The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Friday 14th April)

[ellandback]

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Good Morning. It's Friday 14th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


Leeds ready to renege on McKennie deal

Football insider Pete O'Rourke has claimed that Leeds no longer have any intentions of making Weston McKennie's stay permanent, regardless of what division they are in next season. The 24yo joined on-loan during the January transfer window, and have a hand-shake agreement with Juventus to make the deal permanent, should they stay up.

McKennie has had an uninspired start to life in West Yorkshire. Whilst his displays haven't been awful, he certainly hasn't lived up to reputation or price tag. In 12 outings, (786 minutes of game time), the USA International has gained a 'Whoscored' rating of 6.52, leaving him 15th out of 28.

If Leeds are to climb the table next season (if of course they stay up), tough decisions must be made. They need to rid themselves of the stragglers, and build a squad around the top players, such as Meslier, Wober, Koch, Adams, Summerville, Gnonto, Harrison, Sinisterra and perhaps Rodrigo.

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Tough decisions to be made

Like it or not, but as our league standing suggests, the majority of the players are not good enough for the top flight! If they were, we wouldn't be languishing two points from the drop zone with eight to play (again). Many of you may point the finger of blame at the Manager, and to some degree, they have to take their fair share of flak for the predicament Leeds find themselves in, but the bottom line falls on the players on the pitch.

Consistency is the key. It's easy to remember odd games where individual players have excelled, but unless they can do it on a regular basis, they are no good for Leeds or the Premier League. It's easy to point out the youngsters in the squad, who are in the developmental stage, but we need to be looking at the core players, consistently in the starting line up, and looking to replace at least half of them. The league table does not lie!

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Is Meslier having a poor season

Ilan Meslier has been an inspiration since joining from Lorient in 2019. Even at the tender age of 19, he would make the number one jersey his own, following an eight game ban for Kiko Casilla, and has kept hold of it ever since. The Frenchman has never really had competition for his place, and apart from the odd Cup game has become an automatic choice between the sticks.

His distribution may be terrible at times, but has always made amends with his shot-stopping abilities. There has been wide speculation, that perhaps his head has been turned, by interest from top European clubs, which may have affected his performances this season, and the stats back this up.

On average, according to data recorded by 'fbref.com', Leeds concede 1.8 goals per game. Only Bournemouth have a worse record (1.9). Saying that, he is the 7th busiest keeper, having had to contend with 136 shots on target, so far this season. Only Brentford (161), Bournemouth (157), Fulham (149), Everton (149), Leicester City (142) and Nottingham Forest (138) have conceded more efforts at goal.

From the 136 shots on goal, the Frenchman has saved 83 of them (placing him 13th), but percentage wise 62.5% (18th). He has kept five clean sheets this season (19th).

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[Jammy 07]

Same every season as we speculate how many of our crappy footballers to get rid of.

Just sell them all and be done with it.

Morning all by the way

 

[NostradEmus]

Same every season as we speculate how many of our crappy footballers to get rid of.

Just sell them all and be done with it.

Morning all by the way

That's where I'm at tbh.

I wouldn't be upset if any of them leave.

Not signing McKennie is a mistake though. Him and Adams are about as solid as it gets in the PL with Roca backing them up. We need a Pablo to go in front of them.

 

[Jammy 07]

God it feels good to be posting before Eire & Wakey this morning.

Our players were paid £137M in 2022 that's from our total income of £189M.

They're not worth it...sell them all and play the kids.

Back to the Championship and ultimately L1 where we can all have fun again

 

[Jammy 07]

That's where I'm at tbh.

I wouldn't be upset if any of them leave.

Not signing McKennie is a mistake though. Him and Adams are about as solid as it gets in the PL with Roca backing them up. We need a Pablo to go in front of them.

If we'd have had Adams & Wober playing against Palace we would not have lost 1-5.

Injuries again just when we need our most consistent performers the most.

 

[Doc]

Interesting piece from Keiran Maguire saying the £37m Leeds loss is good news. Well run club making fantastic deals for increased revenue streams. Season 1 in the Prem with small increase in player wages from championship, 2nd season in Prem agents demand bigger wages from championship players because they prove they can perform at that level for a season. Wages increased again on average £7k per player still good in the Prem. Leeds should have not been as loyal to some of their championship players and should have replaced some and maybe all by now.

I agree with that as Ayling, Cooper, Forshaw are not good enough and really been caught out this season. Maguire thinks next years accounts will show only a slight loss if not profit

 

[wakeybreakyheart]

If we'd have had Adams & Wober playing against Palace we would not have lost 1-5.

Injuries again just when we need our most consistent performers the most.

Is Adams a full back then? Or a goalie?. Is adams a creative midfielder?.

 

[wakeybreakyheart]

It will be a long weekend for the fans and squad. If results go against us will Liverpool be a competetive game or a capitulation like Palarse. We had a decent goal difference but by monday night that could be wiped out. I expect nothing but a draw would be a good result if possible.

 

[NostradEmus]

If we'd have had Adams & Wober playing against Palace we would not have lost 1-5.

Injuries again just when we need our most consistent performers the most.

Agree. We lacked leadership and folded because of it. The lads that look like true natural leaders (to me) at the club are Cooper, Wober, Adams and Cresswell.

There are others that try to be leaders. The likes of Ayling and Roca for example. Their heart is in the right place.

Then there are the ones that like the idea of it but nobody really follows them like Rodrigo and Bamford. These are the worst type and I hated playing with those kind of players that only want to lead when things go well. They just pretend to be strong when they are not.

The rest are just followers tbh. Picking up wages and not really doing or saying much. That's why I hate Koch and Struijk together. You don't hear a peep out of either at the heart of defence. Meslier appears very quit too.

 

[NostradEmus]

It will be a long weekend for the fans and squad. If results go against us will Liverpool be a competetive game or a capitulation like Palarse. We had a decent goal difference but by monday night that could be wiped out. I expect nothing but a draw would be a good result if possible.

We've got City away soon too. They looked awesome against Munich the other night. Scarily good.

 

[Eireleeds1]

God it feels good to be posting before Eire & Wakey this morning.

Our players were paid £137M in 2022 that's from our total income of £189M.

They're not worth it...sell them all and play the kids.

Back to the Championship and ultimately L1 where we can all have fun again

Glad I resisted posting early as its clearly given you time to have a good think, have a glass of wine and come up with a sensible post at last

 

[ristac]

Morning all

I am not sure how I feel about McKennie, he hasn't shone but then he hasn't been a disaster either. I did feel he would provide a vital link in the middle and he still might with the right coach and formation. If we stay up see who comes in as a coach and how they wish to play before deciding it is time to go back.

Replacements for Firpo, Llorentte, Forshaw and Bamford would be my priority, we need to sort out the futures of James, Drameh, Creswell, Tyler Roberts and a few others as well.

There are only two players I'd like to keep at all cost, Adams and Wober the rest have to all be considered replaceable after the last two seasons, I have to strongly dispute the build a strong squad around top players like.... Meslier, Wober, Koch, Adams, Summerville, Gnonto, Harrison, Sinisterra and perhaps Rodrigo

Meslier is not a top player neither is Harrison or Koch. You've named 9 players there Ell so you believe we are only two short of having a strong squad

 

[ellandback]

That's where I'm at tbh.

I wouldn't be upset if any of them leave.

Not signing McKennie is a mistake though. Him and Adams are about as solid as it gets in the PL with Roca backing them up. We need a Pablo to go in front of them.

Yes, Jammy talks a lot of sense. We should clear the decks, and start again..

 

[ellandback]

Morning all

I am not sure how I feel about McKennie, he hasn't shone but then he hasn't been a disaster either. I did feel he would provide a vital link in the middle and he still might with the right coach and formation. If we stay up see who comes in as a coach and how they wish to play before deciding it is time to go back.

Replacements for Firpo, Llorentte, Forshaw and Bamford would be my priority, we need to sort out the futures of James, Drameh, Creswell, Tyler Roberts and a few others as well.

There are only two players I'd like to keep at all cost, Adams and Wober the rest have to all be considered replaceable after the last two seasons, I have to strongly dispute the build a strong squad around top players like.... Meslier, Wober, Koch, Adams, Summerville, Gnonto, Harrison, Sinisterra and perhaps Rodrigo

Meslier is not a top player neither is Harrison or Koch. You've named 9 players there Ell so you believe we are only two short of having a strong squad

As the saying goes 9 players does not maketh squad....

 

[ellandback]

Leeds’ accounts endorse 49ers interest – and show why a takeover needs to happen

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By Philip Buckingham

It will be five years next month since 49ers Enterprises was first convinced to take a punt on Leeds United. A fallen force of English football had no shortage of potential, but all those years of mediocrity in the Championship had it well hidden.

The 2017-18 season, immediately preceding that first injection of U.S. money into Elland Road, was typical of a club and its flawed ambition. A 13th-place finish in the Championship. Nothing more, nothing less. Not even the arrival of Andrea Radrizzani as owner in January 2017 had been able to snap a dispiriting cycle.

An optimistic eye – and perhaps a leap of faith – was required to picture better days but, as a crossroads approaches this summer, 49ers Enterprises has helped drive a financial transformation of the club it pushed its first chips towards in the spring of 2018.

Leeds’ annual accounts, published at Companies House last weekend, underlined just that.

Turnover for the 2021-22 season – the club’s second back in the Premier League – had leapt up to a record high of £189million ($236m). Broadcast revenues might have dipped year-on-year but Leeds are now producing the sort of numbers that have convinced 49ers Enterprises to see value in an outright takeover.

How this season ends will dictate if the investment arm of NFL team San Francisco 49ers opts to proceed, but Premier League survival will see Radrizzani parting with a very different club to the one he first marketed to the U.S. five years ago.

Leeds had to work hard for a turnover of £41million back then, with commercial streams amounting for half that figure. Broadcast revenues were flatlining at £8million along with matchday income that stood at £11million without the guarantees of Elland Road reaching its capacity.

And now look at the balance sheets.

Broadcast revenues have increased 14-fold since 2017-18, even allowing for a 17th-place finish last term curbing distribution through merit payments. That £115million had been £132million the season before when finishing ninth under Marcelo Bielsa.

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Commercial revenues, meanwhile, have doubled in the past five years, climbing from £22million to £44million. This growth alone, wrote chief executive Angus Kinnear in the accounts’ strategic report, should provide a “competitive advantage that can be leveraged to secure Premier League status” in the long term. In layman’s terms, it is an area where Leeds now do better than most outside the “Big Six”.

Matchday income, with sell-out crowds of 38,000 guaranteed, has also bounced skywards. The £24.5million banked in a first post-COVID campaign was more than Leeds’ gate receipts for their last two years in the Championship combined.

The undeniable – albeit finite – power of the Premier League has been mined by Leeds since winning promotion in 2020 and meant last season they could boast higher incomes than Everton (£181million), Newcastle United (£180million), Aston Villa (£178million) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (£166million).

Those capabilities and the potential to jump the pack — admittedly before Newcastle’s takeover — are ultimately what attracted 49ers Enterprises to English football. First when buying a 10 per cent stake in 2018 and then, via two further cash injections, lifting that up to more than 40 per cent. Survival this season is expected to trigger an outright takeover, ending Radrizzani’s long stint as the club’s majority shareholder.

That is by no means guaranteed with Leeds 16th and only two points above the bottom three, of course. Relegation is the fate that must not be mentioned around Elland Road. Even in the accounts it is referred to as a “temporary loss of status” that can be ridden out.

This latest audit of Leeds’ financial health is an endorsement of why 49ers Enterprises is keen to take the reins, but the numbers also show why a long-touted takeover needs to happen.

Leeds have heads nearing a ceiling with Radrizzani at the helm. He knows it and so, increasingly, do supporters. Commercial and matchday revenues are close to being maximised in the Premier League, with broadcast money the only area where modest variables are in play.

The redevelopment of Elland Road is a must for Leeds to grow and part of the plans for 49ers Enterprises if – or should that be when? – it takes control. Huge investment would be required to upgrade a stadium that has not seen meaningful regeneration since a new East Stand was opened in 1993. Those elite English clubs Leeds wish to eventually join have left them lagging far behind in the past two decades.

Leeds’ would-be owners see the potential for turnover to be increased as high as £400million, something they believe would see the club valued in excess of £1billion. Put another way, 10 times what Leeds were considered to be worth when 49ers Enterprises first bought that 10 per cent stake five years ago.

Long-term plans have been formulated but there are pressures for the here and now during these closing weeks of the season.

Leeds can ill afford to take a backward step into the Championship if the promise of new owners is to be guaranteed and there were warning signs in the accounts that heightened the need for a fourth season in the top flight.

Like most outside the establishment, they walk a tightrope where the fall would be heavy. There is reliance on shareholder investment and an acceptance of manageable losses. Even with record revenues, there was an operational loss of £34million last term.

Money owed for transfers was reported to be north of £100million after a season that saw £86million spent on recruitment. The subsequent sales of Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips last summer has not yet made it to the books, but the same can be said of the settlement to former player Jean-Kevin Augustin.

As well as the £15.5million that has already been agreed with RB Leipzig, Leeds have been told by FIFA they must also find £24.5million in compensation for a loan player they reneged on signing permanently in 2020. Leeds intend to appeal the second decision but failure to overturn the hefty payment to Leipzig offers little cause for hope. The whole sorry Augustin affair might eventually end up amounting to a fifth of the club’s annual income.

Leeds have come a long way in the past five years – the Bielsa boom and all that followed – but everything in these next few weeks rests on clinging to the Premier League riches.

 

[leeds60]

Good morning from a chilly Bardsey
Well I would sell Meslier close seasonas he has made plain he wants to leave.Will Chelsea pay 40m yes
Forshaw McKennie Cooper Roberts Bamford and Ayling Fripo need to be moved on

 

[Old Git]

Leeds United's 23-year-old French goalkeeper Illan Meslier - who is a target for Chelsea - wants to quit the West Yorkshire club in the summer, even if they avoid relegation. (Football Insider)

 

[foolee]

McKennie has been hit and miss but still decent. I’d take him for a reduced price of say (20-25m) as we need to build a stronger squad as if Adams is injured then who plays - Gyabi or Gray, both looked promising but after the first 10 mins at Cardiff Gyabi looked a rabbit in headlights, needs a championship loan. Think we’ve discovered that PL is a different beast and you need something very special youth wise to be starting PL games.

Also with McKennie isn’t he meant to be more of a CAM so could it be when he’s back that he challenges Aaronson for his spot as we don’t have another attacking mid. I think with some players we’re also seeing what Bielsa meant about replacing the likes of Klich as those sort of players cost around 25-35m, looking like he was right.

With our squad I’d actually say we need a new GK, RB, CB, LB, RM (Unless Rutter is a decent RM then he can challenge Summerville there) & a ST so not much. Virtually improvement needed all round and if we don’t get McKennie then we’ll need another CM too. I think we’ll sell at least one of Gnoto, Harrison or Sinisterra this summer as all 3’s best position is LW and it’s not sustainable or good for morale to have all 3.

If we can get a very good keeper with more attributes than Meslier and we could get a decent fee then I’d let him go, I’d love the Croatian keeper but think he’ll have better options.

The other issue is I see a lot saying get rid of Ayling, Bamford, Cooper etc. however our squad just isn’t big enough or good enough right now. Unless we buy a new RB we can’t let Ayling go as he’s the best we’ve got in that position and Drameh won’t want to stay, besides I think Drameh is good going forward but not a great defender so a younger Ayling. Unless Cresswell can take Coopers spot I think I’d be a bad move to get rid as when Wober is out Cooper should be coming in, Koch and Struijk can’t be trusted and I think our fanbase massively overrate Struijk. Bamford and Rodrigo are both injury prone and are our only true players than can play number 9 and Gelhardt won’t make it in the P&L so I don’t think we can afford to sell some players (also don’t say Rutter as he’s a winger).

 

[Jammy 07]

McKennie has been hit and miss but still decent. I’d take him for a reduced price of say (20-25m) as we need to build a stronger squad as if Adams is injured then who plays - Gyabi or Gray, both looked promising but after the first 10 mins at Cardiff Gyabi looked a rabbit in headlights, needs a championship loan. Think we’ve discovered that PL is a different beast and you need something very special youth wise to be starting PL games.

Also with McKennie isn’t he meant to be more of a CAM so could it be when he’s back that he challenges Aaronson for his spot as we don’t have another attacking mid. I think with some players we’re also seeing what Bielsa meant about replacing the likes of Klich as those sort of players cost around 25-35m, looking like he was right.

With our squad I’d actually say we need a new GK, RB, CB, LB, RM (Unless Rutter is a decent RM then he can challenge Summerville there) & a ST so not much. Virtually improvement needed all round and if we don’t get McKennie then we’ll need another CM too. I think we’ll sell at least one of Gnoto, Harrison or Sinisterra this summer as all 3’s best position is LW and it’s not sustainable or good for morale to have all 3.

If we can get a very good keeper with more attributes than Meslier and we could get a decent fee then I’d let him go, I’d love the Croatian keeper but think he’ll have better options.

The other issue is I see a lot saying get rid of Ayling, Bamford, Cooper etc. however our squad just isn’t big enough or good enough right now. Unless we buy a new RB we can’t let Ayling go as he’s the best we’ve got in that position and Drameh won’t want to stay, besides I think Drameh is good going forward but not a great defender so a younger Ayling. Unless Cresswell can take Coopers spot I think I’d be a bad move to get rid as when Wober is out Cooper should be coming in, Koch and Struijk can’t be trusted and I think our fanbase massively overrate Struijk. Bamford and Rodrigo are both injury prone and are our only true players than can play number 9 and Gelhardt won’t make it in the P&L so I don’t think we can afford to sell some players (also don’t say Rutter as he’s a winger).

Ayling had his contract extended (club option) back in February so he's going nowhere until summer 2024 at the earliest. Good servant but we're suffering because of his lack of pace and aerial ability against PL wingers/strikers.

We clearly need an upgrade but it doesn't look like we'll be getting one.

 

[foolee]

Ayling had his contract extended (club option) back in February so he's going nowhere until summer 2024 at the earliest. Good servant but we're suffering because of his lack of pace and aerial ability against PL wingers/strikers.

We clearly need an upgrade but it doesn't look like we'll be getting one.

Yeah agreed. I think in an ideal world we’d have bought a decent RB to take the first team spot and have Ayling as a good cup and squad option but we’ve messed up the recruitment badly. Think it might be a case of getting some cash for Drameh unless we’re going with him for first choice and resigning but I doubt he will now and also getting rid of Kristensen and buying an adequate replacement. Can’t believe how badly we’ve messed up some of our squad building, like had anyone watched Kristensen before he joined.