Leeds United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2024/25

And now Raphinha potentially off to MU. Transfer window ain't improving.

As of late last year Barca still owed us £33m for Raphinha. Hopefully the next transfer, wherever he goes, will get that sorted.

Apparently there were a few bad eggs that all raised there heads after the QPR game.

All not well behind closed doors, with players. Club is far from stable internally by the sounds of it.

All rumour of course but we all get the feeling something big is going on. From the run to the end of last season, the high profile transfers, through to the performances of some players.

Cree, Gnonto, Kamara ring leaders and Rutter mixed up in it.

Cree had a bust up with the team and basically said he was the only one performing and was dragging the team along on his own. Gnonto wouldn't follow instructions of coaching staff.

Hard to see anything other than a comfortable Baggies win unfortunately. SeemS like a **** show behind the scenes has affected confidence of those left on the pitch.

We went on that unbeaten run after Christmas because of Rutter, Gray and Summerville.

Who do we have to run from midfield now?

A 2:0 battering if we are lucky today.

In the space of two weeks we have turned into Birmingham City. It's going to be a long season.

We are so poor, no attacking flair of any kind, mid table team at best with current squad.

If a neutral was looking at that game, he would think Struijk was our main striker.

Bloody hell, that team is worse than before Bielsa took over.

At least we held them out.

Sheffield Wednesday are miles ahead of WBA so expect a REALLY tough game on Friday.

Saying 'this lot' is unfair I think. We can't blame the match-day squad, some of whom would expect to be on the bench or in the reserves for much of the season. They entered pre-season with the four players we've lost and had those guys not been transferred we'd have the best team in the division. Any issues lie with the owners not sorting things out. The playoff final was eleven weeks ago and there's no justification for not getting players in. Even if we get a few by the end of the month we'll be lagging behind as were were last season and it's another uphill battle to get promoted.

Not in the interests of the 49ers or Red Bull for us to languish in the Championship so why have the been so crap?

I'd like to think we setup to contain them which seemed to work because we gave them the ball back the whole time.

Can see how limited we are going forward. it's so bad that even when we have the ball I'm looking at whos syaying back and their positioning rather than who's showing for it because im anticipating it will get turned over and we will be caught if too many push on.

I think we need 2 starters for James and piroe at the very least to get us to January I think.

Any point in Struijk in as DM and ampadu drop to CB with Rodon? Rodon seems to play better with Ampadu.

Farke was actually saying it was previous boards deals that has current boards hands tied to a degree and they will have to make contracts more water tight in future. So orta and radz also deserve criticism here.

I will go with farkes opinion on this one. How could the club have predicted somebody would come in at last minute with 40m release clause. He was bought for 35m and obviously orta agreed to have this in contract just to get him. It was short sighted and we seeing the consequences for all these clauses for last few transfer windows. Farke actually said he didnt want to talk about players contracts as it would alert other clubs to the dire situation.

"I don't speak about other contracts and I don't want to make other clubs aware of it but the situation 12 months ago was really difficult," he said. "There was a clause in more or less every contract. We have completely changed the philosophy."

Do you have a source for a Farke quote directly criticising Orta and Radz? And are you suggesting that the four players leaving without replacements plus poor pre-season preparation is some responsibility of theirs? 15 months after their departure. Seriously?

Why do you always go for the same targets irrespective of logic? Some people just need an enemy or scapegoat I guess. Not long til Bamford is responsible for the lack of purchases.

GoIng to enjoy following our departures to the PL to see how they get on. Ruttèr going to be exciting for BHA with Mitoma

Same here. I think Rutter has best chance to succeed with a team like Brighton. I think Gray has made a mistake going to Spurs. Feel he needed another year or 2 to develop at Leeds. Could end up another Jack Clarke. Not sure I see Archie getting much game time this year. Summerville will only be a bit part player with West Ham. Can see him ending on up on loan next year with a newly promoted side

No emotion. Just facts. Where’s the direct Farke criticism you claim? At the press conference he was effusive in his praise for both Orta and Radz (as per the piece below) but that doesn’t suit your scapegoating narrative. You whinged your way through 2023/24. I’m not expecting any great change.
I instead want to support the team.

Mod Edit: warning applied

Whinge, its all you do when people dont agree with you, laughable and sad for an old man to be like that. Have a drink tonight, twil relax you. Its all emotion with you and your little digs about Bamford at end of your previous post. Your like a wound up teenager. Did you even read past the headline? Farke said he doesn't want to talk about previous board as they were trying to stay in pl but they had lots of clauses in contracts that meant leeds were not in the driving seat which this board won't be doing. If you can't read between the lines and the quote above, i can t help you. Read the below from your article. You are wrong once again to try absolve orta and radz from this mess. But as per usual you will deflect insult the poster and never admit you are incorrect. Last season you were claiming all these contract clauses were normal. You know more then farke and the Leeds board and journalists like phil hay. You are wasted on boards, you should be running contracts at Madrid.

don't speak about other clauses. The situation 12 months ago was really, really difficult because just about every contract had a clause like this. I don't want to blame anyone of the past because relegation battles can apply pressure to people. In the future, we will, just keep ourselves in the driving seat wth contract.

If it means quality players do not come without a clause, then they don't come. We don't want this in the future. The more contracts running our or terminated and those coming in well make this less and less

Normal for the players to wonder what is going on. Right now, we still have a really good squad, but we need to rebuild on some key positions. We know we are not there with the strength anymore as big favourite. It's true what Paraag said: I feel backed, he is responsible for bringing good commercial deals like Red Bull. Changed our philosophy on running this club. There will not be crazy clauses like this in the future.

He is totally respectful of contracts and the legal point of view. He is the first one to fight to do everything in the last days to convince Georgi. Open secret we have rejected offers of big money for other players from us. He said no, we don't want the money, we want the best squad, but the clause ties his hands.

14:40Beren Cross

How aware of this were you?

I wasn't when I arrived one year ago, but then we looked at the details of the contracts and I was aware of it. We could not predict someone would activate a released clause. A proper sum of money. Due to the work Georgi has done over the past 12 months to create value of him.

Wanted to keep him and tried everything, but a contract is a contract and you must stick to what was signed in the past.

I am not a believer in contracts when the club is not in the driving seat. Nowadays we have to pay for sins of the past. We were under financial pressure at the start of last season and right now, due to not being promoted and in line with financial rules of fair play. We had to do something in the market. Did this at the beginning. This is not a topic anymore. This club is in line with all of the financial rules. We have paid for this sin, but the reality is the past saw some contracts, clauses. You cannot press a button and change this.

Mod Edit: warning applied

Purely personal opinion.

In terms of letting lads go:

I think after Archie was sold we were in good shape with regards meeting debt targets and regs for next year. He's a talent but still only 18, anything could happen, I think the club for clubs sake made the right decision for both parties. No one bigger than spurs were going to take a 40m punt.

I think the board let Kamara and Summerville go because things were not good within the squad due to their personalities. I never got the impression that Kamara was bothered with playing for the club/team/shirt. There was something about summerville, while brilliant, that gave me the feeling he was invested but in himself. The constant cuts inside to take his trademark shot on no matter who was in space in the box and THAT penalty.

Rutter had a clause in his contract, he had a career decision to make, he did what every player in his position would have done after seeing our transfer window to date. We are not getting promoted this season, even if summervile and archie stayed after January.

Clubs do peak and trough, highs and lows, there's a standard deviation, however Leeds seem to swing in the extremes. Fantastic highs to utter dirt. Promotion and premier league excitement to premier league disaster and godly manager sacking. Bielsa to March. Championship christmas runs to push top spots, to flat finals. This time its promising preseasons and okay transfer windows to selling three big players with no replacements with less than 2 weeks left and two points when rivals get off to a flyer.

To be honest, I think the 49rs are probably the most experienced owners of huge sporting business a championship side would ever attract. It just remains to be seen if they are invested for footballing success or to flip a quick hundred million.

Agreed. If it's money the 49ers are after then they'll get a hell of a lot more from Red Bull if we're in the PL. Players will also sell for more if we're in the top division and we could have held off one or two of the big sales to help get us there. This Summer's planning doesn't seem designed with any ambition in mind and you've got to assume that morale amongst the players and coaching staff can't be good right now.