The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Thursday 26th May)

Good Morning. It's Thursday 26th May, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


Medical test booked in for tomorrow

It is understood that Brenden Aaronson is currently in the UK, and likely to undergo a full medical test at Thorp Arch as early as tomorrow. This being the case, he could be unveiled at Elland Road as early as Thursday afternoon. The 21yo box to box midfielder enjoyed a successful season with Austrian outfit RB Saltzburg, netting six, and adding ten assists from 41 appearances.

He had been on the ER radar for a while, and although the Austrian Champions spurned Leeds advances in January, after having face to face discussions with Victor Orta, an agreement was put into place, as long as Leeds survived the drop.

Aaronson wanted the transfer bought forward, so all formalities were concluded before jetting off with his USA teammates, who face Morocco and Uruguay next week, in preparations for their Nations League matches against Grenada and El Salvador.

A fee of £24m has been agreed between the two parties, though the length of contract is still up for debate.

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City set to test Leeds resolve with £60m Phillips offer

Manchester City are set to test Leeds resolve with a £60m offer for Kalvin Phillips. The Leeds and England midfielder has been linked with a host of top flight clubs including neighbours Manchester Utd, Spurs and Newcastle, yet Pep Guardiola's offers so much more. A move to the blue side of Manchester would all but guarantee Phillips both European football and Silverware.

Fernandinho called time on his glittering career last Sunday, and the Yorkshire Pirlo is seen as an ideal replacement. Phillips had a disappointing season at Leeds, not just with his injuries, but his performances were not up to par. Stats wise, the England Midfielder scored a very average 6.56, only 0.07 more than Junior Firpo! Is 60m enough? Surely it should be more, especially when you consider they splashed out 100m for Jack Grealish.

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Top flight duo targeting Harrison

Newcastle Utd and Tottenham Hotspur are among several top flight clubs plotting the capture of Jack Harrison this Summer. The 25yo winger joined the Whites initially on loan from Manchester City back in Summer of 2018, but only made the move permanent last Summer. When you add up the loan fee's involved, (3m x 3 seasons) the former Citeh, Manchester Utd and Liverpool youngster set Leeds back in the region of 20m.

Harrison has received a mixed bag of reviews since joining. He has chipped in with 10 goals, two assists and 4 man of the match performances. In Comparison, Raphinha, who has enjoyed a more central role last season, has 11 goals, three assists and 4 MOTM awards, though 4 of his goals were from the penalty spot.

What is Harrison's true worth, and would you keep him at Elland Road?

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Morning all

I thought Aaronson was having a medical today.

As much as I want Phillips to stay with us I've got admit the idea of £60 million is not to be sniffed at. We could get 3 or 4 players with that money.

Regarding Harrison from what I read Fat Frank wants him at Everton and already has his number ready to make contact.

 

Morning all

Seems to me that if City offer £60m for Phillips we should take it. Love Kalvin but not seen much of him since he got his England call. He went away with England and came back injured and been missing most of this season. I dont think he enjoys the Matsch style so may want out. Yes love the kid but he has his career to think about and if he signs a new deal with us great, one less to buy.

Funny how stories about our wingers being looked at have surfaced. Could it be that Marsch is making it known he prefers half-wing players, whereas Bielsa had lots of wingers and no midfielders.

 

He can't just ring Harrison. That's called tapping up.

 

I think City will go further for Phillips. Hang tight for now.

He is the perfect replacement for Fernandinho though. Been saying it for months. I wouldn't blame Phillips for going there, it's a great move for him, he'd excell in that team. If we can get 70 million it would be fantastic business all round.

 

Morning everyone,

It's been a while since i've been on here.

Nice to see us get a signing in early, but do we think we'll be sticking with a 4-2-3-1 formation next season or moving to Marsch's other favourite, the 4-2-2-2. I like the old fashioned idea of having two forwards but I despise the 4-2-2-2.

I want Phillips to stay and become a Leeds legend, but I don't think he'll be as instrumental playing in Marsch's system as he was under Bielsa so perhaps 60m wouldn't be a bad bit of business.

Can Everton afford to be buying many players, surely they have to look at how they can fiddle their books again?

 

It's an interesting process signing players. If you read Robbie Fowler's autobiography he spells it out for you. You get somebody your target knows to see if you're actually interested in signing for you if they are then you go through the official channels. Gary McAllister accidentally text Fowler to see if he was interested in signing for Liverpool but the message was meant for Robbie Keane.

 

Morning Tommo. Welcome back.

I think Marsch likes the 4-2-2-2 but he hasn't had the players to do it just yet. I think we will have to wait until we finish recruiting players to see how differently we might line up. Alot of his success so far with us ironically is sticking to a wide 'Bielsa style' formation but just a little less gung ho with no man to man marking.

 

Yeah, I get that but if its done publicly like fat Fwank has then it's proof.

 

All the article said is that Everton was interested and Lampard had his number but tbh if I knew Howe and Conte were after me I'd reply 'no'

 

Good Morning from a very dull and chilly Bardsey
I has WJ will verify have not been a real fan of kp but I do know that if City want him they will get himso I would look for 75m and wish him well
Grealish cost 100m and he amused me when he said after the Villa game that he came to City to win things well I didn,t ealise you could do this sitting on a bench!Didnt he realise that after 74 minutes they needed to score3 goals and atthis point Guardiola ignored him and put 2 other subs onwhich tells me he will be sold very shortly at a massive loss.hES has a lot of growing up to do
On our ins and outs its good we are signing Aaronsonbut lets not let it end there
Looking at the league table we let in more goals than anyother team but Norwich so clearly we need to strengthen the defenceI suggestedPope for Mesliersand the American full back at Barca we could include in selling Raphina in that way we can get more for himas I beileve Doc says he his worth 20m so I would be looking at 50m plus the player .This leaves Fripo to get sold and yet another left back to be brought in The young Aberdeen boy has been mentioned but surely he is too young would rather see Charlie Taylor brought backalong with his playing partnerTsakowskithat would costaboutt 7m plus signing on fees .In mid field Ilike thelook of John Swift on a freeand we need to be very careful about Bamfords understudyLang seems to tick many boxes To replace Jach Harrison for if they offer silly money then we have to take it
Rodrigo needs to go but at a great loss along with Fripo has he has found the play to intense and fast for him hence all his bookings
Tyler Roberts has had 3 seasons at least to get some form needs to go elsewhere along with Costa and Kiko
So there is my thoughts I,m sure you will have yours

 

Good morning all
Yes agree with what your all saying, accept any offers around 60-70m, for Kalvin absolutely great business that would be for the club. Also i feel since his injury, he has not been the quite the same player, so he is imo at his maximum value atm and we should sell with the right offer.
As for Harrison i personally want to keep him, always gives his best as kinda the eveready battery equivalent of Alioski the Duracell bunny.
At least this season on the face of it, we appear to be getting some business done and maybe nice and early to, so jesse has a good chance of building a solid squad for next season, i for one can't wait to see how it all pans out. Good luck to Jesse/Orta/Kinear/Radz etc in the challenge of sorting this all out as their is a huge amount of work to be done come the start of the new season.

 

Anyone remember when Peter Reid came in and saved us from the drop before assembling an absolutely woeful squad for the following campaign ?

Reid instilled his own style and we played a high back line which never worked and the players we had just weren't good enough. By the end of September we were in the bottom three and never recovered.

If I remember correctly that summer we sold;
Kewell
Nigel Martyn
Dacourt

and filled the squad with some loans like Roque Junior and 3 or 4 others who stank the place out.

Let's hope the current owners/board have genuinely learned both from their mistakes and our history.

 

Good morning and it's sell sell sell from me. Kalvin and rapha for big fees only. Harrison i would sell if the price was right for the club. I think he would go for the chance to play european football. He does weigh in with goals but can go ages doing nothing. I think we could do better to be truthfull.

 

The problem with Reid was he got Peanuts for Kewell, half the squad had left under Venables. We had **** all money and Reid wasn't that great a manager.

 

Personally Id like us to get replacements in for Harrison and Kalvin before we sell them. Don't want to see this nonsense of scrambling around in late July looking for replacements, especially knowing the snails pace Orta and co operate at

 

I would still like to know the truth aboutJanuary and no players coming in because the board say Bielsa refused? If thats true why no mention of the Ivan kid from Croatia who was on his way to Leeds but pulled the plug due to relegation fears? If thats true then we know at least 2 players were being chased for signing in January and would probably have kept us up.

 

03/04 squad

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK ENG Paul Robinson
2 DF IRL Gary Kelly
3 DF IRL Ian Harte
5 DF RSA Lucas Radebe
6 DF FRA Zoumana Camara (on loan from Lens)
7 MF ENG Nick Barmby
9 FW AUS Mark Viduka
10 MF SEN Lamine Sakho (on loan from Marseille)
11 MF ENG Jermaine Pennant (on loan from Arsenal)
14 MF IRL Stephen McPhail
16 MF ENG Jason Wilcox
17 FW ENG Alan Smith
19 MF NOR Eirik Bakke
20 MF ENG Seth Johnson
21 DF SCO Dominic Matteo (captain)
22 DF ENG Michael Duberry
23 MF ENG David Batty
24 MF CMR Salomon Olembé (on loan from Marseille)
25 MF ENG Aaron Lennon
29 DF FRA Didier Domi (on loan from Paris Saint-Germain)
34 DF ENG Frazer Richardson
36 DF ENG Matthew Kilgallon
38 MF ENG James Milner
39 FW ENG Simon Johnson
40 GK ENG Scott Carson
41 GK ENG Shaun Allaway


Players who left the club that season


No. Pos. Nation Player
4 MF ENG Jody Morris (to Rotherham United)
8 FW ENG Michael Bridges (on loan to Newcastle United)
12 DF BRA Roque Júnior (on loan from A.C. Milan)
15 GK ENG Nigel Martyn (to Everton)
15 FW FRA Cyril Chapuis (on loan from Marseille)
15 DF SCO Steven Caldwell (on loan from Newcastle United)
18 DF ENG Danny Mills (on loan to Middlesbrough)
24 MF AUS Paul Okon (to Vicenza)
26 GK AUS Danny Milosevic (to Celtic)
32 MF ENG Harpal Singh (on loan to Bury)

 

If we get £25M for Harrison I'd snap their hands off. I'd get shot of Rodrigo, did you notice when Harrison scored on Sunday, Rodrigo didn't even cheer. He has been very poor all season. I think our defence improved when JM took over, still making stupid mistakes though and maybe Llorente is the weak link. Losing Phillips and Raphina will leave a huge hole to fill, I hope management have a plan for that scenario!

 

Maybe he'll be found out at City, but then again with the players around him, he may find it easier. I'd sell him TBH because personally I'm fed up with all the hype.