Weekend Debate

No smoke without fire I hope as many reports this morning of Lorient Mesliers former club giving us back just short of what we paid for him and taking the kid home, I wish him well for his future. His future isn’t at Leeds

 

We are really poor at selling players. We paid £5 million for Meslier and he has nearly 200 appearances for us, 3 seasons in the PL, keeper of the season in the Championship 2 years ago and we will make a small loss on him. If he played for Brighton, Liverpool, Ipswich or Chelsea he'd be going for £35 million.

Maybe Betis will take him on loan if we pay them a couple of million.

If we get a couple of wingers in, then we have to send Ramazani on loan because we wont recoup the £10 million we spent on him.

We had to loan Wober because we couldn't get a measly £3 million for him.

 

strikers...hhhmm, brentford splash out £40 mill on a cherries player who's scored 11 in 88 appearances.......not for me

 

Probably would reflect that they likely had a sell on clause in their original deal, which would reduce any fee they had to pay if they bought him back (Trafford to Man City). Not always that the club is s***e at everything - though we do have form in some of our transfer dealings .

 

100% agree with this and suspect that much of the problems are around their contracts and wages. Meslier however if we sell for £5m all goes down as profit under PSR simply because his initial fee was amortised over 3 years so paid off. You would think that players like Greenwood contract expires next year so why no takers. Same with Gyabi, Harrison is 2028, Bamford into his last year, Gelhardt contract expires next June so he has basically been handed a free transfer so we lose out on at least £3m we could have had if he went Rangers but he refused and apparently refused a couple more moves. Me thinks agents are now telling players who are in their final year to refuse moves in the hope of getting a loan and walk away at the end with a free transfer which boosts their earnings next season for whoever they sign for

 

He had a slow start but last season he played 32 games. 7 goals and 4 assists. He’s a RW who has also played at RWB.

He’s not a striker.

 

my bad.......he's not worth 40 mill neither

 

Spot on. West Ham Keeper had a meslier which helped sunderland too.

Burnley’s problem will be, they cant rely on defence on its own at this level - lady luck won't bail them out gainst better attackers. They hardly ever had to chase a game last year and they’re not really equipped for it.

It's what worries me about our 'big lad' strategy. We'll see how the game plan plays out in reality - it's supposition at the moment and i imgaine it may be horses for courses... but seems likely we'll be inviting pressure. You have to still give the opposition something to think about, and without attacking reinforcements i'm not sure where our threat will be.

 

Agreed. I'd like you to finish 1 place below us, wherever that is.

Apologies in advance if that pushes you guys down to the Europa league.

 

Still no answer on the seriousness of James Justin injury as it’s still being assessed. A couple of points, it’s been rumoured for weeks that JJ was coming to Leeds and I remember stories weeks ago that we were trying to do a double deal with EBK. So if we were involved for so long why was nothing done. I have just been doing some research into the number of full backs that have moved in this window because I am sick of seeing full back after full back transferring. I gave up at 350 left backs with pages more so never bothered with right backs. So what the hell are doing

 

We lack creativity in the team. We've nobody to play that killer pass that opens things up. Thats my concern.

Im not sure we will invite pressure in most games. In pre season against scum, Villareal and Milan we've had our fair share. Farke has definitely set up to attack in some halves and to sit in in others.

If we dont play with a 10 then we need something special out wide.

 

yeh fair point, invite was the wrong word, i meant if you offer no attacking threat you encourage sides to be more ambitious. I do expect us to try and retain posession rather than low block and hoof it away... just not sure how we do much with that possession. In the periods of time we don't have the ball i can see us getting hemmed in with no outlet. I guess it's why the no 9 who can hold the ball up and run the channels is critical.

Guess we all want that flashy winger, the slick 10 and the goal-scoring all round 9 we've been hankering after and not delivered on!

 

one reason why we needed upgrades in the forwards was because at times we lose the ball too easily due to bad passing by trying too many tricks, flicks and intricate stuff. Last seasons team look great when it comes off but we are not good enough. Without Solomon we are a poorer attacking threat and we really needed an instinctive striker who doesn’t need that extra touch. I am hoping Aaronson can convert more of his chances than last season, I know he scored goals but he missed more. I hope DCL is fully fit and can bring his A game and I really hope the new look Piroe can take his chance and stake a claim as a very good prem striker. Opposition will know to snub out Dan James so Bogle needs to support him with help from inside and we have to hope Ramazani or Gnonto can do it. We were never good enough to break down defences who park the bus and in this league you need to attack with pace and not play around on the edge of their box Ultimatley playing sideways and backwards. Nothing wrong with a direct route or faster ball through a defence. We saw last season plenty of times a runner went behind the defence and never got the pass

 

Very true regarding possession, I mentioned it as the commentary team said three good goals on the counter and West Ham had zero threat in front of goal.

I wonder if you’ll change it depending on opposition or continue of waiting to hit teams on the break. Yes lots of scenarios, I hope we both stay up, no disrespect intended on my comments that I’d be surprised if you finish mid table, I think after three games you’ll be top 5 but you need to bag those points and with that confidence and momentum who knows

 

Coz we cant get what we want. We cant even dive into the Championship and pick the better players as they even looking for higher moves. Ie BEK.
Sooner rather than later we are gonna have to move on from targets that are dilly dallying. Its becoming desperation time 2 weeks of the window left. Muniz scores so that rubber stamps hes not coming. BEK wants a higher ranked club. We just ain't gonna get either. Solomon still a possibility but I get the vibes he wants something bigger too. You have a club that loves you and wants you and is at a club where he cant even make the subs bench you jump at the chance right? Just something not adding up.

 

It’s because we’re selling players we no longer want whereas the clubs you mentioned are selling their best players for profit (they’d rather keep but can’t as the player wants a step up), that’s the difference.

 

I think we will go with Piroe, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Nmecha as forwards now.

However, and hear me out on this one, IF we go for another striker then Josh Sargent would make perfect sense. He is a different type of striker to what we have. He is a relentless pressing machine and can also play wide. His injury record has been largely ankle problems but he had surgery 18 months ago which fixed it from recurring since.

I'd also like Noah Okafor from Milan. He has that x-factor we crave. They turned down a 15 million bid this week. He wants to leave. We could get that done at the end of the window for around 20 million.

I can see us getting Hamer too as an option in midfield.

 

The difference is the timing. We should have sold Meslier after the 2nd season in the PL. We could all see he wasn't strong enough for relegation battles but he had a really strong reputation from helping us up, helping us finish 9th and helping us stave off relegation. An easy 10-20 million.

Same with Bamford. He had his season in the PL and there was interest in him. That was the time to get rid. It was clear to most fans that Paddy was more miss than hit. Spurs were looking for 20-25 million.

We agreed £25 million for Jack Harrison but instead gave him a new contract on big wages with loan clauses. Without the new contract we could have sold him on the summer after relegation.

We could have had 10 million for Joseph in January.

Its not about whether we want the players or not, it's about the timing of the business. Look at Brighton, they know when to sell for the highest price.

 

Agree with that regarding timing because ultimately, despite Meslier’s PL experience, we are now selling our 3rd choice goalkeeper and that doesn’t bring in big fees. No idea why he was kept but guessing that the coaches thought he would develop further with the experience he was getting.