Good Morning. It's Friday 3rd November, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds slap £30m asking price on loan star Everton have been dealt a major blow in their pursuit to turn Jack Harrison's loan move permanent, after recent media reports suggest that Leeds have told Everton they want £30m for the 26yo. He arrived at Goodison Park mid August, but has only recently regained his fitness following the hip injury that kept him sidelined all Summer. His return to action has coincided with an impressive upturn in the Toffee's form, winning three from their last five, during which time the winger has leapt up to third place in their 'Whoscored' ratings. Leeds bought Harrison from Manchester City for £11m in the Summer of 2021, but had spent £9m in loan fee's from the three previous seasons. He is contracted at Leeds until the Summer of 2028. Bearing this in mind, is £30m enough? please log in to view this image Startling figures regarding player sales revealed Although the Jack Harrison deal would represent a healthy nett profit of £10m, it's startling to recall how few players at Elland Road have even generated a fee in recent times. Preceding their 22/23 campaign, the Whites generated £100m, thanks mainly to the sales of Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips, but you have to go all the way back to 2019 to find the last time Leeds generated any income whatsoever (Jack Clarke, Pontus Jansson, Kemar Roofe, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Samu Saiz, Pawel Cibicki, Tom Pearce and Aapo Halme - total £26m)! It means, when Leeds unearth a gem, like Gnonto or Summerville, they need to be generating substantial income to make it worth. Even the Thorp Arch academy are not living up to expectation. When you look at the likes of Leif Davis, Mateusz Bogusz, Sam Greenwood, Joe Gelhardt, Cody Drameh, Lewis Bate, Leo Hjelde - the truth is, Leeds have / will be lucky to break-even. please log in to view this image Gnonto wants out Italian sporting news outlet calciomercato.com are reporting that Wilfred Gnonto has asked his agent to find him a new club, in preparation for the January transfer window. The Italian International is out of form; his frustration of having to play in the Championship is compounded by the fact that he isn't even first choice in Daniel Farke's line-up. He came close to joining Everton in the Summer, but Leeds held firm. It is rumoured that Gnonto is pushing for a move to Serie A, where Lazio are waiting patiently in the wings to try and grab themselves a bargain. We are led to believe Leeds want around £20m, which sounds cheap when you consider he's still only 19yo, and a full Italian International. We also must remember that he has a 'substantial sell on fee, likely to be between 20%-25%. Lazio don't even want to pay £20m and want to negotiate the price down! Do Leeds have a closing down sale sign pinned up at Elland Road? Call me paranoid, but doesn't it seem that clubs believe they can get a bargain from Leeds Utd? please log in to view this image
It’s like we don’t have anyone who knows how to negotiate. Perhaps we can put a call into the Brighton and Brentford board for advice on getting top dollar for our sales
Morning all. Doesn’t really bother me anymore what prices we get. Clubs like Southampton had a policy of selling their best but it will eventually catch up With you. Only takes one poor season of incomings and relegation looms. Makes no difference to me personally if we get 20 or 30m, it’s the quality of the replacements that count.
It does matter. If we fall foul to FFP then we will soon find our way back to 15th place finishes in the Championship or even worse point deductions like Derby.
Gnonto isn’t having a great time of it, at the moment. So it hardly surprising that click bait sites (and I include mainstream media in that description) are doing the rounds with the story he wants to return to Italy. He may well do at some point. But I’m guessing it’s more likely some bored journalist having a punt. Some on here were hanging “Jimmy” in the summer for the supposed disruption he was causing. We now find he was committed to stay. I just think many fans are quick to point fingers. Gnonto May leave in January or in the summer, and I lost a fair bit of respect for him for the summer fiasco he caused. However whatever the circumstances, let’s judge the lad purely on football performances - which so far hasn’t been great. If he goes perhaps he’s not much of a loss, but equally let’s support him, whilst he’s here. Form is temporary, both good and bad.
Evening all We’ll have to get used to the rumours all over again just like we did at the start of the season. Difference this time is we have no more shock loan activations, we dictate who can leave, we dictate the price, Summerville has turned down lowly placed PL teams so there is no reason he’d ask to join them in January
That looks to be more or less our strongest eleven tonight. Should be a good indicator what level we’re at
Table suggests third overall from start of season gut given all the early upheaval, I’d safely say there’s no one better than us now. If only we could stay here. It’s so damn enjoyable
We're not consistent enough to be labelled the best side in the division. For every Norwich, Leicester, Watford and Ipswich performance there is a Birmingham, Stoke, Southampton and Sheff Wed performance. When Leicester have an off night they usually find a way to scrape a win. When we have an off night we usually lose. We are a very young side and experience will come but for now we are probably the most talented squad but not necessarily the side who will go up.
After giving the subject very serious consideration I have decided to give Birmingham City my whole hearted support
