Good Morning All, It was the result that neither teams wanted, a draw, meaning a reply Tuesday week. The incentive is the winner has a home tie against Spurs in the next round. So, it finished 1-1 at Elland Road on Saturday, thanks to a Becchio equalizer in the second half, not that we deserved it. Largely, we were outplayed by a makeshift Blues side who were without eight first team players. To make it worse for Birmingham, Will Packwood, an U20 American International full back, got carried off with a broken leg. I'm sure we all wish him a speedy recovery. The question has to be asked, why are we playing so badly over the last month? The players can't blame it on the takeover anymore!!! Do we need a complete clear out and start again (again)??? We are nearly 10 days into the January transfer window (one third)and, apart from Kissa going out on loan to Ipswich, nothing else has happened. Have the club decided to write off this season, and pour all of our resources in the Summer, or are the club working hard behind the scenes to bring in some decent talent. If we do write this season off, can we expect to keep our best players?
Morning Elland. Not a great performance on Saturday & not a lot happening in the TW. That said, this virus may have had something to do with both & hopefully we will see a much better performance & healthy victory this Saturday. More to the point, hopefully we will also see confirmation of Tonge's return & possibly Thomas as well. Might actually be useful for the 2nd string/development squad to have a midweek BCD game to keep the first XI on their toes. On complete clear outs, let's see where we are come May. Waarnock, will he stay or will he go? PL or Championship? If we're in the PL, not only will GFH need to dig deep, we will also need to buy 2 or 3 quality players just to ensure we don't go straight back down. 17th or better would be the target for our first season. That said & based on the last few games, it could well be another year in the championship, & possibly under a new Manager.
Morning Boggers, It was a terrible performance, and a terrible crowd 11,000... I'm surprised the Tonge transfer has not happened already. Look how quickly the Woods transfer was done for Leicester. He was banging in goal for them New years day. It would be nice to see Thomas, and in the grand scheme of things, even if he cost 1m-1.5m, we're Leeds Utds for gods sake, not some tin pot team, we should be outbidding teams like this
As I said elsewhere, I think the 11,000 crowd says as much about what we/Brum fans think of the FA Cup just after Cliffmas as anything else. If we win the replay & then get to play Spurs, we'll see a crowd comfortably in excess of 20k, probably over 25k. Leicester are clearly throwing plenty of money about. So being outbid by them is no great surprise. Let's see what happens if we go up & they don't. How many of their star signings will want to remain in the championship. After Saturday, I'd quite like us to be bidding for Beckford. A forward contingent of him, Becchio, Ross, Somma & Diouf with anyone adding width would be a scary proposition for any defence
Forget Thomas now as he went back to his club. He played for them at the weekend and went on Twitter to thank the WBA fans for applauding him. He also said it was great to be back playing in front of them again ...... Sod him.
Morning all. I suspect Tonge transfer happened yet because of lack of funds, simple as. Far more worrying are the constant Becchio and Byram rumours. Talk this morning of bids from Wigan and Celtic for Becchio. Ive said this in the past, but if they go, we might as well give up. We wont have a ghost of a chance of reaching the pl. If that proves to be the only way gfh have of raising funds, they better get used to crowds of 11k at Elland Road. Incidentally, thats not a bad crowd considering the ****e being served up every week. I'm curious to know how were even attracting that many. Elland I see your point re a complete clear out. Lets get real here, we're still trying to clear out Graysons rubbish and no one wants them. Our current crop is the same, average at best. That means we'd have basically two teams to clear out. A skip would be the only hope. Next point, what would it then cost to rebuild a promotion threatening squad from scratch. Forget loanees and old journeymen. Probably 15 to 20million plus cost of paying off God knows how many of the existing contracts. Does anyone think gfh have a spare two or three million let alone 20 million for rebuilding. Not a chance. Think we're 8th in table and well do well to finish there unless something spectacular happens this month. Gfh can change a lot of opinions by saying weve been offered 4 million for Becchio but were holding him till end of contract cos we dont need the money. Now that would show real intent. Over to you Mr Haigh, show us what youre made of
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co....duo-becchio-and-byram-are-in-demand-1-5285109 No great surprise this article. But I agree with Eire. If the new owners were to let it be known they'd resisted an offer of 4m for Becchio, it would do two things; it would show some sphericals, but it would also show the bigger clubs that if they want to take our best talent then will have to put down real money. As the artical says, if we got offerred 10m for Byram, there's really not a lot we can do about it. But to keep the Beeston WUMs happy, the new owners would have to make it clear that it would be the best part of 10m added to Warnock's transfer budget.... & that would allow us to get beckford + a creative midfielder & also A N Other where Warnock thinks it would help the team.
Jones's comments in that article disgust me. The simple answer when asked, should be, our players are under contract and not for sale. "We are now in the business of building a squad for promotion and are no longer a selling club". Whether it's strictly true or not, that is what the fans want to hear and help build confidence and not this ****e of we'll sell the only two decent players we have left at the club if someone makes an offer over two million, cos thats all we ever get for our players
I have to say that I'm very pleased that there were only 11,000 at the match. I didn't go because I saw it as an opportunity to send a (very small) message to the board. Fortunately, many thousands more stayed away and sent a much larger message! I for one am quite worried about our situation. Take the Tongue deal, for instance. It should have been signed on day 1 of the window if we had any intent. There was plenty of time to get it sorted out beforehand. We got Tongue on a 'try before you buy' basis, so there should have been an understanding of fees, wages etc. So is this delay intentional, or just incompetence? Either is unacceptable. The same goes for all of the other 'targets'. We knew who they were long ago, and Warnock would have been aware of the money available to him. So why was nothing sorted out before the window. Same question - intended delay or incompetence? Time to get the finger out, board. I see you had plenty of time to go out on the piss & get tweeted all over the shop. Perhaps you need to start tweeting some signing news instead, or tell us that we're not going to get any news at all. Man up!! Edit: Oops! Screwed up protocol. Should have opened with 'Morning chaps!'. Apologies.
Morning all - Delays in the transfer targets baffles me, we have waited and prayed that the T/O would happen in time for us to strengthen in Januay, we all know we lack the quality icing on the cake players (Warnocks words). As you rightly say Elland, Woods has already helped Leicester to 3 points and a passage to the next round of the cup. Tonge was with us, he must have had a medical, it should have been a simply case of everything in place sign on the dotted line, you can only assume funds are not in place. EDIT ** Was typing my reply as you were doing this one WJ +1 on all this **
Sorry Eire, but in the business world in which footy now exisits, all clubs sell players, even that lot across the Pennines if the price is right. Our concern should be to ensure that if we did have to sell our best players, the money received goes straight into the transfer pot. It lttle chance I think that we'd only get £2m for Becchio or Byram. Becchio is worth over double that & Byram could command a fee agreed via tribunal if it came down to it. With GFH having now arrived to bolster the finances of the club, we shouldn't actually have to sell anyone that Warnock doesn't want to. But time will tell.
I believe whitejocks explanation above explains clearly why no transfers yet. Same explanation as to why there were so many delays in takeover ...... No funds. Hope I'm wrong and dearly want to be proven wrong
You & me both Eire. At least with Papa Smurf we knew what we were getting. With GFH, until they do something we can see & the results, good or bad, re blindingly obvious, not sure what to make of them yet. Heyho, we await progress.
Moning elland and everyone else. I posted this on another forum, so I will kopi it in here to I think anyone from LUFC that is going to get interviewed has to be extremely careful about what they say. And GFH has to be very, very careful about what they do and say. The reason for that is that every Leeds fan will pick apart everything they say or write and analyze it to the smallest detail. If there is the slightest hint that one or more of our best players are going to be sold there will be an upraise against GFH. There is really only one thing GFH can do to get the fans on their side and that is to invest in new player and it has to be quality players. If GFH does not invest in this window and even if none of the players get sold there will be an even greater suspicion that GFH do not have any money. GFH has to remember that right now there are a lot of Leeds fans sitting on the fence watching their every move and talk want do in this situation only action will
Good call Norway. They're dammed if they do & dammed if they don't. No wonder someone wrote a book called "The Dammed United"!!!!!
Morning all you lovely fellow Leeds UNITED fans. We've been selling players and sacking managers for years now. I've nearly got to the stage that I don't care. There seems nothing we can do. We are just fed lie after lie. I'm depressed now....
That they are Boggers and they can thank Mr Bates for it And a good book it was But yes I see what you mean, we are not exactly the luckiest team in the world and we never do things the easy way
Cheer up Shaks. If you're depressed now, wait till the 6 Nations starts & the red rose comes swinging down low all over your shamrock wearing countrymen. Slight change of subject, however bad life might or might not get for us, imagine being a Chelski fan knowing that one of their best players ever is leaving at the end of the season because that Russian Tosser won't offer him an extension..... or is it that Portuguese tw&t?
