Good Morning. It's Wednesday 15th November, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Liverpool in hunt for Archie Gray Liverpool are rumoured to be putting together a bid of £40m to try and prise Archie Gray away from Elland Road. Gray only penned his first professional contract back in March, a few days after his 17th Birthday. This superseded his scholarship agreement, which was only put into place six months before that. Due to his age, Leeds were restricted on the length of the deal, hence, only signing a two and a half year deal. Leeds will have to wait until he turns 18 before they can offer him a contract extension. A host of top flight clubs including Manchester City, Newcastle Utd and Everton are monitoring his progress. Money talks; it wasn't that long ago that we were saying that Kalvin Phillips had no intentions of leaving Elland Road, and look what happened there. Is £40m too good to turn down, or do Leeds need to keep hold of him? Considering Raphinha fetched £55m, and Phillips £42m, perhaps £40m isn't a bad offer! please log in to view this image Skubala departs Thorp Arch Michael Skubala has been named the new Head Coach at League One outfit Lincoln City, bringing an end to his 16 month tenure at Thorp Arch. The former National Futsal Head Coach joined Leeds last July (2022) taking over U21/23 duties from Mark Jackson. He had a brief spell in charge of the first team after Jesse Marsch was given his marching orders, but was never a serious contender for the ER hot seat. Even so, the 41yo is highly regarded, and there's already talk of some of the younger players from Leeds moving on loan to the LNER Stadium in January. According to YEP journalist Joe Donnohue:- “Having worked with the likes of Lewis Bate, Mateo Joseph, Darko Gyabi, Sean McGurk and Sonny Perkins over the past season and a half at Leeds, there is scope for one or a number of the United youngsters to reunite with Skubala,” “Skubala was widely-regarded as a popular figure and coach at Leeds and remains well thought of within the U-21 squad, which suggests there would be few qualms from Leeds’ perspective if Lincoln were to come calling for a handful of the up-and-coming Whites youngsters on loan in January.” please log in to view this image Goodman sees automatic promotion for Leeds Sky Sports pundit, and Leeds hater Don Goodman has admitted that he would be 'very surprised' if the Whites, along with Leicester City aren't automatically promoted this season. The Leeds born former striker, started his footballing career at Bradford City, and went on to enjoy a 19 year career, nettings 162 times in 586 appearances, mainly for lower league outfits. He became a commentator for Sky Sports in 2020. After an indifferent start, Leeds are starting to gain momentum on the top two, and are currently the Championship's in-form side. Even so, they find themselves nine points shy (because of an inferior goal difference) from potentially topping the division. Both Ipswich and Southampton will no doubt be there, or there abouts, but Goodman see's Leeds finishing their 23/24 campaign in the top two! “I look at the top four and I don’t see that changing. “I’m not saying in what order, but I’d be very surprised if Leeds United and Leicester City aren’t the top two. “That’s not to say Ipswich or Southampton don’t have the capability of chasing them down – they do.” please log in to view this image
Is Goodman going through a mid life crisis or what. Last time we were in championship he hated us. Next well have agbanlehore or whoever its spelt, jumping on our bandwagon too
A good Jan transfer window and I think he's right. We need cover in a few places to give depth to the squad including the now famous flflb. If someone offers £40M for Willie then he can also go PDQ.
Morning all, "A host of top clubs including Man City, Newcastle and Everton. " At least one of those names don't deserve to be there.
Wow so leeds may get up to 5 million for gorman. How much do man city sell their talent for?.Leeds may as well not bother with youth if all they are doing is feeding the top clubs. Why make the likes of city tens of millions in return for peanuts.
Strictly speaking don’t think we actually parted with any money for him. I think City valued him at five million and threw him in as part of the KP deal Either way he hasn’t been much use to us.
Darko Gyabi is still very highly thought of in the England set up and is in the Elite England squad along with Archie Gray and Mateo Joseph that will play against the German & Italy equivalents over the international break. Remember he's only 19 and so needs time to develop.
Gyabi has everything needed in the modern game apart from a footballing brain. He plays a bit dumb. Takes risks in the wrong areas too often and hasn't learnt a damn thing since he's been here. He's still making the same mistakes he did when he arrived over a year ago. We'll move him on abroad next summer.
You're right about the footballing brain but one day the penny will drop, which I'd say is somewhere around age 22-24. In fact reminds me of some of my fine wines that require a hefty dose of patience.
