to face him when we travel up there in September. Another part of me wanted him to stay. It'd be a great advert for the Championship if Middlesbrough could keep a player of his calibre at the club.

At this point, it was time to turn our attention to Reading. Steve Clarke's side are still yet to play a friendly, which means they should be more fresh than we are at the moment. However, it will also mean they won't have had any match practice and could be a little rusty which will give us a boost.

Like us, Reading aren't expected to set the Championship alight, with most media outlets predicting a 14th placed finish for the Royals. It'll be a good test for us because they're not a bad side, and it will be a chance to see how we fare against one of the better sides expected to finish in the middle of the Championship.

It definitely won't be an easy fixture, but then again neither was Arsenal. Neither was Boavista. Neither was Maritimo. Anything can happen in a game of football.

I'm 40 years old and I've never been in a relationship (that is, if you disregard my two-weeker when I was 11).

In my playing days, I was more a one-night-stand kind of guy, so I didn't find attraction hard. I'm too career driven, and that is often the reason for most divorces and breakups, so I've never seen the point in trying.

I do have a son though, which may seem strange. One of these one-night-stands I had was with someone who had very strong views on no contraception. She didn't tell me until afterwards and 9 months later, along came Paul. I managed to convince the woman that because of her failure to tell me she planned on keeping a baby, we had it on my terms, being that the kid was her problem and that I send the kid money on his birthday only.

As easy as that sounds, it also makes it morally wrong for me to just turn up and play Dad when it suits me, so I have no plans to ever suddenly pretend to be a father. I have a few friends with dickhead dads that tried that and failed miserably.

I do need some company however. Luckily, I'm in a high paying job, meaning I could afford a dog and a dog sitter to look after the dog when I'm at work. He's a springer spaniel and his name is Jerry, and he's my little bundle of joy when I'm off work. Most of the time, I take him to work. He's well trained so he behaves when I walk him around the training ground and the players love him too.

Speaking of players, we finally got my first recruit signed up for the club. Matty Taylor arrives from Burnley in a £190,000 deal.

The deal was finalised on Tuesday, the same day on which he passed a medical at Thorp Arch before flying straight out to Portugal to join the rest of the lads. They took to him pretty well and liked the idea of having a winger with years of Premier League experience in our ranks.

Obviously, he strengthens us greatly on the pitch, but he's going to be really useful come March when our new wave of academy graduates fight it out to earn youth contracts. Imagine being a 15/16-year-old winger being taken under the wing of Matty Taylor, a pro footballer who's been playing in the Premier League for almost all of his career.

These are definitely exciting times at the club and now the hunt goes on for my second signing of the summer.