Good Morning Everyone, Am I the only one with mixed emotion from the weekend. Becchio omision from the 18 man squad must surely mean that he is on his way. On the flip side of the coinh, a really good team performance, especially from the likes of Varney and White. Is it a one off performance though? GFH have come out and said if Becchio does go, Warnock can reinvest the money. That gives Warnock just over two to find players, agree terms, pass a medical and join? Why should he go, he has a year and a half left on his contract. Lets show some intent. If someone offers 6m for him, thats a different story, but 3m, could we replace him like for like. I do not like what is going on behind the scenes, especially with all the politics. Suddenly Haigh and Patel are not on twitter so much!!! Thoughts? What annoys me are statements in December from GFH and Warnock both saying the days of selling our best players are in the past, and the only players that will be sold are the ones United want to get rid of. We also heard similar talk from Grayson before that.... Back to the game. The like the look of Peltier at centre back, and White looked more than capable. Why, oh why can't we play like that every week? Did we play really well, or were Spurs poor? Lets not forget that McCormack also went close just before half time, and in the dying seconds Austin put the ball in the net from the half weay line (not easy to do) but as he hit the shot, the ref blew for full time.
ffs i am still in shock, Varney will be having a drug test this morning, Byram did an exceptional job against Bale, Lees was outstanding for me, White worked his socks off, all in all a good team performance, but do we have to wait until a PL side comes along for us to up our game? Morning Elland by the way
First things first. Another great performance against a prem side, but this is not the first time and it gets annoying. Man Utd well beaten a couple of years ago, and we scare Liverpool to death in the Carling cup. We follow this up with great performances home and away against Arsenal and then Spurs and now Spurs again. One thing these results all have in common, is our players doing what they're capable of but then not giving a toss in the league. Is this purely down to putting themselves in the shop window? Come on lads, we need you to perform like that week in week out please. As for Becchio I just think he's had his head turned and thinks he's better than he actually is, so if he wants out and we can get a few quid, then let him go. I don't see him as one of our best players at all, because lets face facts: his control is terrible, he's clumsy, he slows play up and he goes down too easily. So I don't see him as good as Sharp, Lambert etc and if we get some decent cash let him go. Too late to use the cash to buy, but the emergency loan window could use some of that cash. GFH haven't been here too long so I'm not sure what their agenda is yet, but i admit to being worried as it just seems to be more of the same. The next 3-days are going to be crazy with stories about comings and goings, so lets sit back and see what happens.
Morning all. Agree with every word Elland. Fantastic result yesterday and out of the blue. Have to admit to my excitement at Varneys goal being tempered with the expectations of another Chelsea comeback fiasco. I did go mental at the second one and what a long half hour after spurs scored. Did anyone notice the spuds fans going home after 55 minutes. Why travel the length of the country to watch half a game? On gfhbates, you all know my feelings. Since they took over, I maintained they should and will be judged on Feb 1st when transfer window is shut. If we're clearly not a better team than today, they are a failure. Forget talking about next summer or the one after, if they have no money now, they wont ever have it
Also agree with every word Elland apart from I thought we played okay, there was as expected a massive class gap and another day we would have went down. Ashdown looks awful in goal, any save he makes he parries the ball back into the field of play. Anyway, I am not going to get negative after a great result. As I have said many times, it is obvious GFH do not have a pot to piss in and we need to sell to buy. Why that means selling a proven goal scorer for another striker is beyond me.
Bit harsh on Ashdown, he looks very capable as back up and virtually all of his parries were pushed out wide, away from the action, which at the very least gives us a chance to regroup defensively to deal with the inevitable cross. I thought he did alright yesterday
No doubt many will agree I just feel the times I have seen him he makes a bit of a meal of an average save his distribution is poor and he should be holding on to saves or pushing the ball out of play, my heart is in my mouth far too many times when he makes a save. He cost us a couple against Chelsea and he could have done the same yesterday. Back up keeper fine, but please, did Paddy really need to be rested? We went through, it was a big money spinner, another pay day against Man City and when the board have little to invest and you are looking to sell your best player surely we should play our best team every match.
Morning all, Rare event - a Happy Monday!! Still glowing. (Work will sort that out, no doubt!). Delighted at the team effort. I find myself very forgiving this morning. White put in a good shift at LB. As one of his biggest critics, I have to give him credit. Perhaps a lesson has been learned and we're going to forget trying to utilise his pace in midfield? Let's hope so. I'd like to thank Mr Varney for his well taken goal & graft throughout the game, but I'm afraid that's as far as it goes. Think he's scarred me too much this season. Perhaps if Becchio goes & we don't sign anyone to replace him (odds on, isn't it?), then he might be forced to put in consistently good shifts for us. On Saturday I believed that he'd had enough chances. Today I'm generously thinking "perhaps just 1 more chance - but only 1, mind!". I think the key to our performance was our industrious approach, coupled with a fully functioning midfield for once. Top performance, epitomised by Broonie. Where have all the Brown critics gone?
The ironic thing about browns critics is that ge actually does consistently perform well. Tough tackling and composed on the ball, and a surprising amount of energy for his age. I personally think Varneys goal and the reaction from the crowd will have affected him, he'll be thinking "wow, if thats what I get when I play well, I need to make sure I play well more often!"
Heard from two sources Becchio's off to Turkey from an unnamed top team. Anybody thinking what I'm thinking?
How are we guys I was incredibly impressed by the performance against spurs. I can honestly say that that is the first time that I genuinely have been happy with everyone's performance in the team, not just reasonable but happy. Even against Everton for example I wasn't as impressed with our tactics and our willingness to close down so high up the pitch for the full 90. And I know this may get a few negative responses but I genuinely believe that it was because Becchio wasn't playing. Thats probably the best game that Diouf has had imo and McCormack held the ball up better than Becchio ever has and also provided that threat of hanging off the last man as well. I think he was still a little down on confidence as he woulda buried at least one more if it had been last season as he was so clinical but I'd prefer to see those two upfront or even Somma up there than Becchio. We play better football as a team and we actually defend as a team when he is not there. We were pressuring there defenders for the whole game, something I have never seen Becchio do before. I genuinely would like us to sell Becchio and bring in some good creative players. Now I also think it helped by the contribution of Varney from the left, he had a good game. I hope he can keep that up.
There's more than one team in Turkey elland. Trabzonspor are looking most likely from what I'm hearing. I love Becchio, he's been my favourite player since relegation from the PL, but if he wants to leave and we can get £4-6m to reinvest then it might be time to say goodbye. Chuffed to bits with yesterday's performance, every single player did themselves proud (even Varney). Peltier seems to have found his natural position at CB and maybe doesn't have as much pressure on him without the armband on.
Been hearing the same although I am hearing figures of closer to £2m being the acceptance point, £6m and I would agree let him go although I am not sure I would trust Warnock with the money.
Club have confirmed they have not received any offers from Galataseray. They felt it necessary to inform us of this to quell any rumours, and they were right to do so.
Doubt we'd get 4m let alone 6m. At 29 he is just not worth it, he's in the championship not the PL More likely 3m-3.5m is the most we'd get
Who's Becchio? once they have shown their hand its off you pop! get what we can for him and send him packing, corned beef munching slim ball.
Let's just be clear on Becchio...he is a very, very good striker, and if he gets the proper service from out wide he is a real handful. His goal against Chelsea was a beaut, and a similar setup to the one he scored against Wolves. We will be a lot poorer without him, and I fear he will be sold for a lot less than he is worth. It's not that his head's been turned, it's that he is being forced out because GFH are skint. Don't forget, Bates is still chairman, and this is no different to Howson and Snodgrass going.
Ok, I disagree with so much you have said there I don't understand how you can call him a very, very good striker. Look at all the very, very good strikers in the world and he doesn't compare on any level. Even within the league I don't think he is one of the better strikers, in fact even within the club I don't think he is our best striker. If you are unable to control a pass from 10 metres away I don't consider you a footballer worth having at our club and if someone is willing to spend 3m on him then take it especially considering he doesn't want to be here. I don't think we will be a lot poorer without him, in fact I think we'll be better. Now admittedly that is assuming we don't replace him with someone exactly like for like which is not what I want us to do. Against Spurs we had the exact type of team I would like us to play, we can find better players for each position but the style of the set-up was good and a way I want to see the team go. I think its nicer to watch and more effective. How do you know his head hasn't been turned? How do you know GFH are skint? Lets stay within what we DO know and that is that he is currently the top earner at the club (pretty sure it came out when he signed his contract last time that he was on 16k a week) and he has had an improved offer upon that, after the improved offer he handed in a transfer request. He doesn't want to be here, let him go. I didn't want Howson or Snoddy or max or even Clayton to leave when they did but I truly believe this time it'll be for the better of the team and club
