Good Morning Everyone, Hadi Sacko has already undergone a medical prior to Leeds pre season training camp in Ireland. It is thought the 22 year old will sign on a season long loan. He is able to operate as an attacking midfielder, a winger or a striker. Marcus Antonsson, Swansea loanee Kyle Bartley and Sacko are joined by Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Tyler Denton, Ronaldo Vieira, Eoghan Stokes, Alex Purver and Paul McKay in the first team squad. Who will be next? In the case Lucy Ward v Leeds Utd, the Court awarded Ms Ward £127k for her sex discrimination & £5.5k for unfair dismissal. The club also has to pay the tax of £55k relating to the award & the whole of Ms Ward's costs. Leeds Utd will have to pay its own costs too. Let's hope that is the end of it. Are you pleasantly surprised or disappointed by the position we are currently in now compared to when the whistle blew on the last game of the season? Marks out of 10? I'd say 8.
The Lucy case will not cost the club a bean because that's why businesses take out insurance policies, but will probably mean a slight rise in premiums the next time renewal comes around. The squad seems packed with kids which is great as Monk will have a view if they are going to make it. Some will probably go out on loan, but worryingly rumors about Mowatt, Cooke and Taylor being sold on. The loanees look ok but hope they are better than what we have seen in the past. Genuinely hoping our Swede is better than the last one we had, but he does look cool in front of goal. Did anyone see the video of the Iceland teams return home. Thousands upon thousands of fans at the airport all doing the Viking Clap. Awesome sight
4/10....we have signed 2/3 players, 2 unknowns and 1 who hasn't played consistently for a few years. Sure we have a good coach and backroom staff but already it seems like we are trying to do things on the cheap.
We have an unproven but 'rated' coach... So that was better than expected. As for signings. An unknown Swedish striker and two loans... A 25 year old central defender who's never been first choice anywhere and a French kid with a big release clause... Who's yet to live up to expectations. If one of these turns out ok it's an above average return. So about what's expected. Chancers on the cheap... 4/10 is probably generous! Hey, still early days, and we haven't sold cook or Taylor... Yet.
Morning all I get the feeling that the kids have come because we only have 21 senior players and that's including Viera and Philips. I'm not going to rate the summer so far cos it's too early to do that but at least we are getting linked with player we know e.g. Bartley and Osman instead of some no named Italian 2nd tier player
Good morning all I suppose we just have to get used to the fact that under Cellino and GFH, we aren't going to see the experienced big money signings that would give us all wet dreams. I can't get that excited on the business we have conducted so far, however the Swedish kid does look cool, calm and collected in his finishing abilities. On the flip side, I am pretty happy with the coaching staff we have assembled. Hopefully Beattie can do some good with our strikers and Monk can help out with our shaky defence. I am going to give a 5/10 because we haven't sold off any of our young kids yet like Cook and Taylor. I suppose the off season could be termed as some kind of success if we manage to hold on to them. I never buy this we have to sell one of our stars to fund a few sales. Because all that happens is that you weaken the team and have a couple of inferior players taking up the wages. Keep the kids and along with the new coaching staff and I would begrudgingly say that we probably did the best that we could under our current circumstances. cheers
Morning All, From my point of view its not about big money signings. Look at our players who have performed for us in the past. Snodgrass, Gradel, Beckford, Becchio, Somma. They're all living proof that you don't have to fork out to find gems. Its all about coaching and man motivation. Look at Leicester, they won the prem on a shoe string. Some of the money thats being thrown around is mental! 11 mill for Ritchie is laughable! Antonnson - Could well be a fox in the box and come up with the goals we need. Bartley - Played under Monk before and is supposedly solid at this level. Also an Arsenal youth so he'll be able to pass it around. Sacko - PACE. Something we have been crying out for. Agree with above comments about selling young lads like Mowatt, Cook & Taylor. Although I do struggle to see where Mowatt fits in if we play a 4-4-2. He's not going to partner with Cook is he? That will be Toumani D or Murphy or even a new CM. Also Phillips just signed a 3 year deal so looks as though he'll come more into the first team. As for the kids being out there in Ireland I think we'll see 1/2 of them break into the first team. Hopefully Viera as it would be nice to have a home grown winger to be able to use. And Stokes was firing on all cylinders end of last season so wouldn't surprise if he did well. Lets stay positive about these new signings and give them a chance. MOT
Assuming that we keep Cook and Taylor things are looking promising. We are all hoping for progress and a good start to the new season. The blot on the horizon as ever is the unpredictability of Cellino.Common sense and his past record do not suggest stability.Lets hope against hope that he has learned lessons but it seems a forlorn hope to me.
Not sure you are totally correct there Doc. I insure my business on HR issues but, it relies on us following the procedures in the manner that the Insurance Company dictate not firing at will. In the same vein, if we decided to hold a barbecue in the factory and it burned down I am sceptical about whether the insurance would pay up!!
Marcos, all companies over a certain size have to have things like public liability insurance and also coverage for Industrial Tribunals. I have had plenty of arguments with HR Directors in the past because the insurance company has set a 'price' for a settlement on a spurious claim. Rather than fight and take management out of the operation for meetings with lawyers, rehearsals, compilations of the evidence packs etc, insurance prefer to settle even though they know its a dodgy claim (Vexatious) Club will not be paying as they will have been guided by insurance lawyers. ts a fooking big business mate.
I bow to your greater knowledge but would still doubt the difference in Premium is negligible considering the number of people the business has had leave in the last two years??
Good evening all... Marks out of 10 when season finished 3/10 Marks out of 10 right now 4/10 (taking into account Taylor not signing a new contract) Our loan players and the new guy from Sweden... Who knows how good or bad they will turn out to be. I wrote this before reading the other replies and see ther are quite a few others witht he same 4/10 opinion, not good.
Evening All. So far we've replaced Bellusci & Antenucci, hopefully with upgrades. Don't know much about any of the new players tbh. We've lost Bridcutt and Adeyemi so look a bit weaker to me unless the youngsters like Phillips and Viera are supposed to step up. With the caveat that we might still bring players in, as things stand I can only see this season being much the same as the last one.
Morning (well, sort of) all ... for me we have taken a giant step forward compared to the last two seasons ... the appointment of Monk is a huge plus, and he is assembling a solid backroom staff to help him, all good news ... our signings so far are all players Monk wants in his squad, so that's another positive (Antonsson is known by Pep from his work in Sweden, Bartley is known by Monk from Swansea, Sacko probably comes from Monk's scouting and his European contacts) ... Cellino has (fingers crossed) seemingly calmed down, and he is making better decisions, almost as if he has learned that to get to the Prem stability is needed, hence Monk coming in along with an experienced Exec Director Evans was a complete waste of space, and at least now we have a decent manager in charge who has a GENUINE DESIRE to manage in the Prem again, and Leeds is his chance not just to do this, but to do this in charge of a massive club ... Monk will drive the players on, and his enthusiasm, professionalism and desire will be a huge boost in the dressing room ... so far our three young stars haven't gone anywhere, and as we're into July this threat has diminished significantly ... of course, like any club in the Championship, if a big money offer came in for any of our players that also allowed them to quadruple their salaries then we have little chance of keeping them, but until this happens I won't sweat about it ... in any case, if we were to sell anyone, I'm sure Monk will use the money wisely ... Sacko btw has signed with a view to making the move permanent after the loan, so he has something to play for Out of 10: end of last season definitely 2/10 .... right now 7/10 and climbing Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
