Look hands up I'm over the moon we have made it back it's been way to long time. Thing is now we got to establish ourselves. I don't think we can say that's going in the right direction right now but it's no easy fix under our circumstances. I still believe the club can do more having no proven LB is criminal and not having a replacement for a number 1 striker for a season and a half is basically asking for trouble. you learn every season and last season was a big learning curve. have the club done enough personally after that I'd say no. We have spent £1m in the last 3 Jan Windows the first one ok we were on a roll and it played out well. Last season we took a massive risk and we very nearly fell on our sword. This season please let's not go down the same road. it needs fixing, Europe is still a long way off in the league our best chance of getting there is by the cups but we are just not interested. We are a big club and have a history but at this moment in time we are a middle to low end Prem league club. do we set our standards to high I don't think the club do but a certain amount of fans do. everyone wants to be the best and a good result tends to send the expectation levels bars to high. then the backlash comes when reality kicks in. Hand on heart if we finish anywhere near 12th -15th Id be over the moon because that's like winning the league for me for what we have and will have for the near future. I just don't know where we go from here as at this present time as this is how good we are mid division to lower tier with the good recruitment moving on once they made a name for themselves. the question is how do we stop that and a big backer is probably the only way.
Last night showed us exactly what we are lacking. Skill and confidence. Everytime we turned the ball over we tried to play little triangles and lost the ball, we couldn’t play one touch so always took a touch too many and lost it, when we did try we missed the pass and lost it, so we started playing sideways and backwards and got ourselves in trouble when it went back to Meslier he hoofed it and it came straight back or went straight out. These players are all good enough to play fast attacking one touch football but in a full ER they seem to bottle it. Fans complaining about Rodrigo but he never saw the ball, never got the killer pass so he could have a go. Aaronson obviously worried City so he was chopped every time he got on the ball. Rodri is a dirty twat but never got booked until the death, he should have been sent off as 2 earlier fouls deserved a card. Why are the players not able to perform. These questions need answering. Analasys of the way we played in all our better performances needs doing and why some of the changes made need changing again. Seems the media having a go at Marsch about having a plan B has backfired for me
As long as Radz and the 49s are involved we are going nowhere Both are in this for profit and you don’t get profits from a Premier league club FFP don’t make me laugh That’s what I think anyway
My view on this is that we’ve messed up our progress already. When you have a chance you need to take it, not stand still. We had a great manager with Bielsa, we had a style and identity under him. He’s a famous manager that is valued highly in football therefore having Bielsa and PL football was a pull for players. We ended up finishing 9th and even Bielsa said the same players wouldn’t be able to achieve the same heights again. Missed opportunity as we should have spent big in the summer on a CM, LB, ST and CAM at the very least and gone again. Just look at Newcastle.
100% this we didn’t do what Radz said we would do by spending £100m in year 1 then following it in year 2 with another £100m, we actually spent £13m on Firpo plus paid a bunch for Dan James. We gambled on the players we had being able to play with the same squad in year 2. We had a small squad anyway but injuries killed us and not having the likes of Cooper, Ayling, Bamford, Phillips, Firpo, Rodrigo, Koch and Llorente available killed the season. So the club are responsible for lack of investment and even this summer we only spent £1m because of the cash for Kalvin and Rapha, so in real terms we have been shafted
I think the problems are not limited to Leeds but anyone outside of Man City and Newcastle. You have Dubai and Saudi Arabian ownership of two teams and those two will dominate even the rest of the 'top six'. Even they cannot compete financially with these state owned teams. Someone said last night how many of our players would get in to City's squad, the answer was obvious but the same could be said for Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd etc. If city or Newcastle want any of those teams players they will just buy them. Unlike the last time we came up there is no realistic prospect of ever being able to compete for the top spots again, football like everything else has been destroyed by money and those that wield lots of it.
Believe it or not, we spent £58.9 million season two, Firpo, James, Klaesson and Harrison Season one with the commitment to buy Costa included and Augustin we spent £127.8m and that does not include Harrisons loan fee, so for two seasons we sold nobody and spent £186.7m Leeds United - Transfers 20/21 | Transfermarkt
For me, the problem lays solely at losing direction on how to tackle transfers. We gave Bielsa control and it seems we have given Jesse control. Hindsight is great but we should have said to Orta you go and sign what is best for the club, the coach is here to coach and utilize them. If we have replaced Bielsa with a coach who can't handle Bielsas signings that is the clubs fault. If we have replaced Bielsa with a coach who has an entirely different approach and needs to bring in his own players, again that is the clubs fault Yes Radz has taken us as far as he can but I would be spitting nails and asking so many questions Harrison and James in the same month, why both when other areas were weak, in fact why James full stop Firpo just who scouted him Augustin see above Pontus why did we get so little for him I'd also be questioning the contract lengths too. Radz isn't ever going to spend his own money we knew that from day one so what he has spent isn't a bad amount, it has just been spent very poorly
So back to the squad valuation formula Teams doing as they are supposed to: Man City Liverpool Man Utd Chelsea Arsenal Newcastle Forest Teams doing better than expected: Brentford Brighton Fulham Bournemouth Palace Spurs Teams doing worse than expected: Leeds Utd Everton Wolves WHU Leicester Villa Southampton Brentford gave Thomas Franks a new 5 year contract this week, wonder why
Nope, Foolee said: Spending money you don't have was a model championed by former chairman Peter Ridsdale.
So risdales antics is the hew benchmark. Probably ten times the cash floating about now. He mortgaged players on strength of hoping to qualify for cl every season. We need to invest seriously to survive in this division. It’ll have to happen in the summer anyway
No of course I don’t want that but what I’m saying is we had very good foundations and if we spent more money or spent the money we have spent more wisely, acted more quickly rather than stalling I genuinely think we’d be looking towards the top 6 right now than being in no man’s land like we are now. We’ve messed up a massive opportunity as we were on the up, had a feel good around the players/city/fans and now we’re just another PL club which will be very hard to turn around now. We’ve gone from buzzing to bland very fast and it’s not easy to get that back in any league.
No, What Ridsdale did is hardly a benchmark. A benchmark is a standard by which good performances are judged, not bad ones. A standard, that other strive to attain. You just don't understand the meaning of the word. Really ? What figures do you have as to the available funds Ridsdale had versus his expenditures ? He spent money he didn't have (ie: borrowed it). If we were to "spend big" now, how would that be different ?
Leeds United said before the Summer, that the club had to sell before it bought So we sold Raphinha and Phillips for £55 million and £45 million respectively. How much ready £££ do you think the club has ? Selling Meslier and Harrison seem to be the obvious choices now, in the absence of a multi-billionaire sugar-daddy.
