Would you have been happy if we had paid well over the odds for him,? a fee was agreed, it was Swansea dragging their feet because of other sales of players If we had paid 5m for him and he was only worth 2.5m you lot would have been moaning even more, the club just can't win.
I’m repeating myself here, but what the heck. Who was to blame on 31st of jan for the dan James fiasco. Clearly Swansea. Who was to blame for the circumstances that allowed the fiasco. Clearly it was Leeds transfer policy. We were players down, we only stepped up interest in James after getting casilla, which dragged on because we were after other keepers first but everyone wanted a fee. We were two attacking midfielders short going in to January, it takes time to bed in players especially for Bielsa ball. There is no justification for not having targets lined up on jan 1st. If you get messed around with choice 1, you draw a line and move on to the next one. Is it difficult to get deals done in jan? of course it is, but other clubs manage it. We were top of the table, facing going in to the second half of the season with a smaller squad than we had in August ... but we waited to see how much money we had left after the keeper deal to go after James. The only credible explanation is a lack of funds or an unwillingness to spend. Would James have made the difference? hey he could have broken his leg in the first game, but looking at him, on balance of course he would. Winning the play offs will be a get out of jail free card but it won’t mask that jan was a disaster.
Maybe we should live the dream, borrow loads of dosh and buy Messi, Ronaldo, etc Bolton don't have a pot to piss in, we're in the play offs without a pot to piss in as you say
The pot to piss in camp of Milky and Eire is actually the truth as we dont have massive war chest. Derby, Wendies, Villa all have a punishment to come for overspending and Swansea are also in the crap. Favs to go up are clubs on parachute payments as happened with Norwich so fair play to the blunts who did it without. WBA, Villa in the play offs on parachute payments and better squads of players. Derby have thrown the kitchen sink at it for 3 seasons now. Without investment its very very tough and we need either a new owner or a big investor
Oh it will all be forgotten fella, and unlike some I’m looking forward to the games and am still optimistic... point is we’ve allowed ourselves to enter a lottery and we missed the opportunity to safeguard against that happening.
Indeed doc. I don’t really mean it to be too critical... if we don’t have it we don’t have it. I’m just saying what I believe. I said it at the time, I just think he thought we were top and could get away with it. In his shoes i’d Have sold all my relatives to try to secure it. Hey maybe he tried... that bit I don’t know. Obviously, Bielsa was saying publically he was happy with the squad so maybe he wasn’t pushing the agenda. Roofe, klich are down to a year on their contracts... a year or so ago everyone and his wife were getting 4 year deals. Now two of our key first teamers are down to the red zone. I worry about next year if we don’t go up. So let’s win these damn play offs!
To be honest, I was fearing the playoffs until yesterday. Somehow, those two extraordinary CL results reminded me anything is possible in football. Like you say though, should have been Sheffield in them and not us. Also saw interesting Hay tweet that Villa havent beaten any of the four teams that finished above them all season for what thats worth
Whilst not ideal, we arguably played our best football with Berardi in for jansson at the start of the season. Though I guess it might mean Phillips dropping back. Jansson’s form has been patch too. Given our lack of creativity, Roberts is a concern. He’s been hit and miss too but he would get space against derby and I think it would suit him.
Swansea were to blame for it failing on deadline day, we were to blame for allowing it to enter deadline day. We were also to blame for not having an alternative option. The Blades signed 3-4 players, those around us signed players, we put all our eggs into securing James and it backfired.
We’ve also wasted a lot of money on players who are out on loan and considered not good enough for Bielsa, throw in the Saiz fiasco and we as a club handled January terribly. Could we really not have sold him to someone for £5m that would have helped finance another deal? Top of the table and sell out games, the board couldn’t have predicted that and probably budgeted less so I don’t believe our finances are that bad.
The majority of clubs do business on deadline day, you can't blame the club for taking it to the death, it was Swansea ****ing about having James sat at Elland Road for a whole day waiting for the deal to go through and if we had an alternative the wrist slashers would be up in arms saying we were never after James in the first place
You don’t think his other business interests floundering effect things? He said himself last summer, they’re separate entities but obviously the success of each of them Impacts on his ability to invest in the others.. or words to that effect
If we don't go up the 49ers buy another chunk of shares which should take them to 20%. If Bielsa stays he will need 3 top signings with one being a top striker. That takes cash, but we should be getting cica £6m for Ekuan and Saiz and look to have wasted £8m on the likes of Felix, Anita, Grot, LDB but should get money for Ideguchi and Cibicki
So essentially we’re looking for a very rich owner looking to make himself poor by spending loads of money on Leeds to keep fans happy? Good luck advertising and finding one
I have the Samaritans on speed dial just in case. Sat in the evening sun with a glass of white. Cant help reflect on getting sheff utd promoted by our pathetic efforts since new year.
