Good Morning. It's Wednesday 26th February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Will Leeds regret not strengthening squad during Winter window Leeds Utd are seriously down playing the severity of Ethan Ampadu's injury but why? We heard on Monday night that the Leeds skipper is set to undergo cartilage surgery after picking up an injury in training. Whilst the true extent of the injury is currently unknown, the minimum recovery time for any kind of cartilage surgery is four months. From microfractures to more complex transplantations, it could take as long as eighteen months until we see Ampadu back in action as a worse case scenario. Farke's "It could be that we miss him for a few games, but he’ll need further assessment and we’ll see what happens in the next few days.” statement is ludicrous having admitted "it depends on how [the surgery] works". Refusing to strengthen in the January transfer window could be about to bite Leeds on the ass again. They clearly don't learn by their mistakes. Injuries and fatigue played a big part in why they missed out on promotion last season, and have done the same this time around - ignoring the need for reinforcements to compensate for key injuries like Ampadu's. Lady luck has shone brightly over the Whites in recent games - we're not home and dry yet!!! please log in to view this image Marcus Edwards could have ended up at Leeds Marcus Edwards' January loan move to Burnley raised eyebrows, but it appears the versatile forward could have been sporting white instead of claret. Burnley’s head of recruitment, George Foster-Vigors, has revealed in a behind-the-scenes documentary that Edwards was open to joining Leeds United during the winter transfer window. The highly-rated forward ultimately opted for a temporary switch to Turf Moor in early February, with reports suggesting an obligation to buy should Burnley secure promotion to the Premier League. However, it seems Leeds United were firmly in the picture for Edwards' signature before he penned a deal with Scott Parker's side. Burnley, currently sitting third in the Championship table and chasing Leeds at the top, released a short film detailing their pursuit of Edwards. In the documentary, Foster-Vigors sheds light on the competition they faced, stating that Edwards’ agent made it clear the player had other options, including a potential move to Elland Road. “The main target that we’re all trying to push for in this window is Marcus Edwards on loan from Sporting,” Foster-Vigors explained in the documentary. “He has got options [at the] bottom of the Premier League but he kind of doesn’t want to go to a dogfighting relegation team.” This statement reveals Edwards prioritized a club with ambition and a positive project. Expanding on this, Foster-Vigors continued, “He wants to come and try to be a part of something positive. He would consider Leeds, Sunderland or us, that are challenging for promotion.” This insight offers a fascinating glimpse into the transfer dynamics behind securing Edwards. It confirms that Leeds were indeed interested in bolstering their attacking options with the talented winger. For Leeds fans, knowing Edwards considered Elland Road as a viable destination might add a layer of intrigue to their promotion battle with Burnley. It’s a reminder of the calibre of player Leeds were potentially targeting and perhaps missed out on. please log in to view this image
Morning all, Don’t know much about Edwards but if as you say he’s a winger then we don’t need any more of those. Yes we may have made a tentative inquiry but it’s more likely Burnley mind games and propaganda.
Morning all. The decision not to strengthen in January will be inspired if were promoted, idiotic if we fail to. Were pinning our hopes on key players remaining injury free James, Soloman, Piroe and even our two full backs. There are more who are crucial too. Well probably handle the Ampadu one but two or three more not good. Anyway fingers crossed on that one. Another one that's reared its head is Sheffield fans saying how poor our away support sounded on Monday for 70 minutes until we scored. It sounded that way on the tv. Wonder could Heidi shed some light on that if true cos it doesn't make sense in a. top of table battle
We didn't sign anyone so no good moaning about it now....if we go up then we have to spend this time otherwise the 49ers are as thick as the proverbial short planks ...if we miss out again, well then they will regret not opening the wallet... it's all hindsight isn't it .... I'm confident that we've got the gonads this time after last year, the togetherness is evident this time around a lot more camaraderie methinks...so let the other chasing teams worry about us eh
Morning all. It’s getting through the next international break with our players unscathed, as arguably the injuries we picked during it, went a long way to derailing promotion this time last season.
Morning all Sunderland strengthened, Sheffield strengthened, they were still not good enough to beat us To strengthen means better than what we have, how much would that have cost, we already have the best in the championship so it would mean someone willing to drop a division If a player is leaving on loan, it means they’re not getting game time and need or want it, nobody worth having is going to come and sit on our bench Take a CB would he have joined knowing Ampadu, Rodon and Struijk are ahead of him and we’d need two injuries before considering him We had a load of “just in case” players and we called them a drain on wages, Perkins, Joffy, Gyabi, Greenwood Sheffield United have Rak Sakyi on loan, they signed Tom Cannon for £10m they shared game time, James, Solomon, Gnonto, Ramazani are all better than those two They signed Bereton Diaz he is awful, defender Harry Clarke from Ipswich, Ipswich fans have been slating him saying he is poor in the PL he was replaced at HT by another loan Choudhury who was on the pitch when we scored 3 goals
The way I look at it - we were lucky to beat Sunderland, and we were lucky to beat the Blades. Lady luck NEVER shines over Leeds Utd and we could very easily be on 4 points lower. We can just about afford to lose Ampadu but what happens if we lose either a centre back or another midfielder?
Don't agree we were lucky, you look at all the top teams over the years and late goals were always part of the make up, greater fitness tells, the game is 90 minutes plus, not the 20 SU were the better team but there was no way they could have kept that tempo up for the whole game. Interesting how Wilder is getting pelters fron their fans for his substitutions, mostly saying they cost them the game
You said lady luck shined on us in those 2 games, then said we NEVER have any luck ....mind what you are quoting for sales today ell
I can’t believe I’m reading that correctly, in what aspect of the game were either better and deserved the points, possession, shots, touches in the box, where were they better Sunderland never managed a corner against us the entire game
What was the answer for the “just in case” then? PL teams do not loan players unless they’re going to get game time. PL players don’t like dropping a division, if we lose another we play Aaronson in the middle and use Ramazani or Gnonto Which CB was going to join knowing he’d be behind three players in the pecking order
Little we can do about it now. If Amps is missing for remainder of season we’ll have to find a solution within the existing squad. We have Byram, Wober and Schmidt as potential further defensive cover, and if push comes to shove, the tall French lad. We still have some tough games to come, but none that those players couldn’t handle. There will likely be a few hiccups along the way, we’ll possibly lose and draw a good few of our remaining games but I reckon we’ll win enough now, to take the title. As Eire has said, if we go up the decisions they made in January were sound. I tend to agree with Ristac on the difficulty of bringing the right calibre player in, in our situation. I can’t remember the last time I felt as confident about possible success, in fact I can’t ever remember feeling so unLeedsy, in 60 yrs of supporting us. Weird.
'Better' players that are worth bringing in aren't just sat on the shelves of Players R Us waiting to be scooped up. The points are well covered above. The best fit is a PL loanee who needs game time but is likely to be 3rd choice in the PL team (2nd being assumed to be on the bench) and where we have no cover. Unfortunately they often have recall clauses. It seems that Solomon doesn't have a recall clause and is as good as, or better than, a lot of who is in our team.
Probably the bit that the Burnley chap left out when saying Edwards decided against going to Leeds too if there is any truth in the Agent speak he was quoting
He played down the right for Burnley, the same position we play James and Gnonto. No doubt he might have made Burnley better than they were but he wouldn’t have improved us On the opposite wing they have Anthony, we have Solomon, we’ve seen Anthony play for us, he’s definitely not better than Solomon
Leeds Utd hardly ever get the rub of the green, which made the Sunderland and Sheffield Utd results ever more impressive.
At the start of the game their support was so loud that we couldn’t compete. The way we were spread all along the terraces contributed to that imo. Once they scored they quietened down and we started up. First half not at our best though. Second half we started coming in to our own once the subs were made. No competition from them once we equalised and most of their support disappeared after our third so only us singing and celebrating.
Scoring the winner with the last touch of the game is lucky. Scoring 3 goals in the final 12 minutes away from home after such a poor first half when we could have gone 2 or 3 down is also fortunate.
