The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 5th January)

Good Morning. It's Tuesday 5th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road.

Leeds winning race to land Tomori

Leeds, Newcastle, West Ham United and Rennes are battling it out to land Chelsea's out of favour defender Fikayo Tomori. The 23yo was born in Calgary to Nigerian parents but has represented England at U19, 20 and 21 level. He also won his first senior cap under Gareth Southgate in 2019 against Kosovo.

Any move for Tomori would likely be a loan deal. Lampard highly rates the centre back, and would like him to rediscover his form. BBC Sport lists Elland Road as the ‘likeliest’ destination for the 23-year-old, but will Leeds be interested in improving the players form, if they have no chance of signing him permanently?

Reports from Stamford Bridge claim Tomori is unsettled, and may push for a permanent move.

Would he be a good loanee signing?

Would you sign him permanently?

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Did Leeds dodge a bullet by not signing Ben White

We have all seen what Bielsa can conjure up with some a mid table Championship squad! His influence over Cooper, Alioski, Dallas and Ayling have them playing at their full capacity with a wider skill set than many of us would have thought possible. More gifted players like Phillips and Klich have been propelled to the next level and barn door Bamford has become one of the leading goal scorers in the Premiership, neck and neck with Harry Kane.

One of Bielsa's success stories has to be Ben White. He went from division 3 (on loan) to being the best defender in the Championship almost overnight. His success on the field had Liverpool scout Andy O'Brien attending every Leeds game to monitor his progress.

The 23yo became Leeds biggest Summer targets, and although they were willing to offer in excess of 30m, Brighton refused to part with their starlet.

Half way through the season, as you would expect, White has established himself as a first team player, but has not moved up to the next level, as most would have predicted.


If Leeds were given the option to sign White this month for 30m, would you?

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Pochettino appointment put Leeds on red alert

The appointment of Mauricio Pochettino as head Coach of Paris St Germain have reignited Leeds interest in the German international midfielder Julian Draxler. The 27yo is in the final season of his contract with the French Champions, and is keen to move following being restricted to just nine appearances this term.

Bielsa's relationship with his Argentinian friend dates back to 1989, when both were at Newell's Old boys, Pochettino as a player, and Bielsa as a coach. Both, have high admiration for each other. We also know that Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani is equally good friends with PSG owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi.

Bearing this in mind, what are the chances, that both clubs can do business together?

AC Milan, Inter Milan, Sevilla and Hertha Berlin have also been linked to the German star.

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White is technically a very good footballer but he wasn’t the finished article from a defensive perspective, and in our championship side there wasn’t much defending to do. Now he has more defending to do against better quality attackers, so it’s going to show up more.

We signed two centre halves in the summer can’t see us signing one just because injuries have stacked up but a loan deal might make sense depending on the expected return dates of our CHs. Tomori always looked a player to me.

 

Morning all
Forget Tomori cannot see that happening.

Draxler situation is this: he wants to stay in Paris as he is happy there and his fiancé is there and she is staying there. He will do his best to impress Pochetino so he gets a new contract. Why would PSG allow a player like Draxler to run his contract down and walk on a free? IF Poch likes him and why wouldn't he as a German International and World Cup winner with over 50 caps and still only 27. If he is allowed to walk then Leeds will not be on his agenda it will be somewhere closer commute wise to Paris. If we did get him his wages would be massive but because he comes free it would be great business because he would have a value of £30m-£40m

 

Ben White has been playing midfield for the last few games, thats how dezzy Brighton are and we know from experience that he wasn't the best there, because we decided in Struijk as replacement for Phillips

 

Morning all,

The loan signing of Tomori is ok if we are looking at Llorente being out for an extended amount of time. If he is not then to me him, Cooper and Struijk are perfectly capable of covering cb until Koch is back.


On Ben White, it could be that he is being shown up by playing at an higher level. How much of an affect has playing under a different coach with a different approach affected him?

I do not mean to disrespect Potter but is of the level of Bielsa? As we all know Bielsa has the ability to get more out of every plater he coaches. This is what he did with White last season and I firmly believe that White at Leeds this season would be very different to the White we are seeing at Brighton.

 

Read an article this morning from the Manager of Nantes. He was complaining that Augustin's fitness is still only 30 / 40 percent of what it should be!

Should there not be some kind of investigation into who scouted / saw Augustin play before committing to him?

 

There's no way we'd sign Tomori on loan and then loan out Llorente - where's the sense in that?

 

Last season we had 2 recognised CBs as we did the season before that. This season we went out and replaced Ben White with a better version who is also an International, we then bought yet another International Cb making that 3 International CBs backed up by Pascal Struijknd Luke Ayling who has done a great job. Thats now 5 CBs with Charlie Cresswell and Ollie Casey coming up on the rails making 7CBs why the hell should we bring in yet another CB would upset the applecart. No thats not Bielsa’s style

 

If fat Fwank rates tomori....I don'tand draxler to expensive unless poch wants to sub his wages

 

I know that's what I was saying Doc

 

If Llorente is out injured for an extended period, not loaned out.

They say he is nearly ready but he broke down very quickly last time he came back

 

Agree fully.

Unless Koch, Llorente, Cooper, or a combination of those is far more seriously injured than we've been told, & due to be out for a longer time than originally anticipated. And unless it's all 3, I still don't see Bielsa bringing in a loanee. I believe he'd rather use our upcoming u23s.

 

Afternoon all

 

Still waiting for Nessy Grot and Bhoy to be shown the door, which should be anytime now.

Will we see Tyler Roberts sold? Hopefully. Derby and Bournemouth interested

Will Forshaw be sent out on loan to a Championship club? Hopefully because 18 month out injured he is no good to us and if he isnt match fit he will never make it back

Also hearing that Rafa Mujica may be on his way back from Oviedo. They have changed systems so Mujica has only played 5 times (scored 2 goals) they want a midfielder so Leeds bringing the lad home. Not sure what the outlook is, but if is expected Sam Greenwood and Joe Gelhardt doing more 1st team stuff will Mujica replace them in the 23s? The kid has skills and this is a kid from Barcelonas academy who was there with Riqui Puig? Or will he be released, sold or indeed go into the 1st team squad

 

Alex Ferguson says VAR isn't working because of Burnley's disallowed goal against Leeds. He saw goalkeeper fouling Burnley player other people saw Burnley player backing into goalkeeper.

 

So he’s come to that conclusion because for once VAR worked to Leeds’ advantage

No mention of the times it’s worked against us, such as Bamford’s goal against Palace (ruled out for offside because he was pointing where he wanted the ball) and Spurs’ penalty (clearly outside the box)

No, just pick out the one time it benefitted Leeds (if in fact it did)

Typical

 

Forza beat me to it and the dopey red nosed twat ignores the amount if times we have been penalised by VAR like last weekends penalty. Wonder when red nose ever got embarrassed about Fergie Time or the number of penalties red nose and his red club get penalties

 

Sir Alex Who?

 

Fleming?

 

He never complained when he was a manager about refs not even being able to tell the time.