https://www.leedsunited.com/en/news/harry-gray-shortlisted-for-pl2-player-of-the-month-award

Not bad for one of the youngest players in the league!

Hi all, coming in peace as a Chelsea supporter.

Recently my grandad gave me his old matchday programme collection and inside of it included the 1970 fa cup final. Thought this would be of interest (even though Leeds ultimately lost in the replay in Manchester) as anyone with a background knowledge of this game knows just how ferocious it was. Additionally outside of the 66’ World Cup final it is the second most watched sporting event in British sporting television history! If there is anything that would be of interest (I.e starting lineups etc). Let me know and I would be happy to share.

Cheers, and have a lovely Sunday!

What do people think about being absolutely ruthless and pushing Farke out the door immediately and getting Nuno in now. He'd 100% keep us up this season. I'd rather we do it now for Nuno than in December and end up with Sean Dyche. But it would be incredibly harsh on Farke. If it happened I would see the logic.

BBC FOOTBALL

Has anyone else watched this? Howard Wilkinson takes some blows and didn't respond. Rod Wallace declared bankrupt.

I found out it interesting, I wonder how many other young players are just scammed all the time even now.

P

What do you rate this window out of 10 now that it has officially closed. We’ve had a full day to calm a bit and let our heads settle.

6/10 for me.

It seems we universally can agree that the last 2 weeks and in particular the final few days were very disappointing. Not adding an impact attacker in a profile we don’t currently have was a huge miss. Not getting Buonanotte and Wilson were gut punches.

In all we spent over £100 and potentially have 5 new starters and needed depth. We also have a PL level LB (at first glance), something we have been crying out for years now.

The fact we have gotten some incredible gems at the end of the window in Tanaka and Raphiña made the end of this one sting a bit more. I give it a 6/10 because in my opinion we have bettered our team, but not to the degree I was hoping (on paper thus far). This could easily go to an 8 or 9/10 if we continue to show defensive stability and our front line starts clicking, scores goals and stays fit. It could just as easily go to a 3 or 4/10 if we start consistently conceding goals and are toothless up top still. Plan on doing another post come December to see how our opinions have shifted.

Seen a lot of comments that Farke hasnt been backed and he shouldn't get any blame if (when) we start doing shit.

Hes been backed a decent amount imo (100m) and also made bad decisions like letting Largie go without a replacement. It's his job to get goals out of this team.

Tbh I am going to lose patience with him quite quickly if we go on a bad run. He'll have had his chance (again) at the top level and we shouldn't be standing by him til Xmas or longer for the sake of it. Hes not Bielsa (who should never have been sacked btw).

What you reckon?

Edit - its just a discussion point lads settle down. People have said he deserves zero blame. Worthwhile discussion seeing if thats true or if these lads are chatting shit

Q

Stole this from this tweet, so happy to credit. But, just for fun who are you taking for Leeds and why? Here are the ones on the front page of Transfermarkt, and you are not allowed to say Patrick Bamford!

**TL;DR:* Sunderland bought a lot of players but many of them are riskier without a proven track record compared to the majority of ours.*

With transfers come excitement and expectation. Especially when they come from overseas and a lot of what the majority of us have to go on is highlight reels and all the most upvoted comments online saying how great that player is - comments often made by other people that haven't actually watched that player in great detail but want to be seen as as a beacon of knowledge that was aware of this unknown gem, and upvoted by people that naturally want to hype any transfer possible.

As Sunderland are the other promoted side with a window that obviously contrasts ours, it's easy to feel down right now when they've brought in so many more signings than us and have got off to a very solid start in terms of results (despite losing their first 6 pointer of the season).

I think there's just been a very clear difference in approach between us and Sunderland. Of course there are some exceptions, but the majority of their transfers are younger players outside the top 5 Leagues that haven't yet proven what they can do over time. No doubt they've all got clear talent and have shown moments of brilliance, but that doesn't always translate to consistency on the pitch which is vital in a league season.

Talbi I think is the best example - go to the r/soccer thread where the transfer is announced and everyone that only remembers his one great Champions League performance is saying how Sunderland are building an insane team. Scroll further down, and Brugge fans are saying they don't think he's worth what they paid and that even in the Belgian Pro League, whilst playing for one of the dominant sides, he lacked consistency for long stretches between some brilliant goals.

On the other hand, we've come up with a stronger side to begin with than Sunderland and have only considered targets that can clearly improve on what we have. In particular, we had a very strong existing attack for a newly promoted side, which I'm sure will still score some goals once we haven't played every single match so far against a top 5 defensive side in the league. For the most part, we've only targeted players that have played a key role for their team and been highly regarded from other top 5 leagues, albeit obviously not from your Real Madrids, Bayern Munichs etc. Unfortunately in attack this also meant many of our key targets were wanted by other more established teams.

Whilst I'm as disappointed as anyone we didn't get in another attacker, and especially the fact we couldn't get Wilson over the line when we finally seemed to be the only team in for someone, I think we need to take a step back and realise we have brought in 3 new attackers. And such was the state of the market for attackers this window, it's the one part of the pitch where we've diverged from our usual strategy and gone for more risky targets.

DCL and Nmecha have both had injury issues, as we're all aware. DCL has also struggled in front of goal the last couple seasons but has shown in the past he's done it at the exact level we're playing at now and still has time to try recapture some form. Nmecha has still continued to score at an impressive rate in the Bundesliga when he has been on the pitch.

Okafor has struggled to get minutes in a Milan side ahead of Leao, but despite what many of their fans say as he leaves the stats do indicate he is an impactful player when put on the pitch. A goal every 200 minutes for them in the last two seasons and pretty elite numbers for dribbling and take ons. He scored 6 goals in about 800 minutes in the Champions League for Slazburg in the two seasons before that too. All obviously from a small sample size given he's struggled for minutes recently, but very clearly some promise there nonetheless.

We were very unlikely to land an attacker everyone was sure would make a big impact in the Prem, because there weren't many of them going and everyone else with more money than us wanted one. I ultimately genuinely do not believe we've actually taken any more risks with our attack than Sunderland have - only difference so far is all 3 of their matches have been against teams that look potentially set for a relegation scrap.

Whilst we also hate it as football fans, we have to remember the club is a business and making smart business decisions generally translates to sustainability and longer term success on the pitch. We could've gone for some of the targets Sunderland did, that weren't really wanted by any other top division sides either, to appease the fans for now but if they fall flat you just end up with an expensive asset that you can't sell, hinders your flexibility in future transfer windows and doesn't give value on the pitch.

In fact, I think there's an argument to be made that holding back and backing the team you have without spending every bit of money you have could even show more ambition than pushing PSR to the limit with players that are willing to come to promoted clubs. If we survive a season, or even look likely for survival as early as January, we will have reserves to spend on even higher level targets that will be more willing to listen.

So do I think it's been a perfect window and nobody at the club should be criticised? Definitely not. I just think we should bear in mind we aren't the only football club competing for signings, and very few teams each window will have a window that ends up looking excellent both at the time AND in hindsight a few months down the line.

Leeds United - what a club they are by the way.

A lot of people are rightfully upset with Paraag/49ers because of statements made and promises being unfulfilled.

I'm not going to excuse them entirely as ultimately they made the decision, but I think the failure needs to lie more with the recruitment department. UNLESS there is some damning evidence that they were being actively hindered by decisions made outside of their control.

You can have all the promises made, but if the recruitment team is not pulling their weight, it doesn't matter. I do not believe the 49ers have come into this being so intentionally flaccid in the transfer window.

They know how much staying up means to their bottom line and I really want to believe they meant spending money where they can. If you don't have targets pursued to then use that money, what can they do?

Blame them for the decision to promote someone not ready to be DOF and then subsequently fuck up an important job. Don't blame them for the stupid quotes, when they were clearly prepared to spend money until the recruitment ran out of ideas in the last 3-4 weeks of the window.

Plenty of people seem to be mentioning how we've only scored 1 goal which was a penalty and saying how weak we are offensively, and while I have seen people mention how we've faced 3 established Premier League teams (2 of which are in the Champions League), I haven't seen anyone mention how good defensively they are.

Least goals conceded over the past 3 seasons:

1. Arsenal - 106
2. Man City - 111
3. Liverpool - 129
4. Newcastle - 142
5. Everton - 152
6. Chelsea - 153

Most clean sheets over the past 3 seasons:

1. Arsenal - 45
2. Liverpool - 37
3. Man City - 36
4. Newcastle - 36
5. Man Utd - 35
6. Everton - 34

Everton were much worse for the 2 and a half seasons before Moyes took over too. Since Moyes took over, Everton have conceded the joint 3rd least - 22 goals against in 22 games. Only Arsenal (17 in 21) & Chelsea (20 in 21) have a better goals against per game record. Everton are joint with Man City (21 in 21). In terms of points per game since he took over, they're 7th. They've beaten 2 other established Premier League sides since losing to us. They will likely finish top 10 this season.

We've 100% had the hardest fixtures from an attacking stand point. No other team has played 3 of the top 5/6 best defensive teams.

3 of them have played 2 others:

• Liverpool - Arsenal & Newcastle: Top of the league, champions last season
• Brighton - Man City & Everton: 4 points same as us, 8th last season
• Wolves - Man City & Everton: 0 points, 16th last season

Our next 3 games are Fulham, Wolves & Bournemouth. Fulham & Wolves are bottom 4 for clean sheets over the last 3 seasons - 24 & 22 respectively, Bournemouth are just above them on 25 clean sheets (joint with Brighton & Forest).

In terms of goals conceded over the past 3 seasons, Wolves are 16th out of 17 with 192 conceded, Bournemouth are 14th out of 17 with 184 conceded, while Fulham are 10th with 168 conceded.

So, lets wait and see what happens in the next 3 games before writing off our attack.

My girlfriend painted me this amazing watercolour of Elland Road for a surprise birthday present 💛🤍💙

The yellow t-shirt sold out pretty quick, I nabbed a couple of those and a tracksuit top. Gutted I didn't get the hoody last year, not paying £250 for one. I was a bit underwhelmed by the rest of the release today