WINDOW - YOUR RATING

oooh… it’s ‘at least’ midtable now

I wonder if Bournemouth fans are expecting top 6 now

 

Exactly. Btw… excellent use of ‘Leeds fans’ and ‘patience’ in the same sentence.

 

Did I say once or twice? Two or three maybe?

 

My own personal view is we've gone all in on Marsche and therefore we have to stick with it now. Staying up is obviously the priority and whilst we may achieve that easily with games to spare on the other hand we may not.

Jesse got us over the line last season and I'm confident he can do the same again, even if it takes until matchday 37 or 38.

 

All jokes aside, I think a lot of the sides around us have strengthened recently. I don’t think we deserve to be where we are, sides like forest have ridden their luck and we’ve shot ourselves in the foot.

But, given where we are currently, I think it could be a nervous few months. 3 points on Sunday would be good start. The florists are on a good run at home though so it won’t be easy.

 

Get your knees jerking Jamster! Spend £50 million or whatever and say to the manager, you’ve got one game to make this work - that’s got stability written all over it

 

Last time I checked we've still got half a season to play.

Don't panic as Corporal Jones used to say.

 

Marsch kept us up last season. We were in a far worse situation than now. We’re getting battered in nearly every game, half a squad injured and a subs bench full of kids that ultimately didn’t make it. He now has a full squad to pick from and one that is a long way ahead of last seasons. Won’t make any sense if Marsch can’t repeat his heroics

 

I only allow frustrations to spill in here, but a defeat to Forest, and fans at the ground and on social media will be impossible to get away from. It doesn’t mean I don’t agree with you, I’m just stating the way I see it going

Hopefully we’ll beat Forest and we’ll never know

 

Jack Harrison’s appearance at Accrington Stanley on Saturday left everyone watching him reading between the lines.

There was no celebration when he buried the first goal in Leeds United’s 3-1 FA Cup win, just a deadpan reaction to a classy strike. There was a smile, a chat and an embrace with Jesse Marsch when he was substituted in the second half, more affection than a head coach usually shows in the heat of battle. Was Harrison staying or was he going? Did any of this mean anything?

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After full-time, Harrison emerged from the tunnel to be interviewed by LUTV, Leeds’ in-house TV station. He looked content and relaxed as he completed the sort of media duties players prefer to dodge when their future is in doubt. But even as he wrapped up the conversation and climbed onto the team bus, all bets were off. Leeds might keep him. Leicester City might sign him. Nobody with skin in the game was willing to predict how the January window would end for him.

It closed on Tuesday with Harrison a Leeds player, retained after a week which came close to producing a different outcome. Much of the saga around him played out privately, never quite offering a precise picture of what the various people involved wanted. But up until the last hour before the deadline, a deal with Leicester was still being mooted.

On Tuesday evening, Harrison actually made the trip to Leicester’s training ground, pre-empting the possibility that he could be sold at the last minute. City got a medical going. Then, with the clock counting down, Leeds reached the decision to keep him and the prospect of him leaving finally died a death.

Leicester had taken a shine to Harrison in previous windows but, as this January went on, they were made to feel like capturing him was more achievable than it had been in the past. They wanted wingers — among their targets was the Brazilian Tete, who joined them from Shakhtar Donetsk on Sunday — and they were set on Harrison if Leeds were willing to accept a fee of £20million ($25m). An approach was made club-to-club late last week in the build-up to Leeds’ match with Accrington Stanley, but Harrison started that match regardless. His appearance was symptomatic of the fact that Leeds were undecided about their next move.



Harrison is a prominent player at Elland Road, an established face since Leeds first signed him on loan from Manchester City in 2018. He has close to 200 league appearances for the club and has built a reputation as a dependable and solid Premier League footballer: committed, rarely injured and, for all that his form can ebb and flow, a source of goals and assists.

His contract, though, ends in 18 months and by the end of last weekend, when Leeds finalised the loan signing of Weston McKennie from Juventus, the club had effectively committed to £70million-worth of first-team players in January. Though McKennie’s deal is temporary initially, a £30million option is due to be activated at the end of the season, provided Leeds are not relegated.

Selling Harrison, then, was a means of balancing the books and offsetting some of the expenditure on incoming transfers at Elland Road. At £20million, Leeds would have turned a profit on the £11million paid to buy him from City in 2021. Those discussions played out for several days at boardroom level, where so much is now connected to the planned sale of the club by chairman Andrea Radrizzani to minority shareholder 49ers Enterprises.

Though Leeds did not jump on Leicester’s approach, and though Marsch said twice last week that he wanted Harrison to say put, they did not knock it back with any haste. Only as the window drew to a close did the club categorically indicate that he would not be sold. Harrison had journeyed south by then, in case a deal was struck at the death.

Harrison, for his part, was not agitating for a transfer or actively stating a desire to depart. By Tuesday, he was simply philosophical in realising that if Leeds wanted to cash in on him, it made sense to take up an offer elsewhere.

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Jack Harrison was not pushing for a move from Leeds (Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Joining Leicester would have meant a pay rise via a substantial contract, potentially as long as five and a half years. Their pay structure is higher than that at Elland Road. But, like Leeds, they are experiencing a hard season in the Premier League. Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers spoke recently about his side being in a relegation fight. That fact also weighed on United — the question of whether it was prudent to sell to a club so close to them in the table.

When Marsch was asked about Harrison after Leeds’ win at the weekend, he said his perception of the winger was that he wasn’t “itching to leave”. Director of football Victor Orta recruited Harrison from City in the first place and advised the club to keep him. Harrison had been influential for some time and was still relatively young at 26. He had made Gareth Southgate’s provisional Englandsquad for the World Cup, without actually making it to the finals. He had started all but four of Leeds’ Premier League fixtures this season, despite the wide array of attacking talent on offer to Marsch.

Last summer, when Newcastle United made moves to sign Harrison, Leeds fended them off by placing a price tag of £40million on him. Radrizzani told The Athletic, in advance of the window closing, that Harrison was essentially off limits, too good to lose. But six months have passed since then and Harrison’s dwindling contract has inevitably lowered his value.

Leeds plan to hold talks about a new deal with him in the weeks ahead and hope that Harrison is open to accepting improved terms and staying beyond his present contract. The reality of football finance is such that if an extension cannot be reached, more consideration would have to be given to selling him when this season finishes, at which point his deal would be only a year away from expiry. He has developed too well for Leeds to allow a scenario where Harrison leaves on a free transfer.

Leicester were aiming to acquire two wingers before the January deadline. Rodgers likes to say that competition in a squad is the game’s greatest coach and, in Tete and Harrison, he was targeting left-footers who could play wide on the right and cut in off that flank. Tete’s move from Shakhtar went through without a hitch but, when the crunch came on Tuesday evening, Leeds thought twice and resisted Leicester’s offer for Harrison.

City felt from Tuesday morning onwards that the deadline was most likely to pass with Harrison remaining at Elland Road — the process had become too complicated to unravel itself in time. With Tete on board, all that was left was for them to loan out Marc Albrighton to West Bromwich Albion and Ayoze Perez to Real Betis. Albrighton had played infrequently under Rodgers this season and wanted more game time but the transfer, nonetheless, reduced bodies in an area where Rodgers hoped to strengthen more heavily. Another reinforcement was not forthcomingand ideally, they would have kept Albrighton.

Harrison is training as usual with Leeds this week and will be in contention for Sunday’s league game at Nottingham Forest. Marsch was as unequivocal as he could be about wanting to keep the winger, his importance to the dressing room, and that it was not the American’s intention for the hug between them on the touchline at Accrington to be the equivalent of a goodbye.

When the time came to put up or shut up, Leeds felt the same — resolving to reject Leicester’s approach and focus on a contract extension instead. For Harrison, it was the archetypal deadline-day experience: a late scramble and a transfer that never was.

(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

 

I should have said, lose to Forest and you’d be very brave to bet against us losing the next two.

I agree he will have more than one game but lose it and with those games against Man U it’s extremely likely we’ll be in the drop zone and no wins in 8

 

I know mate and, more than anything I was teasing because you can’t contain your dislike of Marsch.

In an ideal world, we would have an expected WLWDW set of fixtures coming up while the new faces bed in but, the reality is, it could be LLLhope, hope. That would make the picture very dark I know but, we only need to equal or better 3 of those around us to scrape it between now and the end of the season.

I am utterly convinced, if we stay up this season, we are set for years to come to be stable in the Premier League. If we don’t we’ll probably bounce back anyway but it would be a setback for sure.

That’s why I want an FA Cup win. One mad day at Wembley or with your footie mates anywhere, or in Leeds without a ticket just for the hell of it.

I’m sure no one on here ever regrets being a Leeds fan, it is wonderful but we’ve all paid a price. I’m 55 and can’t remember watching the 72 Cup Final, I want one, something big, something final in itself. I was at the Villa final and we were so, so poor. I’ve seen us win the league and thought I could die happy but that’s not quite it and I probably won’t again because the world is mad, money men could buy Barnsley and win the Champions League.

 

Same age as me mate and can’t argue or disagree with any of this.

I’ve give up trying to contain my dislike for Marsch, I did try briefly, honestly

 

a lot

 

Similar ages, but I do recall the 72 cup final. Sadly the 73 one too. And I was traumatised by the 75 European cup final.

BTW, Risty did an outstanding job on his ‘day off’ from marsch bashing the other week.

 

Not an age off thing because I don’t know when you were born but I am only just 55. I would only have been four and a half and genuinely can’t remember watching it live, even if I did. Watched it through many times since - it was more of a background perspective to my thoughts now

 

It’s ok Narcos… the ganja does terrible things to memory I wasn’t criticising your prowess as a Leeds fan based on childhood memories though.

It was more really to point out that I’m lucky enough to remember it live. One of my first childhood memories. So, instead of ‘never experiencing’ - it all just adds to the nostalgic sense of loss from growing up with a side that was all-conquering.

Personally, I feel the FA cup is done as a competition. Sadly the final has gone from being a must-see sporting calendar highlight to something I haven’t watched or taken any interest in in years. Maybe the boys can make me feel different about it this year.

 

Last few posts explain a lot. I’ve often wondered why I’m one of the few on here that make sense but just realised you’re all mere kiddies

 

we’ll be great posters when our balls drop