Good Morning. It's Wednesday 26th July, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Whites set to wrap up Darlow deal Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Leeds are finally close to wrapping up the signature of Karl Darlow. The 32yo shot-stopper is surplus to requirements at St James Park following the arrival of Nick Pope last Summer. He spent the second half of last season on loan at Hull, where he made twelve appearances. He was hotly tipped to join Bournemouth earlier this month, but the move broke down due to financial issues, and the player wanting to stay closer to family and friends in the North East. The Cherries are not set to sign Romanian goal-keeper Andrei Radu, giving Leeds free reign to pursue Darlow. Once Darlow arrives, it is believed that Leeds will give Illan Meslier permission to leave. please log in to view this image Where will Leeds goals come from this season? The new season kicking off in just eleven days, and to say Leeds are not prepared is an understatement. Half of last season's starting line up have already deserted the sinking ship, with others forming an orderly queue for the exit door. Leeds need goals if they are to win promotion back to the promised land; but where will they come from? Bamford has the agility of a rock, and the injury record of someone who has just jumped off a bridge onto oncoming traffic. Record signing Rutter (Leeds other striking option) isn't much better. Nobody knows where he should be playing (including himself), and only gets a mention due to his ridiculously high price tag. Much of this is immaterial, as the distribtion is so pitiful. The last time Leeds won a game was back in February, against an awful Saints team (1-0), how long will it be until Leeds record another victory? please log in to view this image Where did things go wrong with Arronson There's an interesting piece in the Athletic, in which Phil Hay asks why didn't things work out with Brendan Arronson at Elland Road? On paper, he should have been the ideal No 8; young, creative, a good passer of the ball, and an engine to match. He even passed the Bielsa test! At 22, and four years remaining on his contract, a loan move may not be the worst idea in the World. The problem is, what if Leeds don't bounce back at the first attempt? Not only will para-shoot payments be severely impacted, but a whole new set of players clauses may come into play! Hay reveals that whilst Union Berlin currently don't have a purchase option, Arronson's release will remain active for as long as Leeds remain outside the top flight. "Former Leeds sporting director Victor Orta and Bielsa led the recruitment and made Aaronson a priority target for the January 2022 transfer window, but Salzburg wouldn’t budge. They held firm to their policy to not sell mid-season with a round of 16 Champions League tie with Bayern Munich looming in February." "Aaronson was identified not because of his nationality or familiarity with Marsch, but his fit within Bielsa’s system and stellar performances in the Champions League group stage with Salzburg — particularly his underlying ground-covering and pressing metrics." "On the final day of the 2021-22 season. Leeds’ brush with the drop saw two relegation release clauses negotiated into Aaronson’s deal: one to leave permanently for a set fee; another to leave on a free loan provided a top division club covered the wages." "Those clauses were activated once Leeds were relegated after the 2022-23 season. And so Aaronson will spend the season at Union, who are covering his salary but have no new purchase option. The 22-year-old’s release clause is only active if Leeds remain in the Championship." "A loan to Union may suit all parties. The German club made it clear in their pursuit that Aaronson would be a key addition and will have a pivotal role; it was enough to win the race ahead of Fulham and other clubs looking to bring him on loan. Aaronson’s fit in the Bundesliga in general should be snug, even more so for a high-pressing Union team." "The lure of the Champions League was strong as well — and he has made a promising start already, scoring in a friendly against Hungarian side Zalaegerszeg, and featuring in two other pre-season games for the German club." "Had Leeds avoided relegation and Aaronson stayed, the club would have looked for him to work on his physical conditioning before the start of next season. Aaronson is extremely fit, with good levels of stamina, but the English top flight found him too easy to bully; a robust division in which his lack of strength was apparent." please log in to view this image 49ers Enterprises plan to redevelop 'decaying' ER The Daily Mail are suggesting that 49ers Enterprises are planning on a £200m redevelopment plan of Elland Road, extending its capacity from 36,000 to 55,000. The right-wing tabloid, who describe our spiritual home as 'decaying' believe Leeds can bridge the gap between the income currently generated at LS11, compared to that from the likes of Spurs. The North London, outfit built a brand new state of the art Stadium four years ago, which generates £5m every match day, five time more than Leeds. It's a lot of money to spend. Surely, they'd be better off building a new stadium? "The Americans quickly got to work. Aside from promotion, the priority is Elland Road. Currently, Leeds bank £1m each matchday at their decaying home. That puts them £4m behind Tottenham. It should not be like this." "Love them or hate them - and many do - facts are facts. Leeds has 24,000 season ticket holders. There are 20,000 more on a waiting list. Plans are being drawn up to increase capacity to 55,000 with a raft of new corporate hospitality offerings in revamped east and north stands. That gap to Spurs will be bridged." "Much-needed redevelopment, which was effectively on hold under Radrizzani, is, all of a sudden, gathering pace. Planning consultants have started work. Designs have been drawn up. Costs have been estimated at £200m. The money is there, as is the expertise." please log in to view this image
Morning everyone surely it's the north and west stands to develop first. To get 55000 in would require significant work on those two stands. Eleven days till kick off and we have no left back again. Hjelde is the only one who could cover unless dramah can do it. Struijk should be shown the exit as the championship is way too tough for him.
Morning all Leeds fans. We also beat Wolves in March and Forest in April, not that it did us any good of course.
Morning all. Amazed at how often Im seeing the promotion word being associated with us. Fine when the rebuild is near completion, assess the possibilities. Is Darlow good, I hadn't heard of him till we got interested so interested for some info. I also see we can only loan one more player, the rest exiting will have to be for money seemingly. Don't know the truth of that either and if Im hones, not terribly bothered
I only remember him from Newcastle's promotion season a good few years back (under Benitez ?). He was impressive enough for them back then but didn't really feature much after. Jury's out.
Just done the google on Darlow. Seems Bielsa was interested back in January 2019 but we ended up with Kiko instead
Rads has made all the right noises since doing an Elvis. Even saying he should have done some things differently. I reckon it's just a smokescreen to cover up his lack of ambition. He did not spend on quality because he was selling up. He got 170 million plus the money he made selling shares previously. Six years and rads has dumped us back in the championship with a worse squad than before.
And that's one of the many reasons why Orta is no longer at Leeds. Good moaning everyone i mean morning.
you are forgetting the stellar fact regarding coco.......he played for real madrid, so obviously he must have been a baller ........err we had our done
If I understood Aski correctly it is seven non club grown players, so we could still loan out Meslier for example and then one more.
Morning all I’m hoping the keeper won’t have as many saves to make this season. We’ve got problems if our keeper starts winning mom awards Darlow was good for Hull last season I see the new keeper as a much smaller part of the jigsaw Let’s get it done and dusted and move on to more pressing areas
One of our so called targets Sam surridge has plumped for a 'bigger' challenge in the MSL moving to Nashville f.c. for 5 million whether we really wanted him is open to argument but the last must have fancied a bit of line dancing and momma's apple pie to a yorky pud and a pint in't social....fool
So we were told the 49ers and Hammond had been making plans and we would see players going out and coming in. So far one player has come in these 49ers are full of ****. Typical Yanks who tell the fans what they want to hear and sell them merchandise. 11 friggin days to the Cardiff game.. Towd sparkey must be laughing his wooly socks off. We will be lucky to finish 10th at the rate the con9ers are moving. A top striker should have been in by now as pre season has proved. Hibs, are going to kick our asses back over the border.
I believe Meslier was registered with us for 3 years prior to him no longer being classed as an under 21 player, which would make him club grown and thus not subject to FIFA's international loan rules. The fly in the ointment to my opinion though, is that the first of those 3 years, was when we had him on loan. 5 minutes of Google searches didn't give me the answer, although I'm sure someone would be able to find it with a more thorough search. As far as I am aware we would get the benefit of the period that he was loaned to us, but I've not been able to find any reliable evidence confirming or denying this. Most of the articles I've read on the subject since reading the FIFA rules, relates to the various computer football games, and I suspect posters on here wouldn't be too impressed if that was what I was presenting as my exhibits of evidence
