I keep hearing people referring to our squad size, so thought I'd get it down on paper to see what size it really is. I drew the list from the OS listing (which doesn't even mention Connolly, btw!). Signed 1st Team Squad 1 Patrick Kenny 2 Lee Peltier 3 Adam Drury 4 Tom Lees 5 Jason Pearce 7 Paul Green 8 Rodolph Austin 10 Luciano Becchio 11 Luke Varney 12 Jamie Ashdown 14 Aidan White 16 Danny Pugh 17 Michael Brown 18 Michael Tongue 19 David Norris 21 El-Hadji Diouf 25 Samuel Byram 26 Dominic Poleon 27 Sanchez Payne 28 Davide Somma 30 Ryan Hall 31 Paul Rachubka 32 Chris Dawson 44 Ross McCormack Comment: I can see at least 3 here on this list that we wouldn't miss. 1st Team Loans In 15 Alan Tate(on loan from Swansea) Comment: Looked good to start with, but after a few wobbles, jury is out (suspect month extension is opportunity to further assess / find better). No Number Assigned / Long Term Injury Leigh Bromby Alex Cairns Ramon Nunez Lewis Turner Comment: Expect we'll lose Bromby & Nunez once they've recovered (thought: was Bromby ever at Blades with NM? Just askin' ...) Loaned Out 6 Patrick Kisnorbo (on loan to Ipswich) 22 Robbie Rogers (on loan to Stvnge) 23 Zac Thompson (on loan to Bury) Comment: Might see Thompson back, but suspect it's tata to the other 2. According to my calculations, that means that we currently have a squad of 24 full time & 1 loan in = 25. Not such a big squad, especially when you look at the players who've played fairly regularly (highlighted). I make it only 17. The others have been bit part players to date. 17 !!! FM, not such a big squad after all, is it??!!
Wasn't Poleon and Rachubka loaned out? Or have they returned now? I know we called back Poleon from his loan at the start of the season but I thought he was loaned out again!
The following players have been brought in on the assumption that they could/should be good enough for the first-team: 1 Patrick Kenny 2 Lee Peltier 3 Adam Drury 4 Tom Lees 5 Jason Pearce 7 Paul Green 8 Rodolph Austin 10 Luciano Becchio 11 Luke Varney 12 Jamie Ashdown 14 Aidan White 16 Danny Pugh 17 Michael Brown 18 Michael Tonge 19 David Norris 21 El-Hadji Diouf 25 Samuel Byram 28 Davide Somma 30 Ryan Hall 31 Paul Rachubka 44 Ross McCormack There’s 21 players here (albeit 3 keepers) which is a fairly sized squad for the Championship (I also haven’t included Kisnorbo, Tate, Rogers or Poleon, who have all at some point played in the first team). The problem, as others have pointed out is the quality. Varney, Pugh and Rachubka should never be allowed near a Leeds shirt again and the jury is still out on Peltier, Drury, Pearce, Ashdown, White, Brown, Norris and Hall. It’s fair to say that probably only Kenny, Becchio, Lees, Tonge, Byram and Diouf have the quality to play in the Premier League.
TBH, if Tongue, Kenny & Diouf had the quality to play in the PL, wtf are they doing signed for us? I suspect it's because no other PL team is interested in them, which makes their PL 'quality' hugely suspect, & second rate PL at best. Lees, Becchio & Byram haven't been tested regularly at PL level, so it's possible that EVEN if we did go up, we might not have ANY PL quality players! Sad, isn't it?
We recalled Poleon towards the end of the year when we had a bit of an injury crisis. Rachubka was loaned out for an emergency loan on a week by week basis, and I think it's all over now (he probably caused an emergency!).
Yup. Most teams that get promoted have at least a handful of Premier League quality players but we would really struggle. Kenny, Tonge and Diouf could probably still hack it in the PL, maybe as back up players. Lees could go on to be a decent top-level defender but he has gone backwards under Warnock and his route one tactics. That said, we’re probably got fewer PL quality players now than we had under Grayson.
You could say that about any player in the Championship. A player can be Premier League quality, but they may not fit in with their current teams philosophy and might not be the type of player needed by other Premier League clubs. It's all circumstantial and relative.
For me, we have two players in our team with immediate potential to play in the PL. Thats Lees and McCormack, both of those though would beneift from having someone with more PL experience beside them. Byram has the potential but not yet imo, he may be ready in a few years time for the PL but realistically I would only use him as back up, thats why I have been saying we need to sign a CM and a GK of pure quality who can play in the prem immediately if we were to be promoted. Then you at least have a spine to your team and can start to build around those. Also when you get promoted, often teams get surprised by a couple players that didn't seem to have the ability but they really mature through the promotion and are able to hack it in the PL At the moment though we are a very long way off
I don't think we have any who would shine in the Premiership, we have players that would do okay but nothing special at the moment. Lees would get ripped apart, McCormack wouldn't hit double figures, just my opinion... Which team in the Premiership would either of these two walk into and I don't mean a relegation fodder team
Look at the team Norwich had when they went up – Ruddy, R Martin, Whitbread, Ward, Tierney, Crofts, Surman, Hoolahan, Fox, Holt, Jackson Or the team Swansea had - De Vries, Williams, Tate, Monk, Rangel, Dyer, Sinclair, Allen, Britton, Dobbie, Borini Now how many of those would you have predicted would go on to make it in the Premier League?
Spot on. We’re still suffering from a long-term recruitment policy of getting in journeymen, loanees and anyone who will play for a few bob and a lollipop. What we desperately need is a team built around a nucleus of players (Kenny, Lees, Byram, Tonge, Becchio) by adding some proper quality. I don’t think this can happen under Warnock though.
Two teams that got promoted and played attractive football, we are hoof ball mid table and nowhere near as good as those two teams hence why I feel we don't have anyone who would shine.
