I can understand a lot of people's frustration at Leeds' lack of activity in the transfer market. There could be a number of reasons for it: Bates' tight-fistedness with transfer fees, difficulty luring players to the club, inability to meet wage demands, it could be anything. A lot of people are getting angry and upset by this, with many people seemingly writing us off before we've even played our pre-season games. But people seem to be forgetting two things: 1) The season doesn't start for another 6 weeks and the transfer window will stay open til the end of September, so there's no rush. 2) There is still plenty of quality within our squad already. Despite plenty of interest in both Snodgrass and Gradel, I really can't see either of them leaving, and those two along with Howson, Becchio, Nunez, Somma and McCormack (I know) means we will still have that attacking force that got us so many goals last season, and with Clayton coming back after some quality time on loan, we'll have at least one decent addition to this front line. Despite so many complaints about our defence, I'm also optimistic about that. We've already been given a huge boost with Kisnorbo coming back from injury. He'll no doubt be working hard in training and we can use pre-season to help him get some match fitness. We've got Lees coming back from a decent loan spell and we've signed some very promising young talent in the form of Gimpel and the Turner twins. As for our full backs, I'm confident that Connolly can do a job down the right and with a bit of extra training, I think Parker could be pretty good too. I'm now going to make myself unbelievably unpopular, but I also think we should give Bessone a second chance. Yes he was bad for us but he has said that he wasn't happy with any of his performances and has had a great spell at Charlton to help regain the confidence he lost from it, and after letting us down so badly, he'll be eager to prove himself. However, don't think I'm not bothered about transfers. We need another goalkeeper, because one will not be enough, a couple of defenders to boost the depth of the squad, and I'd love to see a couple of decent DM's to replace Johnson and Kilkenny. I know that there will be a LOT of people who will disagree with me, but I'm just trying to look on the bright side. MOT
Try telling Grayson that. Most of the talent you're talking about didn't get a look in under him and was sent out on loan with worse players coming in on loan. Do you really expect him to change after two and a half years?
SixFootFive, Agree on most points you've mentioned,nice to see some positivity for once. Transfer window doesn't even open till friday. Just looks worse than it is at the moment because of the outgoings but we've replaced Kasper with Rachubka who is as good if not better,& he's supposedly been signed as a back up keeper,so that's a positive for a start. Also BJ going is to my mind also a positive,he'll be replaced by better,no problem. At the end of the day though you only reap the benefits of a large quality squad by rotating the players within that squad,& sadly SG seemed reluctant to do that. It was obvious towards the end of last season certain players would have benefitted from the occasional rest during the season,Snoddy for example. So its not so much the personnel within the squad that concerns me,it how that squad is used,& apart from his sometimes dodgy signings & strange team selections,its another area where I feel Grayson must improve. I hope he does.
omg, someone is actually looking on the bright side for once.. but yea i actually massively agree with you that our defence is stronger than last season, im sensing that lees will be brought into the fold this season and at the moment we have 3 positions that in my mind need filling (GK, LB and DM). but theres still plenty of time, although i dont agree with you about bessone starting i think he he could be backup, he was part of a very good defence at swansea
I can only see one player in his list that Larry didn't give a chance and that's a player in his first year of European football who Larry signed.
It would be nice to see some of our better youth players break into the 1st team this coming season...by all accounts Lees did well at Bury last year so a good season of 1st team experience under his belt could see him knocking on the door
If Grayson does adopt more of a fair rotation policy over picking favourites then we should be able to build a younger squad and not be in the false economy of using journeymen and loans to bolster the squad. A good mix of experience and youth and we've got a good platform for a run of decent football without burning out the same 13/14 players. Liking the positivity, makes a change!
I heard a rumour that Rachubka wasn't given a proper medical before he was signed and he has ligament issues in his legs
So you heard something that makes Grayson look bad, yet you still post it on here and insist he's a good manager?
I know it's probably a load of rubbish. A friend of mine reckons he heard it from a bloke who was claiming to be a doctor at Elland Road.
I fail to see how a club wouldn't manage to give a player a proper medical before signing. Just smacks of your typical anorak's rumour, you've got the kernel of truth and then you embellish it while half-pissed to make Grayson/Bates look bad. Not saying your mates are all liars Marko.
