Good Morning. It's Friday 6th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Middle East group to rival 49ers for control of LUFC The 49ers Enterprises face fresh competition from an unnamed third party, desperate to purchase Leeds Utd from under their noses. According to the Daily Mail, a group from the Middle East are in the early stages of putting together a package that could rival the York family's £400m agreement. Andrea Radrizzani recently returned from Qatar, and it has been suggested that he may have met up with this group to discuss a possible takeover. Paraag Marathe has built up a trusting relationship with Andrea Radrizzani over the last couple of years, as they continue to increase their minority stakehold. Currently, they own 44% of the club, and if rumours are true, will exercise their right to complete the deal once Leeds are safe from relegation. Whilst the Middle-East has many of the wealthiest people in the World, many are notoriously untrustworthy, as Leeds found out in 2013, when Dubai-based investment company GFH Capital bought them. please log in to view this image Leeds mulling over £15m for Hungarian left back talkSPORT are insisting that Leeds are chasing Hungarian international defender Milos Kerkez. The 19yo left back has caught the eye of several top flight English clubs since joining AZ Alkmaar from AC Milan twelve months ago for £1.7m. Kerkez is versaitile. He can play left back, defensive midfield or left midfield It has been suggested that the Dutch outfit would want at least £15m to part with their prised asset. Should Leeds proceed with the purchase, surely this would spell the end of Junior Firpo. The 26yo has dropped down the pecking order at Elland Road since Marsch's arrival last February as well as being persistently injured. please log in to view this image Versatility is the key Whilst Leeds continue to be linked with all and sundry, they all (for the most part) have one thing in common - their versatility. I know we can take many of the rumours with a pinch of salt, though more times than not, there's normally some truth in it. Interestingly Leeds seem to be concentrating their efforts on players who can operate in a variety of different positions. Injuries have plagued Elland Road over the last 18 months, leaving team selection difficult, and gaps appearing all over the pitch. Perhaps the hierarchy plan on plugging the gaps with more experienced / better players, therefore making the overall squad stronger? please log in to view this image
Morning all Regarding owners, stick with what we have and we’ll always flirt with danger and lose the better players and one day it will crack and we’ll be relegated. Sell out to the 49ers and we’d love the first couple of seasons then we’d get just as fed up with the seemingly lack of investment needed to challenge at the top. American owners is not ideal Sell out to a Middle Eastern interest and it’s like rolling a dice, even and it’s GFH odd and we could challenge the spending power of Newcastle Who’s ready to roll the dice, shamefully I think maybe I am. The Hungarian LB - The TalkSport headline is a little misleading, attracting the interest of several top flight clubs, Bournemouth and Leicester, even so he’s got to be better than Firpo no?
Morning all. Not much point in me commenting on the ownership thing, Ive been making my feelings known for a long time and even Radz in his last interview admitted he hastnt the resources to move the club forward and has had his six years. So, time to move on. One thing for sure though, whoever takes over next needs to be several levels up in the wealth ratings to compensate for the two decades of little or no investment. Is that an investment bank? I very much doubt it. Will it need to be a group from oil rich countries, probably so. I personally don't care. I support Leeds, only happy when we win games and want to see us as high as possible in whatever league we're competing in. Fans deserve it, especially us older ones
Morning all Owners in the prem is a strange one because when you look at how much each of the owners are worth it’s fkg joke. Start with Newcastle at £320bn followed by Man City etc all the way down and it’s not until you get to 19th where the owners are just worth millions and not billions. So at 19th is Southampton at £765m and lowly Leeds at 20th with Radz on £450m So we are always on the back foot when it comes to trying to compete so we do need a new owner and not sure the 49ers investment arm are the ones we need although they will be a lot better than Radz for deeper pockets
I see QPR want to get rid of Tyler Roberts as he isn’t cutting it and injury prone. His contract however stipulates that once he plays in 15 games he cannot be recalled. He has played in 15 games but only played 90 minutes once and only scored 1 goal
Any fans living in the midlands and want to watch the U21s play Forest tonight it’s at Meadow Lane, 7pm kick off and £5 for adults and cheaper for kids
Sad day for football lovers but Gianluca Viali has just died from pancreatic cancer age 58. An Italian legend and recently a huge part of the Italian National team set up and Gnonto knows him well as he helped Willie as striker coach
Yeh a sad day... one of those players who was a likeable personality even if he played for a team you hated. Only a few weeks since he stepped down from Italy job. Cancer's a cnut. RIP Gianluca.
The full list is made up of data from talkSPORT, The Mirror and The Sun. 20. Brentford – Matthew Benham (£3m) 19. Leeds – Andrea Radrizzani (£344m) 18. Nottingham Forest – Evangelos Marinakis (£505m) 17. Brighton – Tony Bloom (£765m) 16. Bournemouth – Maxim Denim (£900m) 15. West Ham – David Sullivan and David Gold (£1.62bn) 14. Everton – Farhad Moshiri (£1.9bn) 13. Liverpool – John Henry (£2.14bn) 12. Southampton – Gao Jisheng (£2.3bn) 11. Leicester – Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha (£2.9bn) 10 Crystal Palace – Joshua Harris (£3.36bn) 9. Manchester United – The Glazers (£3.5bn) 8. Tottenham – Joe Lewis (£3.6bn) 7. Wolves – Guo Guangchang (£4.5bn) 6. Aston Villa – Nassef Sawiris (£5.3bn) 5. Fulham – Shahid Khan (£5.8bn) 4. Arsenal – Stan Kroenke (£6.35bn) 3. Chelsea – Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital (£10.86bn) 2. Man City – Sheikh Mansour (£22.9bn) 1. Newcastle – Saudi Public Investment Fund (£320bn)
Saw this from Marsch on Aaronson... implied his confidence has taken a bit of a knock and also said 'The league is tough and he has been identified as a player that's important for us and (he is) physically struggling to insert himself into matches' - suggests he's maybe getting special treatment... or maybe that opposition managers see that position as critical to how we try to build attacks
Matt this is a more in depth report mate https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...stle-and-chelsea-owners-photo-gallery-3976434
Still talk of Chelsea interest in Meslier. Can see why... done well for a 22 year old. I feel he's improved on crosses... and commanding his area has helped our set piece woes. He also seems to do better with timing coming off his line to block shots - and he's obviously a good shot stopper though i've still seen a few this year i think he could have done better with. Think that's true of all keepers. I've never been a fan of his distribution. Mentioned before that statistically last year he was one of the weakest performing keepers - the main stat they use for this is goals- xgA (expected goals against counting only shots on target) ie do we concede more than 'expected' from the chances the opposition have. Not perfect by any stretch, but no stats for keeper ever will be. Just had a look again... and perhaps surporisingly he's still near the bottom of premier league keepers on that basis. He does better on cross collection which ties in with the eye test. Also interesting to see, how often he goes long with his clearances... which is more than most... and the completion rate when we go long is bottom of the league - not all on him as we have a dwarf front line... but basically means we're just conceding possession once the keeper goes long. Anyway stats are just stats... and obviously not given too much credence by all his suitors - but might suggest they see him as being great for 22 but not yet the finished article. https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/keepersadv/Premier-League-Stats
Was reported that Potter wasn’t convinced by either of his goalkeepers because aren’t good enough with the ball at their feet for the style of football he wants to play so would be surprised that he thinks Meslier is an upgrade there.
