Good Morning. It's Thursday 9th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road. Leeds have 8m activation clause to snap up Harrison According to Phil Hay, Leeds have an agreement with Manchester City that they can sign Jack Harrison on a permanent basis for 8m. The 23yo has contributed five goals and six assists in 26 appearances for the Whites. Leeds can activate the sales simply by offering 8m, whether they stay in the Championship or are promoted. I dare say Leeds will wait until the end of the season to ensure they stay within the FFP rules and regulations. please log in to view this image Che Adams - keen on ER switch Phil Hay has also revealed that Saints hitman Che Adams is keen on a move to Elland Road. The 23yo is yet to score for the South Coast club in 15 appearances (mostly as substitute). We heard last week that their Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl is not keen on allowing a player he paid 15m for last Summer to leave the club, unless they strengthen up front. However, the former Chief Football Writer for the YEP said he had heard behind the scenes that Leeds have “confidence that they can get it [the Adams deal] done”. Leeds have given the Saints the rest of this week to get back to them, or they will move on to other targets. please log in to view this image Leeds top on stats Now that we are more than halfway through the Championship season, lets take a look at the stats where Leeds are top of the Championship! Do any of these stats surprise you? Is this a harder or easier league based upon previous seasons? Most games won - 15 Most chances created - 310 Most shots - 307 Most shots on target - 131 Most clean sheets - 12 Most touches in opposition box - 765 Most corners - 184 Fewest shots on target faced - 69 Best goal difference - +22 please log in to view this image
8 mill for Harrison looks a good deal. If we have the money then get that done at the end of the season. Che Adam's was a beast last season in the Championship playing up top on his own. Don't care if he has been ****e at Southampton. Sometimes moves just don't work. We are the best team so far. This league is a marathon so we really need to strengthen the depth of our squad to give us fresh impetus. I'm thinking we need a replacement for Forshaw as it doesn't look like he is coming back. If there is no money then get O'Kane back working with the squad. He has good experience which could prove vital. As long as his head is in the right place.
Morning all... With the amount of players we shifted before the season started including Roofe and Pontus and the fact we brought in loans rather than permanents I just don’t believe we are anywhere near triggering ffp I honestly find it quite staggering when you look at how small the squad is, I think it was Jammy who pointed out, we’ll lose Phillips anyway if we don’t go up, let’s splash £20m and go for it now, if we fail we’ll get more than that back from the sale of Phillips alone
Morning all, Really hope Harrison gets to continue playing on the right-hand side. He's good wide-left but outstanding on the opposite flank - looked twice the player. Che Adams - difficult one that. Is he a hold the ball up Bamford type player or more direct like Nketiah? I remember his goals from last season but not his general all round play. Knowing how Bielsa improves every player he works with maybe he can be moulded into a combination of both. Also he's been quoted as saying he's keen to come to Leeds but is he really ok with swapping a PL bench for a Championship one and playing second fiddle to Bamford? (Initially at least) Maybe he can play wide left with Harrison on the right and Bamford up top? I do think the pros outweigh the cons on this one and he'd make a good signing.
Read an article recently that were actually 20m short of triggering ffp. Its a red herring being used a lot to excuse lack of investment. No likelihood of breaking it as we only loan players anyway for the most part. Morning by the way
If Adams is our first choice then who am I to say Bielsa's wrong. He obviously must have Bamford like talents and more prolific than Bamford plus twice the price of Bamford. But we do need someone who can do damage up front plus apparently we have the Chievo keeper coming in for the U23s and a winger also lined up. Eddies new club should be announced today and it could be the Wendies which should be double the fun with Monk at the weekend
On the FFFP thing my understanding and in reality is via Mike Thornton we lost £14m the season before last and £12m last season and are expected to make another loss this season due to wages being doubled in the last 18 months. So in reality we can only afford to lose £13m this year. i believe we brought in £30m in sales this Summer but that cash is staged over a couple of years and we spent big cash on Eddie with no rebate but will now save circa £60kpwk in wages for Eddie and Clarke. The reality is we could breach as a maximum of £39m losses allowed only over 3 years
Morning Doc. I'm sure I heard that Radz didn't invest the full amount that he was allowed to last year so it may not be 39 million but more like 32 million. Can't remember where I read that but it was definitely out there in the summer when Pontus was sold.
Surely with the saved rent on the ground and filling ER we’re batting within our means? I can only assume it’s the coaching and staff wage bill that’s pushing us near the limit
Hey'up Forza, Based on Harrison's first half performance down right v Arsenal I tend to agree with you, if he plays like that all time down right then he'll be a good asset to team. For me, Harrison is a 75% individual player, when he goes into "I want to dribble around everyone" mode he tends to lose ball a lot, this brings our attacks and counters to a complete halt handing possession back to opposition. He's an individual and not a team player most of time, which is probably one of reasons Man City let him go out on loan. He seems to me to be someone who wants to be the hero / Saviour and tries to grab the limelight, his goal tally isn't impressive despite the chances he's had. In 2 seasons he's scored 9 goals in championship. The fact Man City are happy to sell him tells me he hasn't improved to the standard they were hoping for. Unless Bielsa can cure him of his greed and teach him to cross or pass the ball early, then he'll be more of a liability than an asset.......
LL I think he's a great asset to Leeds United wherever he plays but then again what do I know No he wouldn't get in the Man City first team but there's only a select few who would. He may not have improved enough to meet their high standard but I'm pretty sure he's ahead of (£13m?) Helda Costa in Bielsa's pecking order. Great Championship player with huge potential to improve much more imo.
The trouble is you are looking at it logically. FFFP rules don't always work like that, take player buying and selling, the FFFP figure for their end of year balance is not the price paid/received, but the contract value not player value. So the figures we see could be nothing like what are used for our FFFP balance. The contract value for a player can only decrease even if his sale price has doubled.
When I look at our squad I wonder about who is good enough for the Prem or even England and Phillips and Harrison for me are England ready. Harrison has improved massively and without doubt one of the outstanding players in the league this season. £8m is a snip and £5m for Meslier even better
I was talking to a mate of mine who is a Burnley fan. He was asking which Leeds players would get in to Burnleys team. The only ones I could think of was Phillips, Klich and possibly Harrison. We both agreed Ben White but he is Brightons. My only response really was that if Leeds had the tv money Burnley had then in all probability there would be no Burnley players able to play for Leeds. One other interesting thing he told me was that for the first time in over 20 years he didn't renew his season ticket this year. He said that the Premier league was ****e and all Burnley were doing was buying cheap from the Championship in order to pocket the money and just aim to survive another year. Said it was ****e to watch and he liked it better in the lower leagues where he could watch his team actually have a go at teams instead of having 10 men behind the door. Says it's boring ****e football.
The whole idea is to do just enough to stay in the prem because every season gets you another £170m. Why spend big and fail to get into Europe which means your big spending comes straight out of profits. do what Burnley do, which is exactly what WBA did, Norwich, Newcastle Brighton, Stoke, Wigan, Watford... lets face facts: This season Burnley will make more profits from football than Man Utd because they spent big money on Maguire, whereas Burnley bought an ex player and an unused Vydra also sold a top keeper and replaced with BPF as 3rd choice. Also only pay a fraction of what Man Utd pay in wages
