Good Morning. It's Monday 28th March, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Barca to offer player plus cash as Raph agree's 5 yr deal Multiple sporting media outlets have reported over the weekend, that Raphinha has agreed personal terms with Barcelona, and is set to sign a five-year deal with the La Liga club. Whilst Leeds have officially declined to comment on the speculation, it is somewhat ironic that the positive spin coming out of ER relating to the Brazilian signing new terms, has gone rather quiet recently. As we know, the Spanish Giants don't have the funds to purchase Raphinha outright, and are set to offer cash and player to try and tempt Radrizzani to part with one of the clubs biggest assets. Martin Braithwaite (30yo Danish International forward), Neto (Portugese winger 22), Oscar Mingueza (Spanish defender 22) or Riqui Puig) Spanish midfielder 22) have all been named as players which may be surplus to requirements at the Camp Nou. please log in to view this image Bamford out for season with injury he has had for 12 months Patrick Bamford's season is all but over after Rob Price admitted that the striker would be out of action for at least six weeks with a ruptured ligament. Price, Head of Medicine and Performance at Elland Road, let it slip that Bamford has been carrying this injury for twelve months, begging the question of why Radrizzani didn't bring in at least one more goal scoring striker to Elland Road when he had the chance. The Italian Businessman has been heavily criticised by the Leeds faithful for his lack of spending power last Summer, but surely this latest news shows utter contempt and negligence! Leeds have three other forwards at the club, Rodrigo, Gelhardt and Roberts. By his own admission, Rodrigo is not a goal-scoring forward, Gelhardt has been restricted to the odd cameo role, and the less said about Roberts, the better. According to Price:- "Despite treatment and a prolonged period of rehabilitation, the injury has progressed from a partial tear to a full rupture" please log in to view this image Let Raphinha go Former Leeds shot-stopper, now pundit Paul Robinson believes Leeds should sell Raphinha this Summer. The 42yo believes the Brazilian's form has dropped this year, and has questioned his attitude. Robbo also suggests that 100 m 'wouldn't be a bad bit of business.' “I’d sell him, I’d let him go,” “I think the way that he’s performed and his attitude this season has been in and out. “You know what a top-quality player he is and what a brilliant talent he is. But he hasn’t done it on a regular basis this year. “And if they can bring in £100million – or near £100million – for him, that money will go straight back into the squad to rebuild in the summer. “I don’t think that would be a bad bit of business.” please log in to view this image Hay - No buyout clause in Raphinha's contract Interestingly, this morning Phil Hay has denied that there is a 65 m buy out clause in Raphinha's terms. According to the former Chief Football Writer for the YEP, he has been told on several occasions that the only buy out clause relates to relegation. "You’ll have read in various places about a release clause in Raphinha’s current deal. I’ve asked about this several times and been told consistently the only release clause in the contract relates to relegation (and in that scenario, it goes without saying that he would be leaving the club anyway)." "The new contract Leeds want him to sign, however, would include a release clause at a fixed price. Naturally, it suits Raphinha to have said price as low as possible and suits Leeds to have it as high as possible. That’s been a key part of negotiations between them." What is the lowest you would demand for Raphinha, bearing in mind his contract runs to October 2024. please log in to view this image Bamford's injury relates to the sole of his foot Elland Road journalist Phil Hay has confirmed that Bamford's injury that will keep him sidelined for the rest of the season relates to the sole of his foot. As we now know, the 28yo has been nursing this ailment for the last twelve months, but it has recently got worse! "Leeds announced on Sunday that Patrick Bamford will be out for at least another six weeks. He has been playing with an injury to the sole of his foot for 12 months and it has got worse." “As all of the stats show, Patrick has put his body on the line for Leeds United for a number of seasons.” please log in to view this image
Morning all, Don’t really know the truth about the Raphinha transfer rumours, but if they are true, and Barcelona is his preferred destination, and they can only afford him if Leeds are relegated, it’s a strange situation. It would actually suit Raphinha if Leeds do go down. Bit of a conflict of interests. Wouldn’t fancy him taking a last minute penalty at Brentford on the last day which he needs to convert for Leeds to secure safety Great player when he’s at it, but knowing he’s leaving anyway, and knowing relegation would get him a move to Barcelona, should he play for Leeds again this season? Playing him against Southampton will give a good indication of where his head is at. Not a dilemma that the club needs though.
Morning all, Not nice for Bamford. Plantar fascitis is one of the most painful injuries I've had in my time. The nature of it will make any rehab he needs even harder
Morning all…. Sit Raphinha down, tell him if we stay up, we’ll grant him his summer transfer to Barcelona (don’t mention a fee), if we go down we’ll look at it after the World Cup. Assuming we stay up we say okay you can leave for Barcelona once they’ve paid £80m, when they can’t raise the cash we see what the best offer is on the table and accept it, £65m minimum. If he has a great World Cup as we enter 2023 and he still has 22 months on his contract we can demand more. The ball IS NOT In Raphinha’s court, it’s in ours, resign ourselves to loosing him but we pull the strings. No player exchanges, pure cash then spend it better than we have been, pillage the best talent from the Championship for starters and give us some depth
Utter nonsense in the press about Raphinha. The club is right to ignore any speculation and just be fully focused on the next 8 games. Morning all by the way
Agreed. They already mugged us off with Firpo. I’d hate to think what other dross they have to get rid of.
We had the chance to take Riqui Puig in the summer but we didnt, so why would we look at any Barcelona player in part exchange. If we go down nobody from La Liga or anywhere else will come to Leeds. Pointless even talking about transfers yet in or out and Forza is spot on, if Rapha looks off the pace bench him and leave him there, play him in the 23s because we cannot afford passengers in these last 8 games
I don't buy into this theory that Rapha would rather see us relegated. He's been trying his balls off recently and has been so unlucky (must have hit the woodwork 5 times). It would make no sense for him to prefer to be sold for 20m instead of 100m, he gets 10% of the sale price.
Knowing 12 months ago that Bamford has this medical condition, why on earth did they not bring another striker in, last Summer?
Someone said no to more players. Just can't figure out who it was. I know one thing he thought tactics was a mint.
Afternoon all. Can't wait until all the international **** is over and we can get back to real footie.
Been thinking about summerville and from what i have seen of him he looks a lightweight. Oh sure he looks the dogs in the u23s but so does greenwood and that other lightweight lewis bate. Shakleton is another who has no position and was a midget full back under Bielsa (smart that eh?). Need to sell a few of the u23s to championship or lower. Pity poveda got injured as we might have got a couple of quid for him. Never rated him since he joined. Two fullbacks needed two mids and a proper striker not someone made of glass.
We don't need any outside speculation or speculate within the club we have 8 games to save our season. If Raph is to go he goes it's life. the club will go on. What's important is getting them 7-9 points. As if we go down we will be losing more than just Raphinha.
I'd forgot about Firpo, we need to add his refund fee on top of any other we expect if it's Barcelona
That's my only concern with Summerville. He looks lightweight. He definitely has pace, skill at a level that would do well if he could handle the physicality of the Premier league. My reason for wanting us to give him a chance is that he consistently puts in decent crosses and he has goals in him. He can finish chances really well. With the wingers tucking in a bit he might be better suited than Harrison. James can't cross or finish. We are not scoring or creating much anyway so may as well give him half an hour at the end of games to exploit the space. He can only ever be **** like the others but he may....just may find his feet and get us a couple of crucial goals that keep us up.
My gut is that Summerville is too lightweight for the premier league but it’s just a hunch. Like most, not all, of the 23s he has lacked the confidence to try anything in the few games we’ve seen him. Just giving a safe 10 yard backwards pass. Now it might just take an extended run to give him the confidence to play his natural game… who’s to say. emu may be right, but I suspect there’s a reason we’ve only seen fleeting glimpses of him at senior level. Hope I’m wrong… wouldn’t be the first time
I have seen quite a bit of him and he has 3 attributes that hes not really shown yet for the first team. He can work well with a RWB so picture the greatRaphinha and Ayling work of last season. He did that brilliantly with Drameh last season and created plenty as well as scoring plenty Bielsa said he was confident that Raphinha could play as a 10 but never played him there. Summerville can play as a 10 and scores goals, is trick and creates. The biggy for the 23s is the number of penalties created by Joffy and Summerville as they slalom into ghe box Sheer arrogance, confidence and fight. Wants to take penalties and will stand his corner and fight to take it. Saw him and Joffy nearly knocking lumps out of each other as Summerville wanted to take it even though Joffy was designated taker. He has pace, skill and arrogance. He needs to show it for the first team if he wants to replace Raphinha. The way things look right now to me is that Summerville, Drameh and Greenwood will be gone this summer unless given guarantees that they have a chance ne t season. They will not play 23 football unless its just to keep their sharpness. Summerville is wanted by clubs in France England, Spain, Holland and Germany. He will need a pathway or hes gone
