Good Morning. It's Friday 10th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road At the moment we expect a quiet January Speaking at the Harrogate pre-match press conference, Leeds Manager Daniel Farke re-iterated his stance (or lack of it) on strengthening his squad this month during he Winter transfer window. Speaking at the Harrogate pre-match press conference, Daniel Farke remained blase regarding potential transfer activity, indicating that he is content with his current squad, and will only consider reinforcements in the event of injuries. Whilst Sheffield Utd, Burnley and Sunderland have all been busy strengthening, Leeds are apparently happy to sit on their laurels. As the transfer window progresses, the decision to remain largely inactive raises concerns, especially given the limited time frame and the fact that the season is only halfway through. What if Leeds suffer an injury crisis after the window closes on February 3rd? This is a question that the local press seems hesitant to ask, likely due to the club's reputation for keeping journalists at arm's length. The Yorkshire Evening Post and Leeds-Live may only receive scraps of information from the club these days, but they are seem very wary of pushing too hard for answers to questions Leeds fans want answered, perhaps over fears of being excommunicated further! Instead, the 49ers often uses the Daily Mail as their propaganda machine, to feed information to the masses! We understand Leeds are top of the pile, a statement the gaffer incessantly repeated throughout his presser, and yes, we understand that too many players could unsettle the dressing room but we all remember what happened this time last year when the club failed in the duties to 'push on' and unravelled during the final eleven games! According to Farke "Several of the long term injured players are back. Firpo is back, Illia looks good in training. option are good to have, but if you have too many and the group is too big it can divide the group. We have a perfect unity and this is why we are the team that has won more points, we don't want to risk that spirit in the group. "That spirit is more important in the crunch time and as things stand we are the best team in the league at the top. If there is a new injury we will change our plans, but at the moment we expect a quiet January." please log in to view this image Sunderland make statement of intent in bid for automatic promotion Sunderland are the latest Championship club to make a major statement of intent during the Winter transfer window, after agreeing terms for Roma midfielder Enzo le Fee. The capture of the combative yet versatile midfielder, who commanded a hefty €23 million fee just six months ago, is a bold move that underlines the club's intent for top flight football. While Le Fee hasn't quite established himself in the Italian capital, the opportunity to reunite with former Lorient manager Regis Le Bris on Wearside has proven to be a compelling factor in securing his temporary signature. Furthermore, the agreement of a potential £20 million permanent transfer fee contingent on promotion adds significant weight to this deal, placing even greater emphasis on Sunderland's current fourth-place position and their pursuit of a top two finish. The Mackems have agreed a fee of £20m with Roma in the Summer, but only with they win promotion. They are currently in fourth place, three points behind leaders Leeds. please log in to view this image
Morning all, There was one thing Farke said in his press conference that stood out to me. When discussing Meslier and replacing him he said "it would be difficult to find someone better who is available. " I'm paraphrasing there BTW. To me he knows its time for him to move on and regardless of the second half the season i think he will in the summer. But it is a very good point, anyone who is better than him isn't going to be available in January. We are linked with Kelleher at Liverpool. A perfect example. I totally think he is better than Meslier at this time and would love to sign him but he refuses to drop to the championship and prefers to be number 2 and potentially get a prem winners medal. Who do we go for otherwise? Who would be available? I think it is time to stick with the two goalkeepers we've got. Hope Darlow can put enough pressure on Meslier to make him up his game. A spell out of the team might be what he needs. He's never faced a threat to his position since he came into the side. When we are promoted we spend some of that Premier league money on a top top goalie and wish Meslier all the best in his future endeavours.
Good morning everyone. It appears that we are stuck with him, to be fair. I hope that Darlow will challenge his position to motivate him to improve. I completely agree with Hemase on this matter. I didnt watch the last game live. I still cant understand why the feck he tried to save that ball when it was going over the crossbar. Absolute idiot, not to mention that his team mates were surely pissed at him. I dont blame them at all for that. He's lost us a fair few points recently due to mistakes.. Shocking!
Good morning All keepers are prone to blunders, but week in week out?, how many times has Pickford saved Everton? gaining them valuable points, almost single handed keeping them in the prem, or put another way if we had Pickford and they Meslier, would we be in the prem and they in the championship, which i think would be a distinct possibility..
Largely agree with this - there are two types of keeper that might be available. Talented up and comers looking for game time, old-timers needing a pay day. Much the same as any other position. If the club really feel that Darlow is no better than an emergency cover, and that we have no one on the books who can do a job then that's pretty poor. The understudy job is either: - a 'no-ambition' pay check one.. that only suits some of them.. or others at certain times in their careers. Steady hands (hopefully) in an emergency. That's Darlow. - a challenger one, hungry to play and replace the current keeper in many cases clubs have 1 of each of the above, challenger often being a young keeper So the question is whether we could get an 'understudy' good enough to be no 1 at our level? Because it's the most specialist position in football, top teams are reluctant to let understudies go. So Kelleher for example. Let's say they loan to Leeds. Alisson gets crocked Jan 31st. What then? They won't risk it without real strength in depth or with a keeper they prefer already signed. It's why 1 signing often leads to a string of knock on effects. For example, there's probably a spurs keeper available - if anyone wants them.
you're spot on here. Compare Pickford's stats to Meslier's in the year we were relegated. We'd have likely been comfortably safe with him.
Yeah but not as embarrassing as going out at home to Harrogate. I, for one, have had enough of being the 3rd round giant killing story.
Here's some positive news The Championship's top goal scorer Sainz of Norwich, will not be available when they visit Elland Road on 22nd January, as he has been given a 6 game ban for spitting.
What part of the season last year was it when we went on the winning run where we caught the top two (went top if memory serves) as we need to do that again real soon.
1st January to 28 February when we got knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea, won 11 ( 2 FA Cup wins) drew 1 (1 FA Cup draw) and lost 1 (1 FA Cup defeat), followed by a 6 match unbeaten run of 4 wins and 2 draws when we were eventually beaten by Coventry. If you ignore the FA Cup then the run from 1st January was 15 games winning 13 and drawing 2, until again we played Coventry on 6th April
