Good Morning. It's Monday 12th June, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Two horse race for ER hot seat Leading bookmakers Bet365 now see the Elland Road hot seat as a two horse race, with nothing to separate Daniel Farke and Steven Gerrard. Odds are beginning to widen between the pacesetters (both at 9/4) and the best of the rest. Carlos Corberan isn't far behind the leaders at 3/1, but then there appears to be a massive gap to Brendan Rodgers 8/1 and Phillipe Clement 16/1. With the transfer window opening in two days, the appointment of a Manager is likely to be the first thing on the agenda, once the takeover is completed. please log in to view this image Battle of Britain - Take two Three decades after their memorable Champions League showdown with Rangers, Leeds are in discussions with the blue side of Glasgow about rekindling the showdown, dubbed the 'battle of Britain'. Getting to the second round of the Champions league (92/93) was a struggle in itself. Leeds had lost 3-0 to Stuttgart in the previous round first leg, and although the Whites turned things around at Elland Road, thumping the German outfit 4-1; Christoph Daum's side went through on away goals, or so we thought!! Clubs were only allowed to field three foreigners in European matches, and Simanic's introduction from the bench had unwittingly taken Stuttgart over the limit. Some time later Leeds realised, and complained to UEFA, who awarded Leeds a 3-0 victory, setting up a play off at Barcelona's Camp Nou Stadium. Leeds went on to beat Die Roten (the reds), with the winner coming from a solo effort from Carl Shutt, who had had only just replaced Cantona, much to his disgust. please log in to view this image Everton plot to recapture Robles Multiple media reports are claiming that Everton are keen to take Joel Robles back to Goodison Park this Summer. The 32yo Spaniard is out of contract at Elland Road having only signed a shot term deal last Summer. He played Leeds final four league games of the season, displacing out of form Illan Meslier. This could well leave Leeds with only one recognised keeper on their books (Kristoffer Klaesson). Klaesson was signed from Norweigan outfit Vålerenga two years ago for £1.6m, and was expected to be further developed by now. Unfortunately, things have not worked out for him thus far, and is currently Leeds' third choice keeper. Illan Meslier is almost certain to leave Elland Road this Summer, with Stamford Bridge being his most likely destination. please log in to view this image
Morning all Transfers out; It could all change depending on who becomes the coach and what ambitions get shared with the players and their reps when that coach is in place. I’d take all that talk of transfers with a pinch of salt. It’s also possible it’s the agents trying to get pay rises for their players. I read that their wages dropped between 40-60% with relegation.We might give rises to those we want to keep, and allow those the new coach doesn’t want, to depart. New Coach: Please no to Farke, if we can land Potter or Rogers I’d be pleased, big week last week with the ownership announcement and another expected this week, the wheels are nearly back on
Morning all Heatwave is killing me. Just done the school run and it's nearly killed me. Farke and Gerrard wouldn't be any where near my first choice. I've made it clear that I want Viera. Saw the Robles thing over the weekend. The biggest kicker is that he would go on a free as we only signed him on a 1 year contract.
Morning all. Nothing to discuss much yet. Suffice to say we appear to be on the up hopefully and already beginning to look forward to next season
Good morning all. Looks like we're in for a week or two of very hot weather which is supposed to be nice but never is Brenden Rodgers sacked by Leicester and it seems strange to get rid of such an in demand manager, but then we sacked Bielsa at the first sign of relegation so probably more to do with idiots in boardrooms rather than football ability. Benitez for me same as Doc, or maybe Viera but doesn't seem like either are in the frame.
Any news whether any managerial interviews are planned? Rumours about Rodgers being at ER today but they're just rumours.
Nice piece by Jon Newsome regarding the Stuttgart games:- "It was a bolt out of the blue," Newsome recalls. "The day after the game we'd got wind that they'd played a foreigner too many, it was all going to UEFA, and something was going to be done." "Then we were told through the management that there was going to be this one-off game, winner takes all. "At the time there was a bit of disgruntlement. The board and the management at Leeds felt if Stuttgart had fallen foul of the rules by playing too many foreigners, then rather than giving them a second chance in a one-off game, they should have been thrown out of the competition and we should have gone through instead." [There was further tension before kick-off at the Camp Nou.] "On the night there were a few little incidents that made you think they didn't really want us to go through, and weren't very happy about us having another chance," Newsome said. "It was just daft things. We went out to warm up before the game and they wouldn't give us any footballs, then Stuttgart came out and got more balls than you could shake a stick at. "You felt Leeds and Stuttgart weren't being treated equally – that was how we felt anyway. Whether it was true I don't know. Possibly UEFA felt some sympathy to Stuttgart, but those little things before the game fired us up. It worked for us." "I don't know how many Leeds fans made the journey but there were a few," "The crowd was 20,000 or something like that, but in a 100,000-capacity stadium it was like playing a reserve game. "We knew what we had to do, though. It was a big game for us. We'd been given a second chance. You've experienced being knocked out and the bitter taste that leaves, and you don't want to experience that again. "Gordon Strachan scored to put us ahead but then Stuttgart equalised from a right-hand side cross." "Carl's goal is well remembered," "There aren't many lads from Sheffield who can say they've scored in the European Cup at the Camp Nou." "At the end of the match it was just a big celebration. We had the second chance and we'd taken it. "One of my fondest memories was the payphone in the dressing room, in the days before mobile phones. After we'd celebrated and it had calmed down, I picked the phone up and rang my best mate from the dressing room, putting in 100 pesetas in one peseta coins. "We were put on a midnight curfew by the manager, but I think it was a little bit tongue in cheek. We ended up going out and having a few drinks. Steve Archibald was living out there after playing for Barcelona and he came to the hotel, took us out and showed us a few of the sights." "I thought we'd done really well at Ibrox, coming away having been beaten 2-1 and thinking we didn't deserve that," "At Elland Road we had a real go, but Mark Hateley scored a 25-yard volley over his shoulder into the top corner. It was just one of those games when you thought it wasn't your day. We were devastated." "But that era at Leeds, to win the league at a club with so much history, in a one-club city; it was a fabulous time."
Re Rodgers, there is there an argument that eventually players just stop listening to the same voice (not a problem Pep seems to have). There's also an argument that Rodgers has a had right time, right time right place career and once his playing staff weakened a bit he couldn't do much about it. Leicester were sh*t last year and rode their luck a bit... hence some of us predicted a struggle for them this year. They didn't really play much different but their luck at both ends of the pitch changed.
A lot of truth in that Milky but on top of that there were some other issues going on. Firstly the upset in the camp about keeper Kasper being sold cheap, as he was their talisman and very close to the owner who sadly died. Then 7 first team starters refusing new contracts which meant over half the starting 11 were walking out on a freeby. Jonny Evans being out injured for much of the season. Not given cash to find a new Vardy who is past it. The dead owners son struggling with the family business losing billions due to Covid and only just recovering. It was the perfect storm and those contracts should have been sorted out a year or 2 ago but wasn’t. Rodgers was fighting a losing battle
The butt of football jokes just like the way the media slag off Trump, Farage and Boris is the death of Berlosconi today. He will get battered by the media for his sex life etc, but besides changing Italian politics forever he was the most successful Italian club owner with AC Milan winning 29 trophies in the 31 years he was in charge
All true mate, there's two sides to this one. The funds had dried up which didn't make it easy. He certainly has a few legitimate reasons to explain away the season... and a past record to leverage in his look for a new job. The keeper one may be the most relevant issue. Carragher said on sky sports the teams with the worst 3 first choice keepers got relegated this year and if you look at xg (which it will be no surprise - I do please log in to view this image )... it's likely that none of the 3 relegated sides would have gone down had the opposition been just average against them in front of goal. Which translates as - either you're really unlucky and teams keep scoring worldies against you - or your keeper's sh*t. Given the nature of football, it's an element of both in my opinion.
Just looking at the history of AC Milan and the way he changed the way Italian football was played and the way it knocked Barcelona and Real Madrid off their thrones. He went out and bought Rijkard Gullit and Van Basten then plucked an obscure coach from Seria B who turned out to be a visionary and lauded by the likes of Bielsa who decided that Arrigo Sacchi was a bit special. They won the league. He then brought in Franko Barresi, Aolo Maldini and Papan. Then Berlusconi brought in Fabio Capello as coach and they broke records for winning back to back titles and also brought in players like Boban and Savicavic. Acelloti was one of his players too…… AC Milan is a cripple since he left and is now skint with Chinese owners looking to sell and why Radz was leading the race to buy the club until his world fell apart when relegation was on the cards
R:E voices - This is one of the things good ol' Fergie got at Scum. He ripped squads apart and rebuilt them. Belosconi: The world will truly miss a massive personality. Love or hate his politics whatever. You gotta love the man
Wonder if Christian Purslow is our new DoF. Just left (or leaving) Villa as they’ve had a Management reshuffle. He’s a name I’ve heard about but haven’t researched his career. Think he might have been at Liverpool.
