Good Morning. It's Wednesday 23rd August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Gnonto returns but is all forgiven Wilfred Gnonto has returned to the Leeds Utd fold, after successful showdown talks with CEO Angus Kinnear and Daniel Farke. The 19yo Italian International, had previously refused to play in any of Leeds previous three fixtures, in an attempt to try and force a move to Everton. He was banished from the dressing room, and ordered to train alone. If that wasn't bad enough, a written transfer request last weekend didn't go down at all well with the Leeds faithful, which led thousands to take to social media to express their displeasure. With Sinisterra widely expected to now leave, Gnonto has very little competition in his favourite position. It had been speculated that towards the back end of last season, he was less than happy with the amount of game time he was getting, but with the Colombian out of the way, he can look forward to a decent run of games So, for now at least, it looks like all is forgiven. Gnonto has once again linked up with his team mates, and welcomed back to the dressing room. He will be available for Saturdays visit to Portman Road to play top of the table Ipswich Town. please log in to view this image Sinisterra on his way out of ER Luis Sinisterra's future at Elland Road is in limbo, after recent media reports surfaced, stating he will not be considered for the visits to Portman Road or the Peninsula Stadium (Salford City's Stadium), whilst speculation grows regarding his destiny. The move suits all parties. Leeds need to raise funds urgently, as they battle in vain to rebuild their pillaged squad. It is expected they should be able to recoup northwards of £20m for the Colombian International, money which is already earmarked for other players. Leeds still have an abundance of wide men. Whilst losing a player of Sinisterra's class will undoubtedly hurt, the blow is cushioned by the return Gnonto. Leeds have miraculously rejected a loan move from Brentford, indicating some sort of stability from the Elland Road decision makers. Traditionally, Leeds always leave it (too) late during the transfer windows. Hopefully, at least they will get some of their targets over the line before the transfer window slams shut 11pm on Friday September 1. please log in to view this image Fans question clubs ambition regarding recruitment Leeds fans have taken to social media in their droves to question the clubs ambition regarding recruitment, after Glen Kamara and Lewis O'Brien have reemerged on their most wanted list. O'Brien in particular is a puzzling one. The 24yo was not even able to obtain a squad number last season at Nottingham Forest, and after a botched loan to Blackburn Rovers didn't materialise, managed to force a temporary move to DC United, playing alongside former Elland Road favourite Mateusz Klich. Talking about Klichy, the 33yo has created 61 chances this season for Wayne Rooney's team; more than any other midfielder in the MLS. Similar to O'Brien, Kamara has dropped down the pecking order at Ibrox. If he can't get in a poor Rangers side, do Leeds really want him? please log in to view this image
Morning all Will be glad when the window closes so we know what we have. It will also highlight the issues our new owners have caused and if there is any ambition to do anything this season. The optics at the moment are crap and the question of why a few players we are supposed to want and are available we haven’t as yet done anything. I hope the club have something up their sleeve and the O’Brian, Kamara, Piroe bollox can be binned but if not why has it taken so long to do a deal for a player Forest don’t want, they even said they will loan him out to a championship club…..
TBH no idea who he is.... Leeds United have agreed personal terms with Glen Kamara and talks will continue with Rangers over a fee for the Finland midfielder, 23. (Football Insider)
Morning all. The plan all along was to make moves late in this transfer window and whilst maybe not ideal we'll only have played 4 League games by the time that happens. The complication though has been the Gnonto & Sinisterra situation along with injuries to Bamford, Cooper, Summerville, Greenwood (back now), Poveda, Joseph & Firpo. Undoubtably those added problems have caused us to be worse off points wise but the good news is we play Sheff Wed (h) the day after the window closes and then it's the international break. That breathing space will allow Farke the opportunity to get any new signings bedded in and hopefully a few injured players back out on the grass. Keep the faith and judge where we are at the end of October when we'll have played 14 games of a 46 game season. The old saying that it's a marathon and not a sprint is definitely worth keeping in mind
Well, if there is no news from Leeds here is the latest from Spain... Quite the breeze yesterday evening and with the tide coming in it made quite the spectacle on the beach. You don't usually see decent waves in the Med but it was great fun. Had to limit Emu junior in to a largely spectating role despite him being a competitive swimmer in the pool. Me? I'm a veteran of South African surfing and also Cape Verde kite surfing and love the "bigger waves". (They weren't that big). Quite the entertaining evening watching people wiped out whilst I ducked and bobbed about in the white water. Slow day today after yesterday's shopping and aquarium day so up at 8am, 7km run, cold shower and breakfast consisting of cheese and onion omelette, crusty bread, sautéed potatoes and tomatoes. Fresh orange juice and loads of coffee. Fromage Frais and fresh fruit to finish. Currently sat in the sun on me sun bed trying to get a bit of sun on me back before it gets too warm. Might nip around the corner for some water and a visit to the pastry shop when I find the energy. Back to dominating the water volleyball later. There's an annoying scouser I want to humiliate so I'll make sure I'm on the opposite side to him today. Hope everything is well back home. Its just the 31C here today so I might have to wrap up soon if that wind picks up again. Hope it's nice and warm back in Yorkshire for you guys. Regards, please log in to view this image
No mate, I'm not one of them. Quite happy to mooch on down after breakfast and find a spot. Plenty of sun loungers to go around. We are right on the beach too. Beach is 30 yards one way, pool is 20 yards the other. Great little spot to be fair. Hotel is full of Spanish with a few French families. None of that British and German malarkey pathetically fighting for sunbeds. Everyone seems really chilled. Easy life.
Like many of us I’m desperately waiting news on a new Striker, a AM and LB. Feel that is the absolute minimum incomings we need. In an ideal world I would love us to ignore FFP and profitability implications, because as we know or suspect, others have done it, then got promoted and avoided any sanctions - due to the EPL/EFL having different rules. However we are Leeds, and you could guarantee that if we did it we wouldn’t get promoted, so therefore we’d face fines/points deductions and likely relegation. Been there, done it. Not interested. So whilst I’m not enamoured with having US ownership, I can’t (and won’t) criticise them for taking their time to lessen the risk of **** ups with the clubs rebuilding. That’s where we are at. I don’t blame Marathe for the outgoing loan farce we have just endured. Radz was majority owner, and he knew/we knew he didn’t have the funds to keep it going if we were relegated. That’s why he negotiated the deal for 49’s to take the club on for a fixed price whilst we were a PL club, in 2023/24. But he had to get through the 22/23 season. Therefore his only fallback position in negotiations for all the goons he bought last summer was a “get out of jail free” card, in case of relegation and to then keep his fingers crossed that didn’t happen. If 49’s agreed it fine, if they didn’t it was still Radz decision. l hate the circumstances we have found ourselves in. But I’d hate it a whole lot more if it got much worse, so keeping my fingers crossed we get some decent incomings to cover the positions we all recognise are potential problems, in the next 8 days. Like the business done so far, feel we will start to see the benefit of Farke coaching by October (hopefully by the time we play the Robins as me and my lad are joining the prawn sandwich brigade at ER that day).
Now we've missed out on Hamer (who would have promoted us btw) I'm hoping we get Lewis O'Brien in. He can play pivot, double pivot, box to box and even as a 10. He'd be perfect for us. He's no Hamer but he'd fit in just fine. He's decent on the ball too which fits Farkes system.
O'Brien would do a job. It's clear we're looking for better otherwise we'd have signed him by now. That doesn't mean we'll eventually sign better but if we do end up with O'Brien then at least we've explored all the other possibilities.
A £5M fee would indicate otherwise. Let's hope you're wrong if he signs and correct if he goes elsewhere.
