The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Thursday 11th April)

Good Morning. It's Thursday 11th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road

End of a dynasty as Dallas retires

Stuart Dallas has announced his retirement for professional football at the age of 32.

He has not played a single minute of football since fracturing his femur during the 4-0 loss to Manchester City two years ago. He came off worse when valiantly trying to nobble Jack Grealish, and was immediately carried off to a waiting ambulance.

Seven operations later, and subsequent knee damage, the loveable utility man has been forced to hang up his boots. He was an instrumental part of Bielsa's set-up, and a respected member of the Leeds Utd dressing room, and will be sorely missed by the Elland Road faithful.

Whether we see him make a cameo role against Southampton on the last game of the season seems unlikely, however much we would like to see him reach his 250th Leeds appearance!

“All along I never lost hope (of making a comeback) but more and more over the last few months, I’ve realised it was going to be really difficult. My body just won’t get back to doing what I need to do at an elite level.

“I’ve got to deal with that and accept it. Mentally, I’m totally fine. I’m at peace with it. I’m gutted but there are people in far worse positions than me. I’m fortunate to have had the career I’ve had.”

“I knew (how serious the damage was) from the first minute I did the injury. I was concerned then, of course I was. Everybody was. “To be here now (to the extent that Dallas has recovered) — we’ve won, and that describes how serious the injury was.

“I got back on the pitch, I was moving around and doing well but I just needed more. I’ve had setbacks and two infections in there. I’ve been to surgery so many times, I think seven times. I’ve been to theatre about 10 times. That itself tells its own story.

“I said to the physios that the reward was to get back on the pitch for them. The reward changed to being fit and healthy after football. I’m not fit to get to the level I need to be at. I can’t physically get to it. I don’t believe that if I was younger that I’d come back with this. The injury’s been so serious.”

“I played (the tackle on Grealish) over and over in my head but that only eats you up. Don’t get me wrong, there are days when you do think about it but you have to master your own mind.

“By no means am I a psychologist and I didn’t feel the need to speak to a psychologist through the whole process. I’ve been strong enough in my own mind not to let myself slip into that.

“I get that the whole mental side of things is rife in the game, I understand that and I get that other people aren’t fortunate enough to be able to do this. I just felt I couldn’t let myself fall into that hole. I’ve got a wife and three kids who mean more to me than anything. I couldn’t be dragged into that.”

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Tractor boys return to second after goalless draw

Ipswich Town were held to a goalless draw against Watford at Portman Road last night!

The Tractor boys enjoyed the lions share of the opportunities, but could not break down a stubborn hornets defence, intent on defending their goalmouth in numbers.

Ipswich are the division's leading goalscorers, having found the back of the net 84 times this season so far. It is only the sixth time this season they have failed to win at home, such has been their dominance at home.

It's good news for Leeds fans, who, after their goalless draw against Sunderland
were expecting their promotion rivals to go three points clear of the Whites. Kieran McKenna's side may be a point ahead of Leeds, but with four games remaining, it's still all to play for!

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Leeds announce overall losses of £33.7m

Leeds have posted overall losses of £33.7m from their 2022-23 financial year, despite a record turnover of £189.6m, and £73m in transfer fees.

Astonishingly, Leeds spent almost £10m on sacking Managers, but blame soaring administrative costs and increased payers wage bills for their glutinous spending, but remain within the FFP loss perimeters laid out by both the Premier League and the Championship.

The annual wage bill at Elland Road jumped from £121 million to £145 million, with their operating loss rising by £71 million from 2021-22. Gate receipts for the 2022-23 year jumped £5 million to £29 million but TV and broadcasting income fell slightly to £17.4 million while merchandise income and central distributions also saw small drops.

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Morning all. All three top teams failed to score midweek, and they expect to survive in the pl

 

Even the best teams can't score every week Eire!!

 

Good morning everyone
Has their ever their has been a more loyal servant to our club in recent years than Stuart Dallas, probably not, i thank him personally for everything he has done for Leeds Utd. I also possibly speak for everyone connected to football, to wish him well for now and for whatever he will do in the future.
Last nights Ipswich result was a bit of a bonus i wasn't expecting at all, it now seems the top three are starting to faulter, is this leaving a door open for Southampton ( my mates think possibly so) however i think they have left it to late, To me it's still two from three, so which two can get their mojo back?.
Joseph surely has to start ahead of Bamford on Saturday.

 

Would have got good odds on that

 

Court of Arbitration for Sport has confirmed that the club has withdrawn it's appeal against FIFA's award of £24.5m in compo to JKA. Guess that means we've given up and are paying it?

 

Going out on a limb here.
I wonder if Farke playing Bamford over Joseph is because <deep breath> Bamford is more of a team player. Rutter, Summerville and Joseph all pretty much like to do their own thing and as a result often hang on to the ball too long / try and take on the entire defence alone and then lose the ball - the first two have been getting a bit of a slating recently for doing just that. Three players all doing that would make us a very disjointed team, assuming we didn't care because we're six goals up in the first ten minutes.
<ducks into bunker>

 

Possibly we’ve come to an out of court settlement with him?

 

Maybe we only appealed to buy time until accounts and FFP were submitted

Morning all

 

Costly Bielsa mistake

 

Yeah and he has the nerve to call himself a medical expert. What was the point of Bielsa when he quite clearly didn’t assess Augustin’s fitness levels, injury record etc?


Oh hang on….

 

So it was a good decision Bielsa made?

 

Had Bielsa treated Nketiah better, we wouldn't have needed JKA in the first place.

He joined on Bielsa's watch. Had he said 'NO', he wouldn't have joined! Did Bielsa have a crystal ball? No! But it happened during his watch...

 

He had nothing to do with the medical checks so can’t be blamed for this.

 

You don't think Bielsa (being the statistician he was) would have clicked on any stat site and seen...

 

I thought he (Nketiah) picked up an injury, was out for a month then left just as he’d become fit enough to start.

Augustin - I’m pretty sure Orta was the one offering contracts and obligations to buy. Costly mistake was not inserting an option to buy Ben White and agreeing on loan rat contracts

 

But we've given up trying. Not sure about the others

 

Yea, he picked up a hamstring strain a month after joining.