Good Morning. It's Friday 17th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds PSR position more comfortable than suggested Despite last summer's clear-out aimed at staying well within the boundaries of Profit & Sustainability, Leeds continue to be linked with a host of new signings. The sales of Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville, and Georginio Rutter generated well over £100m, surely erasing any immediate PSR concerns! However, the focus now shifts to the possibility of Premier League promotion. Would financial restrictions hamper their ability to strengthen? According to journalist Ben Jacobs, that's highly unlikely. Speaking on The View podcast, Jacobs stated: "I’m told that Leeds are more comfortable than suggested. One because of the number of outgoings from players who has release clause and two, the RedBull investment. Leeds don’t fear they will be financially restricted if they come up to the Premier League.” please log in to view this image Abad leaps to Meslier's defence Former Leeds goalkeeping coach Marcos Abad has leapt to the defence of Illan Meslier following calls for the Frenchman to be dropped, ahead of Sunday's crunch tie with Sheffield Wednesday. Abad, 39, spent six years at Thorp Arch (2017-2023), four of those working almost exclusively with the 24yo shot-stopper. Now at West Brom, Abad remains convinced that Meslier is the No1 keeper at Leeds, and praises Daniel Farke for sticking by him. With every performance now coming under the microscope, Abad suggests it may be the best for both parties if Meslier were to leave the club, and even suggests this should have happened two years ago when the Whites were relegated from the top flight. “When you are watching the training with Illan, you don’t have any doubt he is the No 1, his potential is super. The team-mates know the level he put on the pitch. “In the last action of the last game (against Hull City), he tried to save the corner and put the ball in front of him and the deflection or the bounce gives an advantage to the attacker. If you make two or three (mistakes) in a row like this, everybody points at you, but when you know the level of the goalkeeper you have… it’s very difficult to make a change when you know this goalkeeper can save one ball that is impossible for the No 2. “The doubts about the goalkeeper are ridiculous because the level is so high. If he left the club two summers ago, I’m sure he would be playing in the Premier League in another team. This is the situation, but the pressure of Leeds now means every single detail that is not perfect is going to be pointed (out). My advice was maybe you had to leave, but he wanted to stay, to be promoted again with Leeds. “I understand (his decision), but, sometimes, as a goalkeeper, it’s important to know when you have to leave because, if not, it’s like every single action is going to be analysed very deeply. This is not healthy. This is not helpful. The support of the manager (though) is very good. (Farke is) doing amazing, supporting him and leaving everyone’s doubts and the gossip behind.” please log in to view this image
Morning all. And in other news, while Leeds supposedly struggle penny pinching to avoid breaking psr , Haaland has signed a 9.5 year deal at City. A club where fans still fantasise they'll be relegated due to whatever rules they've broken. Get real, the game of football at the top level gets more corrupt with each passing season. Why would anyone want to play in the PL where there are clearly two sets of rules for different clubs
Abad?? Where’s he from, what has he achieved, we want a good reliable keeper who the team trust and have confidence in, with the French man there is none of that, time for him to move on and that write up suggests that.
Message being... Meslier looks good in training. Not a surprise, it's how he looks in matches that has concerned me for the last 4 seasons.
To be honest I was told we need to make around 24 million savings by the end of this season. Can’t remember who told me now but as always I just keep an open mind until things happen. I’ll always be wary though and won’t trust anyone 100% because as always, things will eventually come out in the wash so to speak.
It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation. Surely the 50 or 60m we blew on big Bev can be offset against some of our profits but what do I know. BTW we’re over for the Cardiff game for the weekend so hopefully catch up for a few minutes with you at peacock
They need to change the rules on fair play, it should be calculated purely on gate receipts or a sweeping set amount across the board like they do in F1 Just make two bands, one spend if you’re in the PL a second slightly higher band if you’re in the champions league
The only problem there Eire is what profits. The transfer fee for KA was dealt with in 2020, when the club had to amend their audited accounts to show a loss of £25m instead of the profit they had initially showed as £11m. For the 3 years we were in the Premier League, audited accounts show total losses of £82m, so approximately £22m under PSR. However that leeway that we had is probably what we used to pay KA off for his case about wages, so our losses for those premier league years amounts to approx. £105m. Last audited account show that we owed approx £197m in transfer fees prior to the start of last season . We have spent approx £40m on signing new players since we got relegated and recouped approx £160m in player sales, so there is still a shortfall there, that we still need to pay. So even if the club were able to operate without making a loss in day to day operations, we would have to find £77m to pay for the outstanding transfers. That leaves us £16m over PSR for this season. Obviously we have however much Red Bull put into the club to offset that, plus whatever costs we may have recovered elsewhere, but it doesn't leave us a lot of leeway, unless someone puts their hand in their pockets
A good explanation even if I don’t understand half of it. In my simple way of looking at it we can never be better than a crappy pl outfit or decent championship team in my lifetime. I wonder is there any fans left still defending the debacle of the orta radz regime. Can you explain Aski is there any method we can buy seven or eight quality players if promoted without breaking every rule known to mankind
It’s the way Man City flaunt the rules, I was just answering your question to how it could become possible to spend stupid money
I'm of a similar mind to yourself Eire. Whilst it is possible to make a good go of it in the Premier League ( or at least some sort of short term success), those clubs such as Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth etc have had a stable structure in place for a number of years. In the last 13 years, we have had 4 owners, Bournemouth have had 2, Brentford and Brighton have both had 1. In the 4 seasons Brentford have spent in the Premier League, they have spent a total of approx £200m, compared to the £296m that we spent in 3 seasons. Their net spend after selling players (total outgoing is £75.5m) is £142m. Our net spend was £200m for our time in the Premier League. So they spent £60m less than ourselves, despite being in the EPL 1 season longer (so far). On average, during the Premier League years they have spent £55m per season on signing new players, compared to our spend of £98m per season. During that time they finished 13th, 9th, 16th (so an average of 12th/13th place) and are presently 11th, whilst we managed to finish 9th, 17th and 19th (an average of 15th place) So yes I would say it is possible to gather a number of quality players without breaking the rules. Obviously we cannot go down the Brentford route, as that takes time, so the club needs to act wisely. We cannot afford to be spending millions on potential prospects, 2 or 3 under 18's at a million a piece is all we can allow for over the next couple of seasons, in the hope they come good and we can sell on. Sign a solid striker and decent playmaker for £70m and a keeper for about £5-10m. Pay half of that money up front, meaning that the other £40m will be paid over the next 3 years at £13m per year. Pay £45m for the next 2 or 3 crucial players that we need to sign, ie the likes of Huijsen that Bournemouth bought for £13m, or Milenkvoc that cost Forest £10.5. We need to get our scouting right for those types of bargains though. Pay a 1/3 of the fee up front with the remaining £30m paid at £10.5m per year for the next 3 years. Then spend £25m on however many 30 year olds with EPL experience that you can, ie the likes of Ross Barkley cost £5m this year. Basically you are writing this £25m off for the experience that you can add to your squad. We have now spent a total of £150m and gained 8 or 9 players to go with those that we retain from the the side that hopefully won promotion. However we have only actually spent in cash terms £79m and have a commitment for the next 3 years of £24.5m per season. This firstly gives us leeway to spend further money next season should we stay up, approx £70m, at which stage we we sign another 2 players for approx £35m as replacements for either our more experienced squad members, or to replace those Championship players that struggled following promotion. Again we pay half up front and spread the rest over 3 years, which still leaves us with £35m for additions where ever needed (pay this all up front). Secondly if it all goes wrong and we get relegated in the first season, our commitment to those signings is under £25m per season. Yes it means we may have to sell one or two of those players each season, but that is more manageable than the fire sale we would expect. If we manage to survive season 1, then our yearly commitment would be around £36m, so still a reasonable amount, should the second season curse strike us. Basically rinse and repeat each season, spend big on 2 players, and add solid players where possible. Of course all of the above is very easy for me to sit here and justify, the hard part is identifying those players in the first place, getting them for the right fee, and then them settling into the squad to make an impact. Obviously none of this loaned out if relegated nonsense, but then Marathe negotiates contracts in his sleep, so we should be fine In a way its similar to what Radz and Orta tried to do, but not relying upon potential prospects as much, adding established quality, paying for the experience of older premier league players See this football ownership is a piece of piss Also apologies for the length of the reply, I'm sure you should know better than to ask me a serious question regarding football and numbers
Just an addendum to the above, in an attempt to make my explanation a bit more comprehensible. The season we got promoted we spent £69m signing Raphinha, Llorente, Koch and Rodrigo. Llorente and Koch cost £28m, with Rodrigo and Raphinha costing £41m. The following players all joined EPL clubs that same season So instead of signing Koch and Llorente, we could have spent £10m more and signed 6 players instead of 2. If we were to stick to the budget then we would have to miss out on Soucek. Obviously whether we would have had a chance of signing them or even wanted them doesn't really matter. It's just showing the potential that would have been available, for steady solid players who all except for Salisu have made a career in top flight English football, with 4 of those 6 still at the clubs who signed them 5 years ago, whilst one has moved to another EPL club, and the final one Salisu, is playing for Monaco. These are the type of solid players I was referring to in my previous post, after making 2 marquee signings. Obviously the above list is cherry picked, as there were other signings by clubs that were not successful, but is just to show how we could have signed either 7 or 8 players for £69m whilst remaining PSR compliant.
When you think Brentford’s average home attendance is just £17k and their fan base can’t be too much greater than that. I’ve recently moved to a rural setting outside of Peterborough, I travel into the nearest town which is Whittlesey, I see two different people with Leeds shirts, I see a couple of cars with Leeds window stickers, I join a local community page on Facebook and their are several members wearing Leeds shirts or using avatars. We are still very well supported considering the last 20 years
Great explanation, many thanks. It’s doable but clearly little ot no room for dud signings. We had lots of those last time up
