The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Fri 24th July)

Good Morning. It's Friday 24th July, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road

Phillips came so close to joining Villa last Summer

Kalvin Phillips has revealed to Phil Hay during an emotional interview that he came very close to joining Aston Villa last Summer. The heartache of losing in the play offs, followed by Villa tabling bids in excess of 25m for him, made him unsettled.

The Leeds midfielder admitted, “I was basically on the verge of leaving .” “I came in one day and Victor (Orta, Leeds’ director of football) said to me, ‘Listen, if you want to leave then just let me know. If you want to leave, tell me right now and I’ll sell you’. I said, ‘I don’t know’. So Victor said, ‘If you don’t know then I’m not selling you’.”

Orta seized on Phillips’ indecision to prove to him that his future was at Elland Road.

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Leeds ready to hijack Eze deal

Leeds are ready and prepared to outbid their Premiership competition to bring exciting attacking midfielder Eberechi Eze to Elland Road this Summer. Bielsa has already outlined his main Summer targets and believes the 22-year-old has the creative spark that they will need in the top flight.

According to the Sun, Bielsa's team approached the Hoops during their 1-0 defeat at Loftus Road in January. They made it clear that if the Whites were to gain promotion, they would like to bring their star player to Elland Road.

Eze has netted 14 times and has eight assists this term, and he is only getting better. This lightening pace and close control will terrify any defence.

Spurs, West Ham and Crystal Palace have all expressed their interest in the 20m rated player, yet nobody has yet made a formal approach. Hammers Manager David Moyes has made it clear that he plans to raid the Championship this Summer for young talent.

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Leeds breaking the bank to keep Bielsa

Andrea Radrizzani and Victor Orta are in the process of putting together a package to keep Marcelo Bielsa at Elland Road.

Such is the desire to keep the Argentine at LS11, that they are willing to offer the 65yo almost £500,000 a month (£115,000 a week) to stay.

Former Leeds defender Alex Bruce was staggered at the how lucrative Leeds’ offer was but insisted that Bielsa was worth his weight in gold.

Asked if getting Bielsa tied down would be the Whites’ biggest deal of the summer, Bruce remarked “£100-grand-a-week? Christ almighty, I think he should be and all!

“That would be a lovely contract for him if that’s the kind of figures they’re talking about. He’s proven himself as one of the great managers over the years with what he’s done in Spain and Argentina, these places he’s been before.

“It was a huge coup to get him to Leeds and I’m sure they’ll want to tie him down now they’re in the Premier League. They’re a big team in the Premier League, Leeds United, so it’s somewhere I’m sure Bielsa would want to be.”

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Morning all...

Looking forward to us bringing some new faces in, I always get excited about it then find myself trawling Wiki and YouTube, we’ll see

 

Eze and Benrahma?

 

Both would be amazing signings

 

And very good morning everyone

 

Morning all

Bielsa will only work with a small squad of 18 plus half a dozen U23s, so not sure he would break his rule for the Prem and rotate his first 11, it just doesnt seem Bielsa?

if he brings in 4 players and not have to get rid of anyone:
Keeper to replace Kiko or does he trust Meslier?
Striker
CB to replace White or does he trust Struijk, Casey, Cresswell?
Creative No10 to replace Pablo ultimatley

 

Jeeze, welcome back Doc, Chippy and Marcos

 

Morning all. Take all the paper talk with a pinch of salt if Im honest. Read somewhere last week Bielsa current contract was worth 6m a year, now club are set to break the bank to offer him less so read what you like into that. Either way we need to get signings done asap, don't want to have to wait till xmas till they can play. Nice problems to have

 

One other thing to think about, is that at one stage against Charlton we had 6 of the U23 kids on the pitch at the same time 7 if you add Roberts. You would suspect that some will either be sold bow or promoted to first team?
Poveda looks to be a handful and Im exited about him
Struijk looks the dogs and can play in Phillips role and be a good CB
Will Shaks be able in the Prem
Bogusz seems to have gone backwards and has his contract been renewed?

 

I do hope the board are just not trying to throw money at Bielsa to stay, with him it's more than that (he would be happy just to cover his rent & rates above the shop), i hope they really listen to him & what he/we will require to make us a success in the PL, and if they agree or not give it very careful consideration-----------THEN AGREE

 

Think Bielsa pays his staff from his salary so not on £6m Kev

 

Good to see you again Doc

 

Good Morning to Matt Doc and co from a sunny Bardsey
I'm not sure about signing Cavanni hes 33 now and it seems to me that he his coming to get as much money as he canEze I watched his goal against WBA and it was a beauty well worth the money.White will go back to Brighton
So we need a CB and a striker or 2
When does the transfer window open like to sign Geldard and EZE n ow

 

I think the transfer window opens on the 27th July but any players bought can't play in the play-offs

 

I'm not as worried about us spending millions to find a striker. Liverpool's top goalscorer, Salah, who isn't an out and out striker, had more assists than the three players above him put together. You go down the list of top scorers until you get to Liverpool and Citeh players but then there's a few of them. Firmino doesn't even make the list.
Who would you take from Vardy, Ings, Aubameyang or Salah?
I'd have Salah but, more importantly, I think Bielsa would.
I was impressed with Struijk. For a young man he's got a calm head, so maybe he can step up to replace White. I think Meslier has been excellent and our defence has been more solid with him there.
The future's bright, the future's white.
I can't wait for next season

 

That makes sense. Whatever they pay him he's worth it. It would be interesting to see how much was wasted on second rate coaches over the past decade. An eye watering amount Id imagine. A point worth considering Doc, as Im sure you're aware, that Bielsa increases the value of players by multiples. For example, when he arrived, Id imagine wed have been lucky to get 30m for the entire squad. Ill add Ben White to the equation here as Bielsa has built him to what he is and Ill bet our squad is probably worth in excess of 150m today

 

Looking forward to seeing what sort of signings we make. Good to see we’ve got Harrison, Costa and Meslier signed up. Hoping Berardi gets his new contract, would be harsh after everything he’s done for us and after his injury if he didn’t get one. Looking at everything Phil Hay has said about signings I think we’ll be making 5 or 6 and it looks like we’ll be after a GK, CB, LB, CM/CAM, WINGER & ST. Apparently Bielsa likes the look of Gunn and Martinez which will mean shipping out Kiko. CB will be White if we can get him or that CB that plays for River Plate, Cooper will be the other CB and I think we may need a Berardi back up considering he’ll be out for 9 months and I think he’ll put his trust in Casey for the other backup CB. LB we were supposedly looking at was a youngster from Liverpool which means we’ll ship out Douglas, it remains to be seen if Davis is in Bielsa’s plans as we’ve not really seen him. CDM back up will be Struijk after his performances in the last 3 games, looks like he’s going to be some player. CM/CAM will be Eze or Swift as a playmaker to hopefully take some pressure off of Hernandez so he can be used off the bench next season. WINGER Bielsa likes his wingers and I think he’ll want someone else that will bring more goals and assists to the team, I think the main targets in this area will be Benrahma if Brentford don’t go up and Buendia. ST I believe Bamford will start in the PL and I think he deserves it for all the work he puts in and I’ve heard rumours of Gaich from River Plate and the youngster from Wigan. All young players that would fit our system and if we could get a few of these through the door that would be a good summer.

 

Apparently we have a rising star in the academy who's going to be the real deal.

Now if I could only remember his name...

 

I'm not happy that Carlos has gone to the dogs but maybe it's leaving a space for Pablo?

 

Looks like we have Harrison on another loan Weird one....