Good Morning. It's Tuesday 4th June, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Popey - Why wouldn't Archie want to leave this Summer Elland Road journalist Adam Pope believes it's inevitable that Archie Gray will leave Leeds Utd for pastures new this Summer, and could follow in the footsteps of Jude Bellingham. The straight talking BBC presenter / commentator, was discussing the 18yo's untimely departure on his 'Don't go to bed quite yet' podcast with fellow reporter Jonny Buchan and Kaiser Chiefs bassist Simon Rix. Popey believes that despite the family history, Archie will want to be playing at the highest level, and he's not going to get that at Leeds Utd. He spoke of the importance of not just securing the right price, but plenty on add-ons too, which they could benefit from in the future! “He’s given his all this year. He was still the best player on the pitch, I felt, for Leeds in the final. So he’s given his all, he’ll want to play at the best level, and I think the Bellingham thing, I know he’s a monstrosity isn’t he, but Archie is so so good so why wouldn’t you want to go and play at the highest level? "Because Leeds aren’t going to provide that for you in the short term. So what you then ask is what’s he worth? What do you sell him for? What’s an acceptable price? What is Archie Gray worth?” please log in to view this image Can Leeds woo Johnson to ER Leeds Utd, Crystal Palace and Scottish giants Rangers are locked in battle for the signature of contract rebel Ben Johnson. Leeds have been in desperate need of a decent left back ever since Charlie Taylor left for Burnley seven years ago. Johnson 24, can actually play anywhere across the back line, and has the pedigree of being a former England U21. He rose through the ranks at West Ham, representing their U18s, U21s, before breaking into their first team during their 2018/19 campaign, and has gone on to play 109 times for the East London outfit. The Hammers refused his £60,000 per week wage demands, causing contract negotiations to stall, which led to there being bad blood between both parties. Leeds have been following his progress for a while, and will turn to turn on the charm if they are to get their man! please log in to view this image Leeds in limbo over Wober comments Leeds defender Max Wober has refused to discuss his future until after the European Championships, which kick off in Germany next week. The 26yo, who spurned the Leeds Captaincy last Summer, in favour of joining Borussia Mönchengladbach on loan, has made it clear he wants to focus his efforts on Austria, and doesn't want to hear from his agent until after the competition. He has three years left on his four and a half year deal, having joined the Whites in January 2023 for £11m. He impressed straight away, but with so many players out of sorts was unable to save them from relegation. Similarly, Wober starred in the Bundesliga last season. According to Whoscored, the 6ft 2' defender came second in the Mönchengladbach rankings with a respectable 6.84 ranking. Generally speaking, Leeds transfer dealings are very poor; for every good signing, there's aleast five bad ones. When they do uncover a gem, they need to make it count! Selling him for what we bought him for does not represent good business! please log in to view this image
Good morning everyone Ben Johnson a big no from me, another one who appears to put wages above club, we have had enough of those over the years and look where we are. Surely with our scouting network their must be better, and their must be players who would love to come to Leeds, if it was up to me i would try to build a team around British players, scout Scotland, Ireland etc we have uncovered some greats before, so why not again. Players from Italy, Spain, Holland etc seem to have a soft underbelly and think they are better than they are (if they were then they would be playing top premiership football) they appear to play for us as only a springboard to get them noticed. Got to find players who would give their all for the club might not be the best around but as a collective could be immense, Worked for Ipswich with very clever recruiting.
Yeah I’d be shocked if we kept Archie, just depends whether someone is willing to pay 30-40m and if they are he’s gone regardless of his ties to us. If Johnson wanted 60k he’s not coming to Leeds. Wober will go on loan again I’d imagine, I just don’t see why anyone would buy the loan rats when they can loan them for cheap. Doesn’t make financial sense. But i don’t want to see him back or any of them at the club for that matter so loan or sell them all.
I actually think South America has got to be worth looking at. Seem to get some real talent coming from over there and can usually have some fighters in amongst those.
There are 3 players that will be leaving at the club's insistence, and for a very good reason too. Gnonto, Jimmy, Harrison, & Archie are gone. Reason is that we're in financial poo-poo, & they represent the greatest profit, FFP-wise, having been brought into the squad for little or no cost. No point in selling Rutter - we'd just make our FFP loss bigger! Similarly for the likes of Wober - we'd be lucky to get our money back, & would make very little, if anything, in the process. We'd make more by loaning him out for a fee, or simply just keeping him. Keep, you say? Yup. Of all of the loanees, he's the one I'd keep. Excellent in the PL, & you'd think even better in the Championship. Left for clear footballing reasons, not the dosh. And it worked for him - he's going to the Euros! Btw, does anyone know who still has these loan options open to them? Pretty sure that Popey said there were only 2 players left with that option, but I don't recall him mentioning why there's a disparity, or who still has the loan options. Any ideas?
WJ I know I can be a little dense some times, but you say 3 players will be leaving because the club need them to leave, but then name 4. What context am I missing from my interpretation, to how you wanted me to interpret it ??
You're just trying to get me to admit that I've been a dick, aren't you? You little tinker! And you're right, but I plead fat fingers in this case. Was hoping you'd chime in with the details that are churning in my head, as I can't fully articulate the financial machinations that necessitate these sales.
I probably go through a similar experience when reading and trying to understand a full set of audited football accounts, as people do on here when they read one of my posts about stats
I don't think he'll get a choice, Rich. We NEED to sell him, & it'll be put to him that if he has any loyalty to Leeds, he'll go quietly & go a long way to save us from FFP sanctions. Personally, I'd say **** the FFP & bring on the 2 point deduction, like everyone else who has benefited from doing so. But wtf do I know about running a club? (OK, you got me - I know more than GFH et al ).
Just a follow up for you WJ I'm going from memory, because I never saved the spreadsheet at the time (darn old age), and thus this is just an opinion, I can't show any basis for my workings out (it's like sitting an school maths exam and just writing the answers down and wondering why you get marked down ) I can't find all my workings out, ( I must not have saved the spreadsheet) but when there was a post on here a few weeks ago, after someone said if we got promoted and paid a £20m bonus to the players, then we would be in excess of PSR (or whatever it's called these days) and I worked out that we would have probably been about £2 mill over the limit of £83m, which would mean a pre bonus loss of approx. £25m for this season (prior to the payment of any player bonuses) Now if everything stayed the same for next season, other than the fact that our central fund payment from the EPL will have reduced by £15m, then that would leave our 3 year PSR losses at approx £98m for June 2025, so about £37m in excess of PSR. (33m loss in 2023, 25m loss in 2024 and £40m loss in 2025) With approx £60m to go out in transfer fee instalments, that means we need to find around £97m of income over the next 12 months. Redbulls money will have reduced this by who knows what amount (that's anyone's guess). Lets say they bought 20% of the club, based on what is reported as the fee the 49er's paid AR of £170m, that means Red Bull will have paid somewhere between £34m-£40m. The figure below will of course be either higher or lower dependant upon how far out I am with my guess about the RedBull investment So we would need to approx raise a further £60m from other means, whether that be from transfer sales etc, to be able to show that we are going to be PSR compliant by the end of the 2025 financial year. Obviously any purchases will increase the amount of funds we need to raise. Obviously I can't wait for 2024 audited accounts to come out in March 2025, just to see how far out I was with all my sums
I did try to read & understand. Honest! But 3 reads later, I'm none the wiser. Can't cops with too much detail these days. I just ask questions - that's my (not-very) super power.
