Morning Everyone, The gossip surrounding the tansfer window is doing my head in..... The latest gossip is that Matt Smith has been linked to Crystal Palace, and Snodgrass has been linked to a sensational Leeds Utd return. Yeah, right!!! The Adam Le Fondre rumour won't go away. We are currently 8/13 favourites to land the 27 yo hitman. According to GC, during a recent meeting with David Haigh, McDermott has the funds to bring in the players on his wish list. Haigh also confirmed that the completion of the takeover would not hold the transfers up. Nigel Clough is keen to take Aidy White back on loan to Bramall Lane. Should we try and keep him, or get rid as soon as possible. It was not that long ago that he signed that new bumper deal, though has not lived up to expectation since. Then again, since Zuliukas has signed his new two year deal, he doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders either. Thoughts?
Morning Elland. I think we should keep White on loan with Sheff. Utd. We can then review the situation at the end of the season. If he's at least as good if not better than what we have, he can stay & someone else can leave. He has the one thing no one else has and that's pace. But he struggles to cross a ball. Solve that problem, & he'll be a class act. On rumours, a good Fleetwood Mac album, but not much use otherwise. A story doing the rounds elsewhere on this board is that gfh allegedly blocked a move for the Brighton lad. Mixed messages given that they've said money's on the table for BMD to spend as and when he wants to.
Morning all. Phil Hay apparently has been tweeting the story of gfh blocking the Barnes transfer and it will be in the yep shortly. Seems to be a rift between the major players. Maybe they've realised none of them actually have a pot to piss in and now realise you can't run a major football club on spin alone. Cash required
No rift according to Ross and BMD. There was a frank and open exchange of views where apparently everyone had their say. So it'll be interesting to see what happens on Saturday. If we win and play well, all will seem fine. If we lose and play badly, the WUMs on here and the brainless on another site will have a field day. If, however, we lose and at least show some spine and put in a decent shift, we'll have lost to a side who've spent shedloads, are top of the league, and are expected to get auto promotion. But at least it will be a genuine improvement on the last two games, the minimum I think we expect to see
Morning Eire, morning Boggers, if GFH have blocked the Barnes deal, hope they get the backlash when Hay exposes them in the YEP
Barnes is simply not good enough in my opinion not a prolific goal scorer Ings different class We need Brian to make up his mend with his formation because last week you could have played strangers in the night as the background music Guedetti has gone to Stoke another one crossed of my list unfortunately
Here is the yep article. Ive put it on other thread as well. Feel free Elland to delete from whichever thread you deem fit The proposed transfer of Ashley Barnes from Brighton to Leeds United was blocked by senior officials at club owner Gulf Finance House, the Yorkshire Evening Post can reveal. The firm’s refusal to sign off the six-figure move last week saw a major target of manager Brian McDermott’s bypass Leeds and join Burnley instead. United are understood to have had cash in place to pay Brighton an up-front fee of £500,000 and were confident of persuading Barnes to reject Burnley’s offer in favour of signing a contract at Elland Road. But individuals with Gulf Finance House (GFH), the parent company of Leeds’ majority shareholder GFH Capital, objected to the signing despite the availability of funds needed to finalise a transfer. Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House is in the process of selling a controlling interest in United to a consortium led by Leeds managing director David Haigh but the Islamic bank is technically in charge of operations at Elland Road with the takeover still to go through. Haigh’s group, which includes Andrew Flowers, the managing director of United shirt sponsor Enterprise Insurance, have helped to finance United this season and claim to have invested around £6m into the club prior to the turn of the year. They also stated that transfer funds were being given to McDermott prior to completion of their buy-out, a deal which has been dependent on Football League approval and is now running into the second half of the January window. The influence of the consortium – operating under the name Sport Capital – suggested that GFH’s involvement in the running of United had significantly reduced but the dispute over Barnes and the failure to conclude a move which one source claimed was “as good as done” raises questions about high-level divisions at Elland Road with ownership of Leeds yet to change hands. United completed two signings last week, bringing Cameron Stewart in from Hull City and taking Jimmy Kebe on loan from Crystal Palace, but Barnes was prominent on McDermott’s list of potential signings and his switch to Burnley came as a frustrating setback. The Leeds boss looks increasingly likely to bid for Reading’s Adam Le Fondre with a new striker a priority and his squad are under pressure after four straight defeats, the most recent a 6-0 thrashing at Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday. A spokesman for GFH Capital was contacted about Barnes by the YEP last night but refused to comment. Sport Capital’s planned buy-out of Leeds is set to see Haigh, Flowers and two other backers acquire a 75 per cent stake in the club with GFH Capital retaining a minority shareholding.
I suspect that GFH are throwing their weight around in frustration that the deal hasn't been done yet. Yes it should have and yes the new boys have propped up the club with a £6m cash injection, which you would assume would be owed if the deal collapses. Maybe GFH just thought they already owe £6m and add a new £1.5m would be too much right now as their shareholding would be diluted significantly if the deal fails. I hate the way our club is being whored around by a bunch of skint arabs and wannabee football club owners. We need to see some stability and investment please. If we don't turn up on Saturday I believe BMcD is history. If we put in a shift but get beat then I agree with Boggeres and the rot has been stopped. If we don't offload Aidy and either Stewart or Kebe is garbage then again our manager will be suspect because he has put his faith in these wingers so won't want to see Aidy be the better option?
Added to that Doc, the majority of fans, and probably rightly so, maybe Im the fool, have no interest in the background goings on with these finance people believing it really doesn't impact on the club. This yep story clearly shows the impact it has. The one signing McD wants that costs money and the parent company of gfh veto it. How frustrating is that for McD. His job and reputation are on the line. For weeks, the discussion here has involved who we should sign, Billy Sharpe, Wells etc. Well the reality is some geezer in Bahrain or somewhere, who has likely never seen a football match has vetoed such discussions. So anyone thinking this lot are some sort of saviours and are going to buy back the training facility and Elland Road for us fans are miles off the mark
Coud be worse Eire, we could have some prat from Thailand wanting us to play in red or give us a no mark as a Scout. Equally, we could have some prat from somewhere else wanting to change our name to Leeds Mancwannabees... or something like that. No, I'll settle for some bloke in the Gulf stopping us signing Barnes, especially as ALF would be a far better option should it ever happen
The point is not whether Barnes is any good or not. The fact Boggers is that McD, in whom you trust, wanted him but a non footballing person blocked it. That is taking meddling in the club to a whole new level. At least the Hull and Cardiff owners actually attend matches, invest proper money, what has gulf man done that blocked this done?
Boggers I wonder if you'll still be saying that when Bardiff get relegated and we are up against another billionaire club who also have parachute payments. We gotta get out of this league as soon as possible mate otherwise we go backwards
Good Morning Elland, Boggers Bucks and all Just clearing my emails now and came across this enticing one: "Worried about missing the Sheffield Wednesday action? Listen Live on LUTV" How glad am I that I was too busy to take up that opportunity. In fact last night, as I did not go and did not watch on tv, I braced myself and watched the full, glorious 90 minutes on LUTV. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Bloody 'ell, it was bad. If the Shuffled ones are making a video of it, they are off their heads, a terrible game despite the result for them. Not sure there's a lot of point in commenting in detail as its been done. A few comments only: Lees - I know its traditional to say it, but he is always poor every time I see him. ZM - actually apart from one mishit backpass early on, was not terrible (as has been said by others) until later in the game. He seemed to fall apart as it progressed. Two new lads - easy to say now but a big mistake playing both. Our midfield need to (re)learn how to give service to the wingers. Stewart looked out of his depth, though he seems to have a bit of pace, so who knows how he will turn out. Kebe I found more disappointing. Maybe he's not fully match fit? Was expecting more, though he also had poor service. Tracked back well but was hoping for more going forwards. Ross I thought did well given he is hardly built to be a lone striker and the service he got did not exist. Pearce did ok. Peltier seemed to be on his holidays for several of the goals. Byram, at least seemed to have some motivation, not that he showed much result, when he came on Michael Brown did well, one of his best games I thought (yeah, I do know, its a joke) Bottom line: 2 concerns 1. I am worried the pressure has got to BM (the boos at Rochdale I think really hit him hard) and he is making decisions he would not have taken otherwise. Not trying 4 at back given we had 2 wingers, putting two wingers straight into team unproven not bedded in, not playing a proper target man with two wingers, etc 2. the team did not show guts in adversity. The only outfield players I noticed keeping their heads up and looking like they wanted to turn it around, as opposed to limit the damage, were Pearce, Ross and Byram when he came on (maybe Mowatt, he just had a bad game that's all) Dear oh dear oh dear. I am glad I am not the Leeds manager
Maybe he thought it was Peter Barnes and thought he was too old to sign even by our standards..........
Morning all Agree with a lot of that 2020. I'd also give Pearce the arm band, constantly commited right up to the last minute even when we are dyer (****)
Morning all Look what happens, life gets in the way, I miss some match threads and we go on a terrible run of form without a win. There's obviously a connection, so I better sort myself out after my afternoon meeting and get a match thread up early evening!
I've said from the start we wont land ALF. Kevin Phillips is still not tied down and that looks more of our kind of signing. That being said, and tin hat time again I'd take him. Ideal impact sub and still knows where the back of the net is.
Gone to Leicester isn't he. I heard him interviewed yesterday evening and was excited at joining Chmpionship leaders
