The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Thursday 5th August)

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

Leeds end miserable pre season on a low

Leeds capped off their miserable pre season with a 4-0 defeat against Dutch Champions Ajax. Whilst Ajax may be a formidable force in Holland, the Eredivisie League is poor, and does not even feature in the top 10 soccer leagues in the World, a list that has the US Major League in it!

The Leeds youngsters had lost 3-1 earlier in the day, though their spirited second half performance deserved a much closer scoreline. The Whites finally got a consolation with only a few minutes remaining after Max Dean was bought down in the area. He stepped up himself to put himself to reduce the deficit to two!

Former Spurs man Rafael van der Vaart, now pundit praised the Dutch giants, but took a swipe at the West Yorkshire starlets on social media:-

If he wasn't impressed by Mark Jackson's youngsters, then his thoughts on the performance of the first XI are probably best kept to himself.

Davy Klaassen, Ryan Gravenberch, Dusan Tadic, Daley Blind, Sebastien Haller and Steven Berghuisare were all on show for the Eredivisie Champions, though in truth, they face players of this calibre week in, week out in the Premiership!

Two goals in either half with little resistance from the Whites have hopefully sent shockwaves through the Elland Road camp as they now prepare for a much harder challenge in just over a weeks time when they visit Old Trafford!

Even Bielsa is starting to show the strain. Shackleton received a terrible head injury which left him dazed and shaken and had to be taken off. A raging Bielsa could be seen berating the poor lad as he came off. We have never seen him lose control like this! Perhaps the frustrations are getting to him?

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Bid made for Argentine forward

Italian news outlet TuttoMercatoWeb have claimed that Leeds have made a bid to bring CSKA Moscow centre-forward Adolfo Gaich to Elland Road.

Nicknamed 'the tank' the 22yo Argentine was was on Victor Orta's wish list last year, but ended up at CSKA Moscow in a deal worth 8.5 million euros. Unfortunately, things have not gone well since his transfer and was loaned out to recently relegated Serie A outfit Benevento in January after just 13 games.

Gaich signed a 5 year deal with the Russian Champions, and has a £25.6 million release clause in his contract.

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Leeds bid for O'Brien turned down

Leeds have had a formal approach turns down buy Huddersfield for their prized asset Lewis O'Brien. The 22yo midfielder only has a year left on his contract, though have are able to exercise a clause in his contract to extend that by another twelve months.

O'Brien has been top of Bielsa's wish list since losing out on Chelsea's Conor Gallagher who opted to stay in London and join Patrick Viera's Crystal Palace. Since the interest from Leeds, Town have slapped a 10m price tag on their star player.

It is not known how much Leeds offered, but they will have to dig deeper to land the youngster. It is believed that O'Brien is keen on a move to Elland Road!

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Is it time to press the panic button yet?

'Its only a friendly', 'the scoreline doesn't matter', 'it was a good run out'! Is it time to remove the blinkers, and assess why the Whites have had a torrid pre season?

Leeds could have used that excuse at Ewood Park as they came from behind to grab a late draw against a very depleted Blackburn side, but as preparations have intensified, their performances have not reached a satisfactory standard!

Leeds prided themselves on having the fittest side in the Premiership last term Nine weeks later, Bielsa's squad should have maintained an advantage over their competition, yet each game does not reflect our superiority and have been littered by constant mistakes and poor passing!

Yes, its only a pre-season game, but it's only a pre season game for our opposition too!

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Morning all,

Anybody panicking over pre season has no appreciation for history. All our pre seasons under bielsa have been less than ideal but, oh boy, when the season starts.

Is it a case of Bielsa holding the handbrake on output wise and just expecting us to work on the technical side? Let the fitness be built up in murderball but work on the other stuff in these games.

From what I've watched we have not shown our usual intensity in any game so far.

 

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Niall Huggins on his way to Ewood Park on a permanent deal...

 

Update on Adolfo Gaich

The Argentine, however, will not join Bielsa’s side as he ‘prefers a new experience’ in Italy.

 

I'm not panicking, just not impressed so far. Pre season or no pre season, we've nine days to go to face the scum. We are lacking something. As for History, I remember Revies sides playing in the West Riding cup, a kind of pre season build up and we got beaten by Halifax. I know where the pre season brigade are coming from. Has Bielsa signed yet.

 

I was wondering that Shaks. He may be a man of integrity but it's still a bit unsettling and possibly an area of uncertainty for any potential signings.

It's not a done deal until it's signed. If he has signed, the club should've announced it. And if he hasn't, what possible reason could there be?

Can't see the point in all the cloak and dagger stuff. All a bit weird.

 

I was afraid to ask that question because I didn't want to be labelled a wristslasher.

 

well it’s certainly not wrist slashing. All we have to go by is the last update we had, which was his contract remains unsigned.

It’s all very well people saying he always waits until the last minute but all it takes is for someone to piss him off and he’ll walk (he has previous for that)

 

Exactly Essex, when he's had enough, he'll piss off.

 

makes me laugh does Bielsa .he trains the team to s.a.s. standards and then wonders why they are knackered in pre season.bet its a relief to play the games and take a break..i for one do not like all these games in such a short time.our squad is too small and we are inviting injuries .

 

The best news today is that Seville cannot afford Noa Lang and Orta has deffo spoken to Langs agent and Ckub Brugge a couple of weeks ago, so lets see if anything happens

 

To be fair though fellas, he will piss off when he has had enough whether he signs the bit of paper or not so I really wouldn't worry too much about the Contract

 

Thats a great point

Shako's Alcohol Shop

 

Should we worry yet ? No.
Yes we have had shyte pre season's in the past. but, Yesterday Bielsa wasn't happy in both games he wanted a lot more on performance.
He was not a happy bunny very aminated. He wanted us competing yesterday for sure which was my only concern.
You give the first few games the look over as players are still getting up to pace. I was expecting to see improvement yesterday but I never saw any.
Ajax have a history and are a good side got to the S/F I think in the champions League a couple of seasons back. Real Betis are a decent side too but so what! we are a top 10 Premier League club and should of done better last night friendly or not.
Players still care they don't want to get tonked 4 zip in any game. but, we well and truly got took to the cleaners last night.
One good thing about last night the players now know there is still work to do and can't get arrogant because this is an unforgiving League.
This leedsfanzone on twitter are usually good with their info they talk to agents etc etc they say Junior will make the 1st game he had a knock and it wasn't worth risking they said.
Llorente is looking unlikely to make the scum game. Some muscle problem 2-3 weeks but nothing major but again what they said not official.

 

Afternoon all, I’m not panicking but I’ve not got great expectations for next season. Like everyone else I was hoping for a quality midfielder to join well before now, no more preseason games so it’s just wait and see now

 

Perspective needed with these games. Firstly the match against Young Ajax was a disaster in the first half with 5 first teamers all playing out of position in the main. It was already a depleted U23 side but in the 2nd half after a dodgy start where we conceded a goal, we actually beat the so called best kids in Europe. It was 1-1 in the second half but Summerville should have scored 3 and Poveda also missed a sitter, so Ajax were in fact lucky not to take a beating. Maybe we should look on the bright side and reflect that that side we fielded were missing McGurk, Bate and Gelhardt for starters.

Ayling was terrible and pieces of our jigsaw didnt fit but lets not forget that Cooper and Phillips were screwing up the U23s along with some other first teamers. Harrison was playing with another LB after spending the last 3 weeks with Junior. Lots of players in different roles………. It wasnt important. I will start to worry if we lose the first half dozen league games, until then I will carry on thinking about qualifying for Europe

 

Looks like the baggies star man is off to Saudi....... May as well play in Dudley working men's league division 3 what a cop out or could the oil money have swivelled his head 360 degrees, what happened to wanting to test yourself against the best!