Good Morning. It's Thursday 4th July, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road An agreement with Kamara already in the pipeline. News is beginning to filtering through suggesting Glen Kamara has agreed personal terms with Ligue One outfit Rennes! The 28yo had a steady first season with the Whites, completing 2968 minutes of league game time with an average 'Whoscored' rating of 6.68. He notched up three assists, but failed to find the back of the net. Leeds lack of goals from midfield last season is a worry. The only league goal from a midfielder 23/24) came in the Play-Off Semi finals, when Gruev's intelligently taken free-kick caught out Angus Gunn in the 4-0 victory over Norwich City. This was also their first goal direct from free-kick since the last day of the 20/21 season. According to 'ouest-france.fr' :- "In midfield, while negotiations with AS Roma continue for Le Fée, the Finn Glen Kamara (Leeds) is one of the priority leads. An agreement with the player is already in the pipeline." please log in to view this image Seagulls to try again for Rutter Brighton are set to test Leeds Utd's resolve with a second bid for French U21 International Georginio Rutter! The talented playmaker is 18 months into his five and a half year contract at Elland Road, and supposedly loving life in West Yorkshire. His mischievous antics and fun loving persona have made him a favourite both on and off the field, even likening him to Ezgjan Alioski. The term of his contract indicates Leeds are looking at long term success, but money talks! At what price would you let Rutter leave the club? please log in to view this image Cooper set to depart after rejecting 12 month deal Liam Cooper lets set to leave Leeds Utd this Summer, after rejecting a new 12 month deal, bringing his decade long tenure to an end. The Scottish International centre-back, who turns 33 next month, wanted two more years at Elland Road but the club refused, and now it looks inevitable that the former skipper will be looking for a new club this Summer, probably in the Championship. Cooper has a young family, so is not expected to venture too far, so don't discount a move to Sheffield Utd/Wednesday, Preston, Boro, Sunderland, Blackburn or even a return to Hull City. In-truth Daniel Farke just doesn't rate Cooper, hence he was restricted to 714 minutes of game time last season. At-least it means his £25,000 a week wages can be put to good use! With Cooper departing, will Farke give Charlie Cresswell a second chance to show his worth? The 21yo centre-back recently rejected personal terms with Ligue One outfit Toulouse, after passing his medical! please log in to view this image
Morning all I read Cooper leaving will save £25k a week in wages, now we have Rodon and Struijk was seen in training this week then it's wages we can allocate elsewhere. You would assume that Cresswell would be first choice to replace either but for some reason he doesn't fit into Farkes plans. I know there are plenty who want him out but Wober and Rodon would be excellent together, that would free Ampadu up for midfield meaning we keep gruev and allow Kamara to leave again freeing funds up for a more pressing position
I’d say we’re leaving ourselves quite short in midfield if we get any injuries as well as light at both fullbacks.
Are we still persisting in insisting we have more goals from midfield? So wingers aren't midfielders any more? It's only DMs that are midfielders? Can't remember Batty getting torn apart for not scoring. No, he had a job to do & did it well. Defending, like it says in the job description. So why is this unrealistic requirement being aired so often? As it happens, I'd be happy for Kamara to go, not because he doesn't score - no, because he doesn't take responsibility & shoot. Can't recall him ever shooting - always the unnecessary extra pass, when a shot is the easiest & most desirable choice.
FARKE said we need to score at least 70 goals ro get promotion and we did that. And if you factor in goals from Summerville, Gnonto, James, Piroe and Rutter as the last 2 we’re playing as 10s mostly. So the vast bulk of goals did come from midfield. Bamford and Joseph were the only proper 9s and lets face it we hardly took a shot from outside the box and hardly crossed for a No9 and that’s why we looked like we had run out of ideas. James had a couple of goals from outside the box and so did Anthony but nobody else was trying except Rutter who usually hit Row Z. My view is that Struijk, Rodon, Cooper and Ampadu should have all scored goals last season, so for me the centre backs let us diwn
Classy farewell from Jamie Shackelton. I wish him well after his 17 years at the club. I also wish his family well and always remember the photo of his mum and dad and sister who were chuffed to bits and proud as hell for Jamie getting into Bielsa’s first team. "I'd like to say a huge thank you to every player, manager and member of staff I've had the pleasure of working with over the years. You have improved me as a footballer and more importantly as a person. Finally I'd like to thank the Leeds fans for their unbelievable support towards myself and the team during my time here. It was my dream to play in front of you and loved every single opportunity I got to do that. I wish the club and everybody associated with it the best of luck for the future. MOT."
You know things are bad when that clickbait journo Graham Smyth prints the Leeds starting 11 in the YEP. Meslier (leaving) Byram (part time) Rodon Struijk Firpo (leaving) Ampadu Summerville (leaving) James Rutter Bamford (always injured) Gruev (leaving) Window has been open for three weeks in the morning Are we banking on Aaronson, Wober and Kristensen to try and shore up this promotion chasing team?
I think we will see a new RB and LB Aaronson might be half decent at this level, I am hoping Joseph has a good preseason and stakes a claim
Might as well have been 12th. We ran out of steam in the last 11 games because i) We didn't recruit properly in January unlike Southampton and Ipswich ii) We were totally reliant on Summerville, Rutter, Ampadu and Rodon. The number of times they were substituted, you could count on the fingers of a Norwich fan. Summerville with the majority of the goals, and Rutter with the majority of the assists.
You've flabbered my gaster! DMs don't score, especially playing RB most of the time! List me all these free-scoring DMs from last season, please. Might be easier listing how many teams fielded a unicorn up front.
Not disagreeing with you Ell, just seemed a strange comment to focus on top 2, when we didn't reach there. I would say that it is very rare for most teams to take a centre half off during a game unless its for a non tactical reason, so it doesn't surprise me that Rodon and Ampadu were not substituted very often. Now Rutter was substituted off 24 times in the 44 games he started, so over 50% of the time, and Summerville was taken off 29 times of the 41 games he started, so over 70%. Now of course I will happily conceded that most of these substitutions were very late in the game, but even I don't think Norwich fans have a total 53 fingers
