Leeds United

[OutByEaster?]

I think realistically a team that wants to be promoted from the Championship has to look at risking making a loss of £50m - it's the only way to go up.

I think we'll get to a point where the bigger teams in the Championship only get to really push for promotion once it every four years.

[Villaphan04]

24 minutes ago, Rino8 said:

He'd be terrible value for money for whoever bought him.

Realistically as a DM if he wasn't English and a local lad he costs what... 30-40 million?

Since we don't need to sell and he is English he probably goes for 60+ and then in that case just go buy a foreign player who can do the same job for a 5th of the price.

I don't think there's a top team that would be interested at all, holding midfielders are everywhere these days and he wouldn't be worth the price. Guess that's the good thing about the stupid money in the league these days, not much need to be a selling club anymore.

 

could say the exact same about Declan Rice too. English tax + PL premiums especially after the covid -hit financial year

[Villaphan04]

14 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think realistically a team that wants to be promoted from the Championship has to look at risking making a loss of £50m - it's the only way to go up.

I think we'll get to a point where the bigger teams in the Championship only get to really push for promotion once it every four years.

I wonder whether we will see more of the dual club ownership models like with Reading and Barnsley -- where they can just "buy/loan" their players to the other clubs and help with the financial (ffp if it sticks around) side of the Championship. 

[Rds1983]

7 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think realistically a team that wants to be promoted from the Championship has to look at risking making a loss of £50m - it's the only way to go up.

I think we'll get to a point where the bigger teams in the Championship only get to really push for promotion once it every four years.

I still think the Premier League is going to basically become a closed shop for promotion from the Championship with the same few clubs going up and back down again due to the financial disparity between the leagues. The current table has it already starting to go this way with 5 of the top 8 and both the top 2 recently in the Premier League. Clubs like Norwich and Watford no longer need to sell their best players on the cheap when they go down. 

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, Rds1983 said:

I still think the Premier League is going to basically become a closed shop for promotion from the Championship with the same few clubs going up and back down again due to the financial disparity between the leagues. The current table has it already starting to go this way with 5 of the top 8 and both the top 2 recently in the Premier League. Clubs like Norwich and Watford no longer need to sell their best players on the cheap when they go down. 

Thats why it was vital we came up when we did. We would have become the next forest

[MaVilla]

i dislike Leeds, however no denying they have done brilliantly this year.

First year back, 100m spent which i dont think is a super huge amount considering where they are in the table currently, 42 points after 30 games, cant really knock their performance this year.

Funny that Sheff Utd did it last year and Leeds this year in terms of really impressive performance in their first year back.

 

Really dont like em though....

[villalad21]

Their next 3 games are City, Liverpool and United.

Can see them go on some heavy defeats in there.

[Rino8]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Their next 3 games are City, Liverpool and United.

Can see them go on some heavy defeats in there.

I'm pretty excited for these, we've reached a point in our season where we're basically playing for a few league positions and it doesn't really matter.

For the first time since November we have almost no injuries, no Ayling at CB, no Struijk or Shackleton at DM where a lot of these heavy defeats have come from.

We might lose all 3 but it'll be a better indication of where this first 11 is and what needs to be changed for us to get closer next year

[jacketspuds]

I've been impressed by Leeds this season, but I struggle to watch them because of the total exaggeration from the commentators when they do anything in a match. You would think that everyone expected Leeds to lose all 38 games and Bielsa is working his magic with a bunch of 60-year old women.

[DCJonah]

15 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

I've been impressed by Leeds this season, but I struggle to watch them because of the total exaggeration from the commentators when they do anything in a match. You would think that everyone expected Leeds to lose all 38 games and Bielsa is working his magic with a bunch of 60-year old women.

I'm the same, the media overreaction and their social media using fans, have really made me turn away from watching them

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

I think Leeds this summer were actually in a better place than we were. They had a good team that had played together for 2 seasons. They just needed to add to that and did so with 20-30 million pound players. Most of them Internationals. Rafinha was a fantastic signing.  Villa on the other hand got promoted with 2 players that were good enough for the first team. Smith has had to build a first 11, keep them up and then could attempt to improve them further.  
 

So whilst I think Bielsa has done a superb job. I think the job Smith had was a lot more difficult. 

[villa4europe]

34 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think Leeds this summer were actually in a better place than we were. They had a good team that had played together for 2 seasons. They just needed to add to that and did so with 20-30 million pound players. Most of them Internationals. Rafinha was a fantastic signing.  Villa on the other hand got promoted with 2 players that were good enough for the first team. Smith has had to build a first 11, keep them up and then could attempt to improve them further.  
 

So whilst I think Bielsa has done a superb job. I think the job Smith had was a lot more difficult. 

Unless you're fifa who think Bielsa has done a world class job because he's done what Steve Evans couldn't do 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

I've only watched Leeds twice this season, but actually I was watching Villa.

Surprisingly they are having a good season, they won't be a surprise package next season.

[Keyblade]

12 hours ago, DCJonah said:

I'm the same, the media overreaction and their social media using fans, have really made me turn away from watching them

 

That first game of the season set the tone. How could anyone play like that against the mighty champions??? Turns out they weren't so mighty after all, but the ball was already rolling for the Leeds narrative. It's a shame because they're fun to watch on mute.

[DCJonah]

12 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think Leeds this summer were actually in a better place than we were. They had a good team that had played together for 2 seasons. They just needed to add to that and did so with 20-30 million pound players. Most of them Internationals. Rafinha was a fantastic signing.  Villa on the other hand got promoted with 2 players that were good enough for the first team. Smith has had to build a first 11, keep them up and then could attempt to improve them further.  
 

So whilst I think Bielsa has done a superb job. I think the job Smith had was a lot more difficult. 

Have to agree. 

[YouUnastanFren]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

It's a shame because they're fun to watch on mute.

That's exactly how I watch them. Tbh, that's the case for most games now. Counting down the days until Amazon's alternative audio for their streams goes back to being just stadium noise with no commentary rather than having to hear the commentary and just choosing whether or not to have fake stadium noises added.

[villalad21]

14 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think Leeds this summer were actually in a better place than we were. They had a good team that had played together for 2 seasons. They just needed to add to that and did so with 20-30 million pound players. Most of them Internationals. Rafinha was a fantastic signing.  Villa on the other hand got promoted with 2 players that were good enough for the first team. Smith has had to build a first 11, keep them up and then could attempt to improve them further.  
 

So whilst I think Bielsa has done a superb job. I think the job Smith had was a lot more difficult. 

Good team? Are you kidding me?

Most of those players were a bunch of nobodys, average championship players and still would be had not Bielsa arrived.

When i look at Leeds squad i see a bang average squad of players that are massively overachieving.

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Good team? Are you kidding me?

Most of those players were a bunch of nobodys, average championship players and still would be had not Bielsa arrived.

When i look at Leeds squad i see a bang average squad of players that are massively overachieving.

Well I guess as a Leeds fan you are better placed to comment so i can’t really argue with that. Other Leeds fans I know agree that they had a good team. Not great players but a good team. Obviously Biesla deserves a lot of credit for creating that team over two seasons in the Championship.  I accept a lot of those players he inherited too and improved them. 

[Demitri_C]

Leeds have to just ensure they dont do a sheffield united next year.

I think bielsa will struggle to bettee this year. If i was him i would jump ship if a bigger club comes in for them. I think arsenal would be a good fit for biesla if they get rid of arteta

[Vive_La_Villa]

16 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Leeds have to just ensure they dont do a sheffield united next year.

I think bielsa will struggle to bettee this year. If i was him i would jump ship if a bigger club comes in for them. I think arsenal would be a good fit for biesla if they get rid of arteta

They won’t do a Sheffield United because they have good players and actually create a lot of chances every game. Sheffield United were just about staying solid and grinding out results. Was never going to be sustainable. Leeds will be fine. Especially if any new signings are as good as the summer ones.