The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Monday 9th August)

Good Morning. It's Monday 9th September, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


Real test ends in stalemate

Leeds recovered from the worse possible start to take a share the spoils against La Liga outfit Villarreal, at the LNER Community Stadium, York on Saturday evening!

The UEFA Europa League Champions took the lead within the first ten seconds of the game when a speculative cross bounced off Robin Koch's chest, and into the back of the net.

Leeds made amends nine minutes later with a set piece. Raphinha's corner was only partially cleared and fell nicely for Klich. The Polish International showed great composure to tuck the effort away from the edge of the area!

Six minutes before half time the Whites were ahead. This time Dallas was the provider from a corner from the left hand side! Cooper 's header rocked the underside of the crossbar and Bamford was on hand to stab the ball home from a few yards. This was no more than Leeds deserved. They had created the better chances since their disastrous start. They may have felt unfortunate not to to go in at Half time further ahead after the Leeds no 9 was bought down in the box earlier in the game!

Bamford was unlucky not to add to his goal in the second half; only a goal line clearance saved the visitor's blushes! Unai Emery' team were rewarded for their perseverance with nine minutes remaining. Second half substitute Raba finding the back of the net after good work from Abiol.

It was certainly Leeds best performance of their pre season. It was also nice to see Leeds score twice from corners! Let's hope they're ready for Old Trafford on Sunday!

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Gaich on the move

Adolfo Gaich was left out of the CSKA Moscow match day squad that lost to Dinamo Moscow yesterday prompting speculation that the 22yo is on the move.

We heard last week via Italian news outlet 'TuttoMercatoWeb' that Leeds had made an offer for the striker, but further media sources suggest Gaich would prefer the warmer climates of Mediterranean! News filtered through suggesting the Argentine striker wanted to stay in Italy.

He had spent the second half of the season. with Benevento netting twice over 15 appearances, but was unable to help them avoid relegation! Gaich represented Argentina at the Olympics. His performances mirrored Argentina's, who were dumped out at the group stage!

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Lukic to Elland Road

The Sun are reporting that Serbian International Sasa Lukic is on Marcelo Bielsa's short list of midfielders to use as backup for Kalvin Phillips. The combative midfielder has won 18 caps for his Country and is available for the bargain price of £8.5m.

The 24yo has represented Serie A outfit Torino 100 times since his transfer five years ago!

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Town turn down bid for O'Brien

Leeds have had a bid of £3m for Huddersfield's Lewis O'Brien turned down by the Terriers. The midfielder has just entered the last year of his contract at the John Smiths Stadium, yet it is believed his employers have clause in his contract that they can extend it by a further twelve months!

Huddersfield value their star asset at 10m, a price tag they slapped on the 22yo once they heard about the interest from Elland Road! Will Leeds increase their offer, if so by how much? It is believed that O'Brien is keen for the move to happen, but can the two clubs reach agreement?

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Morning all

Gaich is one of those continued rumours I don’t believe is true and I also hope they’re not, there is no appeal in signing him, if by a miracle the rumours are true I hope Bielsa has genuinely spotted something special, I’d rather have kept Augustin!

Sasa Lukic rumours started from Tutto Mercato Web, I’ve no idea if they’re (TMW) click bait or a worthy news source.

O’Brien is the only 100% genuine target, I said the other day surely even £8m is a lot to pay for an U23 player, I guess whether we offer more or not depends on how quickly Bielsa thinks he might make the first team.

I’d not imagine it being just yet so maybe we could strike a deal which includes loaning him back to his parent club at least until Christmas? Either way, it’s not the kind of marquee signing I was hoping for so it looks like we’re starting against Man U with the same squad that finished last season as no way will Firpo be ready for this one. If he was fit it’s not the kind of game to blood a new player with little game time, a new team and a new country..

 

Time flies

 

Thanks god its 9th September and just Checking BBC results page to see how our first few games went and how Adolpho Gaich is settling in

As we havent signed a winger yet even though Noa Lang and Noni Madueki are still available and Madueki scored 2 belters in the Dutch Super Cup on Saturday and scored in the match before too. Could this mean that Bielsa prefers to give Summerville a go?

 

Time will have flown for those waiting to see us at Old Trafford on Sunday that's for sure!!

Morning all

 

I actually can't wait till September 1st so all this Jackanory transfer speculation can go in the bottom drawer for a bit.
22 and half more days of it left though.
Just waiting for the Messi links now in which the brain-dead Twatter people will start to believe it happening.

 

He keeps on posting it's Sunday. Poor chap, will miss the game.

 

Is Raphinha wasted on the wing. Would Leeds be more productive if he played in Hernandez's old role?

 

Afternoon all,

Cant be bothered with transfer speculation, far too much of it is just newspaper /clickbait bollocks.

On a slightly different note who would like us to take the cups seriously this season? How good would a trip to Wembley be?
Would lifting a trophy help take us to the next level?

 

I'd take a cup run any season. But nobody seems to treat them serious anymore until they get to the latter stages. it's like ok we will field a weakened team till we get to this point if we still involved great. if we don't oh well.
The cups have lost their sparkle the FA Cup 3rd round was a massive day on the calender now it seems it's a hindrance to the prem boys even some of the champ boys too as it gets in the way of their league programme.
Cups defo need a uplift I don't know how it can be uplifted but they aren't what they used to be.

 

Since the Premier League begun and European competitions overhauled, the FA Cup has really been sidelined.
Only by giving the FA Cup winners a CL spot would it improve, IMO, and that’s not gonna be acceptable to the PL or EUFA.

I’d love us taking either of the Cups seriously, because we have no chance of winning the PL anytime soon. I also don’t mind blooding a few fringe players, but as a small percentage of the team lineup.

MOT

 

Or UEFA even

 

I would love us to take the cups seriously. I really believe the league Cup is very winnable each year. It may not be the most prestigious cup but how nice would it be to see Cooper lifting another trophy, especially at Wembley.

 

If we bring in a winger and a midfielder I would deffo take the cups seriously. If we dont then pointless because we dont have a big enough squad and are 2 players down as nobody has replaced Pablo and Berardi yet.

if we dont sign anyone else then the best we can drum up would be Klaesson, McCarron, Drameh, Struijk and Cresswell with Koch in front of the defence and Poveda/Summerville, Costa, Gelhardt and Roberts and Greenwood. Subs Bate, Dallas, Miller, McGurk, Jenkins

 

FA cup probably slightly easier than League Cup. The 2 legged semi finals give the likes of Man City an even bigger advantage (although they still won it with 1 leg last season). Think timing often suits them too with majority of rounds done early season. 4 in a row they've won!

 

----------------Meslier---------------
Ayling-----Llorente---Struijk-----Firpo
------------------Phillips------------------
Harrison-Klich-Raphinha-Summerville
-----------------Bamford------------------

 

Should be simple really...which means it won't happen.

Top 4 European nations get the possibilty of an extra Champions League spot for their domestic Cup winners. So Spain, Italy, France and England all get a boost to their domestic Cup competitions which will increase attendances and TV revenues.

The 4 Cup winners would then have their own qualifying competiton with the winners going into the CL group stages and the 3 losers going into the Europa League (as they would have anyway)...that way UEFA would only have to provide one extra CL place but they would have to 2 semi finals and a final to sell during pre season to earn extra revenues for themselves.

Oh and if the domestic Cup winners have already qualified for CL (via League position) then their place in the qualifying competition goes to the losing finalist or semi finalist (decided on League position) and so on. Means you could get a shot at the CL even if you only get to the semi final of the FA Cup, or possibly even the quarter final in some years.

 

Never believed that the cup winners should get a CL spot just for winning a few games when you might make the final without playing it premier league team. Do you really think Wigan should have got a place, they got relegated that season or Millwall fo being runners up?

 

Looks like Cody Drameh is about to be selected for England U21s, which means hes progressed through the U19s and 20s and is now high on Southgates eyeline. Bielsa must realise he is the 2nd best RB at the club now

 

Wigan would then have had to beat 2 of the Cup winners from Italy, Spain & France so very unlikely they would have made it to the CL.

That's why this method is a great idea...plus some fantastic pre season games instead of meaniless friendlies for the 4 domestic Cup winners from Europe's top leagues.