Good Morning. It's Friday 8th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Players will receive 48m in bonuses if Leeds stay up Whilst a footballer's playing career is short, the majority are rewarded handsomely, especially in the top flight. Most make more in a week, than any of us would make in a year. At the end of last season, the Leeds squad were rewarded to the tune of 38m, just for staying in the top flight; this term, the figure goes up to almost 50m. Whichever way you look at it, (injuries aside) the ER squad has not performed this season. If our form at work dropped to the same degree, most of us wouldn't have jobs to go to! Is it not a travesty that a club of Leeds Utd's stature find themselves at the wrong end of the table, behind the likes of Brentford? 48m would go a long way to providing Jesse Marsch with two or three much needed players this Summer, especially when we know we are working to a tight budget! Should the current squad be rewarded for doing the bare basics? please log in to view this image Passing has been a major issue for Leeds Utd this season Premier League statistics from 'Whoscored.com' show that passing has been a major issue for Leeds Utd this season. Whilst this may not surprise many, few would have imagined how bad it actually has become! Over the average course of a game, Leeds make 387 short passes, 325 accurate (AccSP) and 62 inaccurate (InAccSP). This may not sound too bad on paper, but it's the fourth worst this season. Leeds fair better with long passes, even though almost 60% go awry. The average number of passes have dropped too. Last season, Leeds averaged almost 500 a game. This term, it has fallen to 442. When all the data has been calculated, it shows only Norwich City have a poorer passing record than Leeds. The loss of Kalvin Phillips has hit Leeds hard. He has missed 18 games for the Whites, but even taking this into consideration, we can't ignore that tough decisions on recruitment need to be made this Summer! Manchester Utd plot Phillips capture Manchester Utd have upped their game, in their pursuit of Kalvin Phillips. The Old Trafford outfit have been monitoring both Phillips and Declan Rice for a while, but as West Ham have a 150m price tag around Rice's neck, he wont be going anywhere. Sources close to the club claim that they are also watching Jude Bellingham, but hold the Yorkshire Pirlo is higher regard. News that Phillips has split with his long time agent Kevin Sharp, causing contract negotiations to grind to a holt, have encouraged clubs to stake their interest in the England Midfielder ahead of the Summer transfer window. The red side of Manchester have a proven track record of stealing top talent from Elland Road dating back to Joe Jordan and Gordon McQueen in the late 70's. Unfortunately, apart from Gordon Strachan, Lee Sharp, Danny Pugh and Scott Wootton never lived up to expectation. Dan James joined from Old Trafford last Summer, but he too has yet to match his price tag. please log in to view this image
Sky Sports focusing on the relegation battle. Next few rounds of fixtures and number of TV appearances... Man City 4 Liverpool 5 Chelsea 4 Arsenal 5 Newcastle 4 Brentford 2 Leeds 3 Everton 2 Burnley 2 Watford 0 Norwich 1 It's no wonder that certain clubs get all the wonga.
In fairness Jammy who wants to watch the bottom four on that list except maybe their own fans. Outside of uk nobody would watch. I saw a figure when last time city played Liverpool it was screened in 165 countries. Its all about viewing figures. That bottom four can consider themselves lucky to be ever televised in my opinion given the rubbish they usually serve up
Had to say that the other night was the very first time ever that I had selected to watch Burnley….. footy fans in Argentina or Singapore would never botherunless they originated in Burnley and are an ex pat
True but all games are screened live internationally. Totally unfair on fans/supporters in this country especially when it's coming to the crux of the season. Needs looking at and maybe have games from the so called lesser clubs on the red button like in the Championship.
Think at some stage the Prem will be forced into breaking away from the Sky, BT, Amazon gubbins and either do their own broadcasting like F1, NFL or have individual club broadcast rights. LUTV could reach at least 50,000,000 fir each home game and even if they only charged £1 for a stream thats £50m per home game…..
That depends on match days and times. If all games went back to 3pm on Saturday KO the top 6 prem teams would pick up the majority of pay per view punters. F1 is different because there is only one race at a time.
I don't mind the 50 million bonus package so long as that is reflected in a lower basic rate. I'm all for performance related pay. This season I'm sure a few actually owe us money. Poor passing. Yep, been banging the drum onthat one all season. Piss poor quality from players who have previously done alot better. Next season hopefully Phillips, Aaronson and a new guy fills that central section for us with Forshaw and Klich backing up. (I still like Swift from Reading on a freebie). I'd be shocked if Phillips went to scum. I'd probably accept it if he went to City or Liverpool as he is going to win things. If he goes to Villa or scum it just doesn't make sense to me. He is good enough to play at the highest level so should aim for the top at some point. I think he will do one more season under Marsch and see how things go. I also think he will get a bumper new contract so we get a fee at the end of next season, I just feel that he won't screw the club over.
Afternoon all I just don’t get relegation avoiding bonuses, surely at any level there is a desire to win, is pulling on a Leeds shirt, the vast monthly wages they already get and self pride not enough of an incentive to wish to win?
It’s probably the term bonus which is irritating to some people as it seems like a reward for achieving the absolute minimum. Now if we’d taken out an insurance policy to lessen the financial impact of relegation we’d all say that was good planning. The bonus scheme is exactly that but without paying the premium for the insurance.
Makes me wonder just how much bamford and phillips are on.. I think it's obscene to take that much from a club. The tickets these days are much dearer compared to the 1970s. I know that is obvious but i meant in comparison to percentage of earnings.
Think we’ve all noticed our passing has seemed poorer this season. Phillips definitely part of the reason. Think a lot of our players are just simply at the lower end of the league average technically. The mitigating factor (though this would be true in every season not just this one, is the high octane way we play. Especially in transition… it’s not surprising our pass stats are poor but they’re still below where they need to be.
It should be enough but it’s not. Football is money driven, agents being the main culprits. That’s all most players are in it for. Better to reward with a boys on too of average wages than to pay extravagant wages like Everton and they then have no incentive to win
