Gradel was offered a new contract in Feb? Really? And all the time he was begging for a new contract. Josh, stop talking carp. Look, Gradel wasn't offered a new deal, Leeds let clubs know he was available and so when the offer comes in for Max he has no choice. After all, it was clear he had no future in a White shirt. So now Max is sitting on a one year contract at Leeds, if he stays and suffers injury or loss of form he knows getting a good deal at the end of the season is going to be really hard. Weigh that up against a move to St Ettiene and a four year deal and what is the kid supposed to do? Die for Grayson and Bates? I don't think so. However, to secure a nice four year deal in France Bates throws in one more twist - hand in a transfer request so that Leeds don't have to pay you anything for selling you. Disgraceful behaviour, kid is forced to speak out (no doubt engineered by his agent) and hand in a transfer request. Look, Bates has previous and his track record of forcing players out rather than paying them the increases they deserve following good performances for Leeds is there for all to see. This nonsense of making every player who leaves because Bates refuses to reward them a Judas is pathetic. The only Judas at Leeds is Bates, poker faced liar who treats his club's supporters like dirt.
All these questionable reasons for leaving and the only common factor is Bates and Harvey. How can you not see the connection between the club keeping everything secret then making these claims that never match what the player has said? It is a lie machine.
He made mugs out of fullbacks, harried all the time and scored a bucket full of goals. What's to overrate? You clearly are for bates, you always are. You constantly defend him putting up reasons to agree with his blame of everyone else. I don't remember you agreeing that bates has done something wrong.
No, because grown men are allowed to use dialectal past tenses. Logi's right, the article is hardly convincing journalism. Probably written by one of the many Leeds United "journalists"/journo trainees floating around Twitter. Boy, there's gonna be a lot of football hacks in ten years' time!
Grdel left & went to France becuse he wanted to be with his family. He is/was a class act. If he just wanted to move, plenty of PL clubs could have come in with a bid. Even one or two championship clubs could have made a silly money offer that would have been difficult to turn down. No, he's french speaking. His family is/was living in France. So he went to a French club. For him to come back to Leeds, something fundamental would need to have changed. Are his family still in France? If so, why would he return to the UK? For the record, I'd have him back. He's a class act, & he could add plenty to our ever improving squad
I'd have Maxi back in a heartbeat. Due to the nature of "we do our business in private", it's a case of the clubs word against the players. Since I don't trust bates further than I can throw him, I guarantee Max wanted to leave because he wasn't offered a contract. I can further speculate somewhat accurately that he was not offered a contract because the club knew he would become unsettled and more likely to hand in a transfer request. Max was worth a lot of money, as we all know he's a talented young player that was tearing the Championship a new anus. Due to the club holding its cards close to its chest, they couldn't lose on this matter. Don't offer him a contract, see if he hands a transfer request in as a result, then sell him and say "well what could we do? He wanted to leave!", claiming they offered a contract that he rejected, or worst case scenario claiming they didn't offer a contract because the agent demanded too much money. If he hadn't handed in a transfer request, they could then go through the motions of contract negotiations, offering piss poor contracts for 6 months before selling him in January with the excuse "well we could get the money and invest it in the squad, or he could go for free in summer". I'll take free in summer every time, it's the only option that sees we have a quality player since the transfer money is never reinvested. bates is a puppet master, a manipulative overgrown child and a cancer on this club.
I often point out things that Bates has done wrong. Even in this thread I said the way the Schmeichal was treated was absolutely disgraceful, but that was by both Bates and Grayson that treated him that way. I'm gonna get back to the point though he wasn't our best player and he wasn't the sole reason we finished 7th. He did get disposessed often and he also made the wrong decision a lot. Thats not to say he didn't get goals and he did take his goals well. Although he is a hard working and does try to get back, I often thought that he disrupted the shape of the team because of his positional sense wasn't very good therefore when defending he was never in the right place. Thats obviously not his primary reason for being in the team but its just pointing out his overall play isn't that good. And also, again I don't believe this story anyway
Not saying I don't agree with you, but I'm just curious to know who you did think our best player was last year? Because I swear you're not a Becchio fan... He wasn't the sole reason we finished 7th, but without him, considering our defensive record, we probably would've finished 17th
I thought Howson was fantastic for us personally. Snodgrass was very good for the middle part of the season but lost his way towards the end (because of injury many are saying) and was obviously injured for the majority of the start. I don't believe we would've finished 17th, maybe around 10th And Logi, Gradel did get player of the year however that is all opinions that decide that and my opinion is otherwise, I also know a lot of leeds fans who think otherwise, doesn't mean your right, doesn't mean I'm right, its just opinions at the end of the day
Tells you something if the players on the same field as him week in week out voted for him. As you say though everyones got there own opinion and mine is that gradel would be the missing piece in our team atm, to replace white at RM or LM
To get back to Maxi, I wish we had him in a Neil Warnock team. Pace, passion, desire, trickery, eye for goal, scares hell out of defenders. Happily take him back on loan for all of next season. Especially if we lose White and/or Snoddy. We will need someone like that.
A Gradel without Snoddy and we'd be in the same boat we're in now. It's the combination of the two that was so deadly.
