Hi Peeps, Leeds look set to fight it out for the signature of 34 yo Andy Gray. I understand the family connection, but WTF. at his age he should be going to Millwall, thoughts???? Leeds United boss Neil Warnock has hailed the signing of goalkeeper Paddy Kenny as the best he will make in his time at Elland Road. That scares me, thoughts? Warnock will sit down with Michael Brown and Aidy white over the next few days to find out their long term plans and whether they want to stay at the club... Warnock has now moved onto his next target, and says -"We have a number of targets where we have made offers and all sorts of thing where we're trying to do deals. I'd like to bring in a few others, ideally before we go to Cornwall, but we'll see we're looking all over the place. Every area, we're looking to bring other players in. I'll move on to my next main target now and see if we can secure him over the next few days and the squad will take shape towards the kick-off."
Morning - What worried me is that it says Warnock will make the move for Gray once the takeover is complete. Does this mean the new owner is paying so much for the club he will have very little cash for new players? All a little worrying, I had assumed cheap players and squad signings as things stand, new owner would open the door to a few WOW signings...
Obviously Gray would be a squad player, is he any better than Paynter??? Just hope the new owners are worth billions, and splash the cash...
Am I honestly the only person that doesn't want Leeds United to become like Manchester City (I very very highly doubt that'd be the case mind). I have this respect for football where I think you should have to earn your honours, not buy them
Morning all, not particularly happy about the Gray rumour. Shouldn't be looking at 34 year olds who Barnsley are releasing! As for the "Kenny is the best signing I'll make here" comment, I had a similar reaction reading that. Hoping he is talking in terms of benefit brought to the team and the dressing room and those sorts of qualities. If the new owners come in and we don't sign anyone better than Kenny I'd be pretty disappointed
I am starting to have reservations about how much they have, why did they fail to stump up the cash in 2003, why are we sniffing around the bargain players and agreed, a 34 year old striker no better than Paynter. Warnocks actions do not reflect a manager who is about to receive a large budget.
Fully agree with you on that Josh I don't want us to throw loads of money at a team of superstars who won't gel for years and get broken up again because we keep buying the next best thing. Would rather see a couple of million spent on a couple of really decent players to liven up a strong squad foundation
Agreed Josh ... I don't want the club to become another Man City, I would much prefer that we have sufficient investment to secure promotion but to continue to develop our own talent ... and hold on to it, if of course the players are good enough. However,I have a mate who's a City fan and his reply, when asked,is that he doesn't give a damn, we stopped our neighbours from winning yet another title.
Have we not forgotten the number one priority is getting rid of Bates rather than having squillions of quid to buy everyone in sight ? If the club are taken over by someone who is not really that rich, but is going to run the club properly and not bleed the club and it's fans dry then I'm up for that.
Thing is, we should have been able to buy ourselves out of the league by just investing income in the playing staff! Morning all
Morning Bucks - Agreed, as long as we put back into the squad the money it makes and agree again with the previous comment, number one aim is to rid ourselves of Bates who has bled us dry. Guess part of me wanted to see the big signings coming through the door once the T/O is complete and it is starting to dawn on me that I don't think it is going to be the zillions I had hoped for deep down. I would rather build our own success with home grown talent and wise purchases but would I welcome a chairman who was willing to throw 100M at new players, **** yes....
But its not that, everyone is talking like 'when we get taken over we'll be able to spend millions on players' which a) isn't what I want and b) isn't actually necessary. If we continue the signings that we are making I think we will be in pretty good shape. I would like at least 1 signing that has WoW factor but we have made good signings and need to continue that
I'm all for earning promotion the right the way, and not buying it. BUT we're having to start from a long way back because of Bates and the way he's sold anyone who showed quality, for the last few years. We should have been adding to the L1 squad, not selling or offering better contracts to our better players. Delph, Beckford, BJ, Howson, Garbutt, Killa, Gradel etc. We still have a way to go just to catch up on those losses, and even then we'll be not a guaranteed top 6 team. We have to remember that Blackpool, Burnley, Midds, Blackburn, Birmingham, Wolves, Bolton all have an extra £12m in parachute payments. Leicester have an owner with plenty of cash and will seriously go for it this season. Cardiff again new owners with ambition as well as Watford & Forest. It's going to be tough and we need to have enough quality to compete at the top of this league. We also need to remember that Bates decimated our production line of talent at TA, which also needs to be invested in again. We're too far behind right now, so need serious cash pumping in just to give us a near level playing field this season. If the takeover happens and it turns out Warnock won't get the cash we all hope he gets, then it'll be another couple of years before we can have a crack at it. Lets hope that TA and ER are on the agenda for the new owners and we get them back. Thats proper foundations at grassroot level to build upon
Morning all. Surprised we'd be interested in Gray. Did he do much last season? A one season wonder to get us back to where we belong?? Agree with your statement Josh. But aren't Sh&tty now developing their youth, & aren't they benefitting from having so much class around them to learn from? Even Chelski are now developing their youth, as even Abramovic is no longer the bottomless pit of funds he once was. New owners will only go so far in the transfer market, as its just a game for them. Bit like overgrown children really. Throw some money at it for fun & then walk away when they get bored. That's why keeping White, developing Poleon, the Turner twins etc is so important. Means that if/when we do get some serious money in, our core will remain our academy.
Just as long as it's not Warnock! I know it was only Twitter talk, but I'm still nervous he'll be off to Florest.
