Good Morning. It's Thursday 4th November, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road A midfielder in the Summer would have made all the difference If there was one glaring mistake Leeds made during last Summer's transfer window, it was not bringing a new midfielder into the fold. Whilst that much is obvious, how much impact would one extra player have made to the team? A lot, according to Leeds journalist Phil Hay. We were linked with so many players, it was difficult to keep up, but there were two players in particular that caught Bielsa's eye. Huddersfield's Lewis O'Brien and Conor Gallagher of Chelsea came very close to penning deals at Elland Road, but Huddersfield's expectations were too high, and Gallagher opted for Crystal Palace. It's easy to look back in anger, but in reality O'Brien wouldn't have been ready for Premiership football, and it's doubtful that Gallagher would have been given an opportunity to prove himself, apart from the odd cameo role, which probably played a major part in his decision making! According to Hay:- "Another centre mid, fresh and in form, would have made a difference to this squad. It’s glaringly obvious. I know the reasons why it didn’t happen but again, Leeds need to consider ways of avoiding this scenario in the future". please log in to view this image There is only so long you can hold Struijk back Liam Cooper has obvious limitations, and there is only so long you can hold Struijk back before he replaces the Scottish International. These are the thoughts of Phil Hay who was replying to a fan on 'The Athletic' Website. "I can see Struijk coming up on the rails and there is only so long you can hold him back for but I understand why Cooper is in there. There will definitely be a changing of the guard at some stage". "My view with Cooper is that he has obvious limitations and if Leeds are to be a top six club, they’ll need better (in other positions too). But you don’t transition from the Championship to the PL top six in a couple of seasons and it does seem like some people are desperate to get Cooper gone. Seems strange to me, especially considering the part he’s played". please log in to view this image Stop illegal Streaming - Radrizzani Speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani has called on broadcasters, governments and telecommunications agencies to work more closely together to stop illegal streaming. According to the Italian, $29bn is stolen by piracy each year! "As a content owner we need to give more possibilities, freedom and access to users and that's the only way to tackle the biggest problem of the sports industry, which is piracy," "About $29bn is stolen by pirates, and the governments, telecoms and right holders need to tackle it together. It's money that should be legalised and be in the right channels to produce more energy and resources to develop the sports and the youth sports." "The aim is to become one of the most relevant groups in sports media, distribution of content but also creation as well as talent management,” "Our strategy is always to prioritise the content and not focus on the distribution. We want to be agnostic and put the content on every platform possible. What should change is the way to package the content and the price policy. Different prices and formats and ways to access. “It should be up to the user to access it the preferred way they want according to their budget. There are people who don't want to miss a game, others want to watch games only sometimes. “We need to continue to grow. It's a new challenge because we want to partner with telecoms and social media to change the access.” Perhaps if Broadcasters made it easier and more cost-effective to watch these events, there's would be the need for streaming. Currently, Sky and BT charge £14.95 to watch a Premiership game. Whilst it's cheaper to take out a contract with a Satellite provider, the extra costs associated, and the various price hikes over the year make the cost unsustainable for many! I for one, would rather be called a pirate than a blood sucking leach! please log in to view this image
Morning all We did the Cooper thing to death yesterday and think a majority consensus think he has been great, a great club captain and been a much better player under Bielsa than he gets credit for. He will be worth money we say bye bye and he will get a good contract with someone in the Championship. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that maybe we should recall Bogusz in January. Firstly because we dont have that midfield player we should have bought, and Bogusz is now proving to be a very very good creator and scorer of goals. Another article today has Leeds fans asking why we dont bring him back. Hes now 20 so older than Lewis Bate and is obviously more experienced as he is a regular Polish U21 International. There is of course the issue of laying Spanish League 2 and Premier League? We dont have anyone in the club who can play that crucial role, except him because its too soon for Bate. But we know Bielsa would rather play square pegs than change? So far this season Bogusz has won goal of ghe month 3 times and has been MotM 6 times and tops the leagues assist table. He is also fav to win leagues player of the year. If you have it you have it whatever level? I have stopped handing over cash to Sky, BT, LUTV as I got sick of being ripped off. I remember when HDTV arrived at Sky and I signed up to the lot and had it all for £25 per month, within 18 month I was paying £53, and on top of that I did a deal with BT so got free BT Sport which then within 12 month saw my BT bill triple in price and as LUTV was shyt also a waste of money. So I binned the lot and now watch free sport whenever I want by streaming. Yes illegal but we all know it really costs peanuts to show a live match so why are we charged huge amounts. I think the days of Sky are gone and a new platform is needed where millions all around the world can watchfor peanuts and because millions will watch the platform will make a hell of a lot more than Sky charging Watford fans £15 to see Watford play BHA where 37 fans have paid. Robbing twots
Morning all, I appreciate how tough it is to come to with talking points each day Ell but I agree with doc that the Cooper thing has been done to death. So has the cm debate. The illegal streaming thing will never go away while people are price out of buying things legally.
Morning all. Noticed last night that we're 8th in the 6 game form table and that our relative form is 1.13 points per game which equates to 42 points for the season if applied to the remaining games. Statements like " nobody would have seen their collapse in form coming " and where has it all gone wrong " in yesterday's breakfast debate are so wide of the mark it's untrue. There has always been an agenda against our club, well since the Revie days anyway, but it's the self inflicted damage from those in and around our club which is the most detrimental and that includes our own support as well. Radrizani, Orta, Kinnear etc should know that now is not the time to be quoted in the media and just let Bielsa get on with the job he's more than capable of. Phil Hay at the Athletic is of course free to comment as he wishes, but as he writes for a subscription only publication let's leave his negativity behind the paywall please.
The Huddersfield Town reality as financial situation is explained https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/spor...d-town-financial-situation-discussed-22061576
One thing they got wrong on the parachute payments was that it was more than the £30m because if I remember one club bounced back up so didnt get their payment which then goes into the parachute pot to be shared. But it does highlight the plight of clubs in the EFL and the money ghey get from the EFL and how it gets shared. We remember so well that we were on tv 23 and 24 times in our final 2 seasons and got paid around £7m against Watford being on telly twice in the Prem but they got £100m. Radz was fuming about that because Sky get an big uplift in viewers to watch us which means a bigger share of advertising revenues for Sky as viewers were higher to watch us than 15 of the 20 Premier league clubs. Its a disgrace what Sky and BT do
Some great points pal, but good news doesn't sell. For whatever season doom and gloom gets people talking. Whilst Phil Hay works for a paid subscription service, his inside knowledge is usually the closest to the mark!
I thought John Swift would be an affordable positive signing and now he's being mentioned again. Harrison Reed would be a good addition too, though expensive i should imagine. Re Cooper, he's no Maldini but any player who could be a big improvement would be expensive. Really like the look of Struijk. Money would be better spent in midfield and up front
Was having a wee think about Struijk there, reflecting in particular his u23 appearances when he was suspended. He played #8 for one match & slotted into another round hole for another - & most importantly, took to it like a duck to water. I'm beginning to wonder if this lad could actually play midfield for us, or even possibly play up front. I think he has all the attributes necessary. A younger version Dallas, perhaps? Thoughts?
I’ve said it countless times but I don’t think it’s easy to be a defender for a bielsa team. Our man marking means when the press is broken (or the ball lost in transition with your fullbacks bombing forward) you have top class forwards running at you with acres of space. You’re also expected to cut out balls early by intercepting and squeezing your opponents do it’s easy to get turned/make a tit of yourself. All considered, cooper’s done great for us. I’d prefer him to not take so many chances with shirt holding and to never make mistakes… but back in the real world he’s done really well for us. Leaking goals doesn’t necessarily mean poor defenders.
not mobile enough for me. Like him as centre half, with time could be a decent dm… has decent ball playing skills… but would rather we kept him as CH and bought a midfielder.
Similar thoughts to me before I watched him as a #8. I'm not suggesting that he is the answer to our midfield problems, btw, just musing over the possibility. I think he could become our next Rolls Royce, given his current skillset & simply wondered if anyone else had had similar thoughts about his capabilities.
4 of those 6 matches were against sides in the bottom 7. Not the most representative form table, Jamster.
