Well, past experience thus far has shown us that Papa Smurf is a bit reluctant to spend serious cash on signings. Thus we find ourselves in the free transfer and loan markets, both of which are governed by wages. If we look at the three sides that have come down, they will probably sell one or two of their best players for nice sums, and add that income to their lovely parachute payments and we have three players that can outbid us easily for Grayson's major targets should they decide to compete for those signatures. So, who do we go after? Firstly, I would look at getting Bannan and Lichaj back from Villa on season long loans. So long as they don't have a chance of breaking into the Villa first team regularly we have to try and get them. Both work hard and have ability. Bannan will shine with a better back four behind him as well as a ball winning midfielder. Jake Livermore is another quality player, and worth another look. As always with these young up and comers playing time is important. Then, what about Delph as a loanee? Bostock at Spurs is another who is progressing fast, and Harry likes to loan out his starlets for experience, so a season deal is not impossible. Obviously a DM and CB are priorities for next season, so it will be interesting to see who Grayson looks at bringing in to fill these gaping holes. The Alan Smith debate will rage on until he signs for West Ham or any other club willing to pay his wages. If Smith comes back to Leeds, it will be because he genuinely loves the club and wants to help the Whites to succeed. Bates will not pay him top dollar to return, so a hefty wage cut would have to be accepted by Smith to come back. As for who we have now, Johnson looks as if he is definitely on the way out, and Kilkenny thankfully won't be given a new deal. Naylor is gone as well, and Kisnorbo is not a shoo-in. Our squad is genuinely thin, and for us to progress next season Bates has to loosen his grip and give Grayson the combination to the safe. Paynter and McCormack should improve a lot with a full pre-season under their belts, so we will score a lot of goals. Snods will hopefully not be sold, although I honestly feel that if we get a bid of £4.5m-plus Bates will take it. Schmeichel has the ability to become a genuine top class 'keeper, but let's see if we have the ambition to sign him to a 3-year deal as a minimum right now. Ben Parker will hopefully step up an realise his promise this season after so much hassle with injury, White may well be ready to contribute along with Clayton, and Sam still has the ability to really shine.....once again playing time is vital for all these lads. Do Leeds fans have the patience though to give the young'uns a go? Once again, we are set for an exciting season ahead, although this time it will be a lot harder. We can have fun speculating and debating, but I am dead keen to see how much ambition Bates will show this Summer.
Welcome, what a great first thread! The points I'd make would be: 1. You're right about the lack of players for fees, though I'd rather have a free transfer we can keep than be forced to rely on the loan market and develop other teams' players, I'm sick of it now. One or two like Lichaj and Bannan would be alright, though I'm not sure Bannan would come back after the way he was treated last season. I didn't rate Livermore at all, much rather have someone more proven like Jack Cork or Aron Gunnarsson there instead of him. 2. I'm sure Smith won't come back. He has no affection for this club and he can get better money elsewhere if clubs like Rangers and West Ham really are interested. 3. I wouldn't say our squad was thin everywhere; other than in central midfield, we still have a decent depth and some quality, but yes, Grayson does need money giving to him to buy the players at centreback, leftback and centre mid. To get promotion-quality players in all three of those positions without spending at least a million will be nigh-on impossible. 4. I agree about Paynter and McCormack. We saw their partnership work at Burnley home and saw flashes of what Paynter can do at Preston away; with a full pre-season behind them, that will mean we'll have four capable Championship strikers to work with in whichever formation Grayson decides to go for. 5. Schmeichel will never sign a contract extension here, he sees Leeds United as a stepping stone towards greater things, otherwise we would have signed him on more than a two-year deal in the first place. Not sure I agree he can ever be a great keeper, but I harp on about him too much, so I'll shut my trap! 6. I'm all for giving White, Clayton and Lees a go, not sure Parker's worthwhile as we've already seen that he's nowhere near a top Championship defender. Give Nunez an equal opportunity to Jonny Howson and pick whoever out of those two impresses in the first games of the season. I'd say Sam's role would probably be to fill in for Gradel and Snodgrass whenever they get tired; we can't afford to squander so many points on Tuesday nights again due to our stubborn insistence on fielding our usual XI every game. Over all though, I just can't wait for it to get going. I keep having to watch Leeds goals on YouTube to get my fix, but it's just not the same.
Hi Donald, excellent points, and I also feel Schmeichel will go. Do we sell him now to get some cash? Nunez is quality, so I really hope Grayson let's the boy shine next season. Time will tell....
Great post Billy, are you the same user from the beebs 606? If so good to see you on board I think Grayson can really prove his worth this pre season. We all know we are crying out for a LB DM CM CB but being realistic are we really going to sign 4 players of good quality on a free? Probably not. So we have to work with what we got, and with Lee's emerging & kissa back there could be an answer there. Saying that just with Kissa in our back four we will improve 100 times. You wouldnt dare make a mistake playing next to him! So if we only could improve in two positions what two would you pick? DM & CB for me although I would worry we still wouldnt have enough in the LB deperatment, maybe a loanee?
Paynter is a step back im afraid, theres way better strikers than him, 1 in 22 in awful, Mccormack puts the rage in average, not bad not brilliant, misses sitters and only scored once in a handful of appearances (QPR goal was an own goal)
I think you missed the bit about them improving once they get a proper pre-season under their belts. And as a shot on target which deflected off a defender, it counts as Ross' goal, does it not?
To be honest with you Naylor would have done a better job up tops than Paynter did. I know plenty of swindon fans & believe me they laughed there tits off when we signed him.
Paynter isn't good enough. The partnership worked well in the last couple of games but he just doesn't have the quality to put away a chance when needed. He got into good positions but his finishing was wayward. I'd much rather see Somma or Becchio instead, or even Grella tbh.
I'm not convinced we won't spend in the summer. For the first time since Bates has been in charge, we actually have money available to spend without having to worry about about it biting us in the ass, debts, or not being able to cover it. At the end of the day if Bates has any sense as a businessman he'll know as soon as he gets his wallet out, season ticket sales will go up.
i know im going to get pelters for this....... but here goes.... I would Paynter another season.... he should not start as i think McCormack is a better option with Becchio and Somma.. I think the injury at the start of last season was a big issue and the lack of confidence the next problem. Give him a start in the Carling Cup and use him as a impact sub...and lets see. We need to show a bit more faith in him thna just one season... (now i will put my helmet on )
Hand me a helmet, Spanish, and I'll join you. He's still good enough for backup, we don't need to be spending money on strikers anyway.
If we needed to, I'd rather Gradel play upfront than Paynter. We don't really need 4 strikers, especially if we don't play 4-4-2.
McCormacks wasnt a deflection it was practically a shot from the defender, I heard it was put down as an OG after the game. I like to see some class again, I miss Jermaine Beckford, always scored no matter the weather. Le Fondre wld be ideal considering the amount of chances we create via long balls. Somma should replace them, also Sordell aint to bad either, Hoilett is ambitious but hey West Ham are signing Nolan ( IT CAN BE DONE )
McCormack may have only scored 2 goals in the last 2 games, and 1 of those may have been an own goal, but compared to Paynter, he was far classier. The way the goal came in that last match wasn't ideal, but he definitely earnt it. It was causing QPR all sorts of problems all game.
It was McCormack's: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13247204.stm Hate to bring this up again but we score less goals as a team when we play with a striker like that. We aren't a long ball team at all. We were at stages in League One, but we've actually played a good passing game this season. Le Fondre would probably be a good signing, but it's really not a priority, and I'd rather see us spend the £700k on improving the defense/midfield than up front where we're already more than equipped. Somma needs to improve his all-round game; Sordell has a similar goal ratio to Becchio except we know Luciano gives you hard work as well as goals, so why settle for less than we've already got? Correct, he'll stay in the Premiership, wouldn't move down here. ( IF YOU HAVE BIG SAM ). There's no other reason he went there. Do we really want to hurt ourselves paying those wages anyway?
