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The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Monday 26th July)

Discussion in 'Leeds United' started by ellandback, Jul 26, 2021.

  1. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    Good Morning. It's Monday 26th July, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


    It's not Okay - because he's Turkish

    Leeds fans have been told that any hopes of signing Okay Yokuslu is 'impossible' because...........he's Turkish!!!

    The 6' 3 combative midfielder showed his qualities during the recent Euros, and although Turkey were eliminated up stage, Yokuslu's impressive passing qualities (94% - 137 mins) caught the eye of Leeds Director of football Victor Orta. The 27yo applies his trade with Celta Vigo in La Liga. He signed for the Spanish outfit three years ago. Before that, he enjoyed spells with Süper Lig outfits Kayserispor and Altay.

    However, the animosity between Turkish football and Leeds Utd is still strong. Whilst I'm not sure what Turkish fans have to be bitter about, Leeds supporters will never forget the eve of the Uefa Cup Semi final against Galatasaray in April 2000 when Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight were murdered.

    Yokuslu's agent was quoted as saying that they are aware of Leeds’ interest, however that the ‘politics’ surrounding the deal may make it impossible.

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    Leeds capture Klassen

    Kristoffer Klassen is on his way to Leeds for a fee believed to be between in the region of 1.6m - 2m It is unknown whether the 20yo shot stopper has secured his work permit yet, though it is not expected to be a problem.

    Although only 20, Klassen has made 57 appearances for Vålerenga, conceding 80 goals and keeping 13 clean sheets over the last three seasons. He is expected to become Illan Meslier's understudy, and first choice for the U23's!

    Messrs Orta and Bielsa will be delighted at Klassen's capture. He has been on their radar for a long time!

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    No Turkish delight for Alioski

    On a brighter note, Aliski has snubbed a move to Galatasaray and is expected to join Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli. Whilst the move makes no footballing sense, he is likely to finish his career a lot richer.

    A seven figure signing on fee, and weekly salary of circa £45,000 awaits the North Macedonian International. I wonder whether he'll be able to get away with the same kind on antics in Saudi Arabia? I'm sure, we all wish him well!

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    Huggins to stay

    Multiple reports suggesting that Leeds starlet Niall Huggins had been let go, may have been premature after LeedsLive reported that the versatile 20yo wants to fight for his place at the club.

    Huggins joined the Whites at the tender age of 9, working his way up through the age groups at Thorp Arch. He also broke through into the Wales U21 squad. It is likely he will continue to work under to continue Mark Jackson during their first season in the U23's top flight!

    Huggins signed three year deal with the club, last December. Its admirable that the 20yo wants to stay and fight for his place!

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    #1
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2021
  2. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Club before self should always be the mantra, yet fans moaning about having a Turkish player depresses me. Galatasry and the Turkish FA were the problems along with Turkish justice system. If Bielsa wants a Turkish player its because he wants to improve the team. Jeez we have had German players and nobody said a word about them.

    if its true that Huggins is staying its only because we dont have enough defenders in the 23s and Huggins can play left wing too, so if Summerville is being sent out on loan he will be needed there too. A very skilful player Huggins who has bags of potential. He needs to grab his chance this time if retained.

    Yet again some fans on social media gobbing off about Klaesson not being good enough. How do they know this when Orta has tried to get him in the past and both he and Bielsa have been looking at him for years. Do these fans no more than Bielsa.

    Same fans moaning about Gallagher not being a marquee signing, if he comes. It doesnt matter what any if us think about his squad, what matters is that Bielsa gets to do what he does best.
     
    #2
  3. oldschool

    oldschool Well-Known Member

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    Most of those gobbing off wouldn't even know where elland road is......bores
     
    #3
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  4. SIDDAS

    SIDDAS Well-Known Member

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    Exactly Lads well said.
    The ones knocking the keeper wouldn't even of heard of him or even seen him play before it came out in public. how can they say he's shyte or not good enough? Orta and his mob would of watched this lad for years. its not just we need a keeper and oh he will do sort of buy. end of the day he's future proof he's young and his value will only go up.
    It's all the glory seeking fans who now think we should only be buying top top names and because he's not a "big name" all the side show supporters automatically think he's rubbish and not good enough because that's what they do.
    Yes we all have our opinions and it's good banter to hear what everyone has to say. but, if you are a supporter. support the club in what they are doing and trying to do and building. The poor lad hasn't even kicked a ball for the club yet and already fans are calling him not good enough. probably the same ones who said Bamford wasn't good enough but are now on their knees unzipping his zipper.
     
    #4
  5. ristac

    ristac Well-Known Member
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    Afternoon all

    Fingers crossed we get some new signings in this week
     
    #5
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  6. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Summerville ……..
     
    #6
  7. FORZA LEEDS

    FORZA LEEDS Well-Known Member

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    Afternoon Ristac,

    I wouldn't have thought we need any more. Squad looks solid and complete and ready to hit the ground running.

    Rashford, Sancho et al won't know what's hit them when they return from their exotic (well earned :emoticon-0136-giggl) hols.

    They'll get a close up view of what fitness is all about on the opening day.
     
    #7
  8. NostradEmus

    NostradEmus Firpo is Shit

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    Problem isn't with Turkey or Turkish people. It's with a certain Turkish club and how it dealt with what happened. I have seen nothing to suggest they have changed their ways. Yokuslu would be fine by me.

    I haven't heard of the keeper either but I hadn't heard of Meslier when we signed him tbf.

    Happy for Alioski. He made the right decision in the end. To reinforce my earlier point, him joining a Turkish club wouldn't have been an issue. Him joining THAT Turkish club would have been for me.

    I see Leeds have been winning gold medals at the Olympics today. Pidcock in the mountain biking and Matty Lee in the diving with Tom Daley.
     
    #8
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  9. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Im classing Richard Carapaz gold is UK too mate. Thats 2 gold for Ineos Grenadiers
     
    #9
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  10. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    The problem shouldn’t have been Alioski or his next club, it’s how Galatasaray dealt with that tragedy

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    By Phil Hay Jul 25, 2021

    In the early hours of the morning after the death of two Leeds United supporters in Istanbul, Peter Ridsdale met with a delegate from UEFA at one of the city’s police stations.

    By that stage he was exhausted. He had been up all night receiving news of the stabbings, inflicted during violence which broke out on the eve of a UEFA Cup tie between Leeds and Galatasaray. He had travelled to the hospital where injured fans were being treated and arranged payment for a blood transfusion for Kevin Speight, one of the two who died. He was taken to identify the other, Chris Loftus, in the morgue after doctors mistook him for a family member.

    Ridsdale can visualise it all 21 years on: the lay-out of the hospital, the chaos inside, the panicked confusion. And worse things too. As chairman of Leeds, he told the UEFA official that it would make sense to postpone the first leg of the semi-final which Leeds and Galatasaray were about to play. In the circumstances, it was a total irrelevance and too highly-charged. Your choice, the official replied. But if you back out, you’ll forfeit the game and incur a 3-0 defeat. The English FA followed the line of least resistance. In its opinion, contesting the game was “the least worst option”.

    Last year, on the 20th anniversary of the killings in Istanbul, The Athletic spoke to some of the people closest to the tragedy and some of the people most affected by it. Through different eyes and different viewpoints, a picture built up of the disregard and indifference with which they had been treated by those they looked to for help.

    The Loftus family gave up on campaigning for justice in Turkey because they did not think the system cared about them. Leeds’ head of security at the game recalled police officers lining the corridors in Galatasaray’s ground as the players emerged from the dressing room; an attempt, in his eyes, to intimidate them as they prepared to go onto the pitch. Amid the fall-out and a world of shock in Leeds, Ridsdale suggested that the second leg at Elland Road would be safer without away fans. Galatasaray accused him of trying to gain an unfair sporting advantage.

    Given that context — and these examples only really scratch the surface of everything that happened in April 2000 — there was no way in which a player like Gjanni Alioski could consider leaving Leeds and joining Galatasaray, as he did for many months, without bracing himself for a tense political path and the objection he encountered online. It takes a certain amount of nerve to put a foot in both camps, which is doubtless why Harry Kewell was able to do so in 2008 when he left Liverpool for the Ali Sami Yen. That deal took Kewell back to a stadium where he and Leeds once needed protection with riot shields. The images of that never grow old.

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    Leeds players needed protection from police with riot shields before their game against Galatasaray in 2000 (Photo: Steve Mitchell/EMPICS via Getty Images)
    At this juncture, it should be said that Kewell and Alioski were not identical. Kewell grew up in Leeds’ academy and was in the starting line-up for both legs against Galatasaray. He was on the scene as the club grieved and as much as any other of David O’Leary’s players, he was in a position to fully comprehend both the impact of the killings and Galatasaray’s response to them.

    Alioski had less of a cross to bear. He was eight when the deaths occurred and he was 25 when he came to England as a professional. The connection was not comparable to Kewell’s. As a free agent, he had a decision to make about how best to look after himself with his 30th birthday coming next year (and in the end, looking after himself meant joining Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia last night). It is his life and his career, much as the option of Galatasaray was incapable of arising without anyone passing comment.

    Even so, the counterargument holds water. If the thought of a transfer like that sits uncomfortably then perhaps it should. It is wrong to presume to tell those who were affected by the events in Istanbul how to feel or how to react to a player taking Galatasaray’s money. Alioski was not part of that history but the history exists and the real story here — far more significant than Alioski or any other footballer per se — is the absence of any reconciliation over a night which feels as raw to those who witnessed it now as it did two decades ago; the lasting bitterness produced by a vacuum of empathy.

    Kewell was quoted after joining Galatasaray as saying that “to blame Galatasaray for the tragedy in Istanbul is simply wrong and discriminatory”. That is true. But where Galatasaray failed, and where Ridsdale specifically felt resentment, was in grasping the scale of the tragedy and in refusing to accept that violence on the streets and a UEFA Cup tie could not be classed as unrelated events once the worst had happened. They ploughed on regardless, much like UEFA, and left Ridsdale thinking that their directors were more worried about distancing themselves from the stabbings than helping Leeds cope with them.

    “I don’t think, even to this day, that Galatasaray would see the amount of press coverage or criticism as being fairly labelled against them,” Ridsdale said last year. “They felt we were overreacting.” In all the many layers of anger, that was one of them; the apparent inability to adopt some common decency.

    A fortnight ago, Ridsdale was voted onto the EFL’s board. That decision drew much criticism, as well it might. His financial record at Leeds was dismal and Leeds never forget about it. But when it came to Istanbul, he and the club were remarkable in reacting quickly and with compassion. The families of the victims will tell you that. They have nothing but good words for Ridsdale’s conduct and nothing but gratitude for his support. In contrast, what Leeds saw in Galatasaray was a baffling lack of sympathy. And it is far too late to redress that now.

    Whether this should dictate a transfer like the one Alioski was asked to ponder is a matter of opinion. It might be fair to say that the events of 2000 are a reason to dissuade a footballer with ties to Leeds from engaging with Galatasaray but not necessarily to prohibit him from signing, especially as time goes by. The complication here is that football has no right to dictate how people manage a grievance that goes so far beyond standard rivalry. Istanbul was life and death and more than focusing on Alioski himself, the attention on him generated by the very prospect of a move to Turkey itself should make us ask why it was ever allowed to come to this; a horrific episode which offered no chance of peace or proper closure.
     
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  11. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    If you need 25 riot shields to allow yo to get on to the pitch - that is an unsafe environment.

    They should have gone back to their dressing rooms.
     
    #11
  12. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Looks like Leif Davies is going to Bournemouth after all as he has passed his medical today and the deal will be announced in a couple of days.

    I will have a comprehensive list of the U23 squad as well as a list of players we have sent out on loan. I will put it into the U23 sticky when ready
     
    #12
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  13. FORZA LEEDS

    FORZA LEEDS Well-Known Member

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    Must explain why Huggins looks like he’s now staying. He’s probably the better of the two anyway.
     
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  14. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Klaesson is in Leeds and will take his medical so expecting the work permit issue is resolved on a technicality ruling. Basically he was selected for the full Norway team but had to withdraw due to illness/injury. He would have earned 12 points for the selection and only needs 15 points. So effectively he is a full International but withdrew just before the squad assembled.

    Hopefully he will get game time along with Meslier and Caprile as we have 3 games this week and really 4 games as we play Fleetwood with 2 teams 60 minutes each match. So plenty of chances to see first teamers plus Gelhardt, Bate, Greenwood, Drameh, Summerville, McGurk, Miller etc
     
    #14
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  15. Leedsoflondon

    Leedsoflondon Well-Known Member

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    Is it just me that has zero interest in the Olympics? Full of sports I can’t stand, some very questionable as to whether they are a sport (skateboarding and diving spring to mind). And as for taekwondo, I saw better fights on Billericay high street after the euro semi final win.
     
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  16. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Olympics is shyt ever since we saw millionaire tennis players, golfers, basketball players. Sorry but womens football even mens football makes no sense.

    This olympics should have been last year, so,lots of athletes peaked a year ago and and were rejected for this one. No interest in watching much of it and cant really be arsed about
     
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  17. Aski

    Aski Well-Known Member

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    As Doc said in his reply, whilst I understand the reasons for doing so, I lost interest once they started to allow professionals in
     
    #17
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  18. OLOF

    OLOF Well-Known Member

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    I've heard some of the 'women' athletes have got bigger cocks than many of the male athletes:eek:
    The mind boggles
     
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  19. esteponawhite

    esteponawhite Well-Known Member

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    Evening all,
    The olympics, personally I'd rather see a teenage kid on a skateboard doing mental stuff than the above mentioned pros, golf, basketball tennis etc.
    Oh and horse jumping, wtf?
    What next F1 Olympic race?

    Glad that austrian amateur girl won the womens cycling, the pros were saying 'I don't even know her' they do now!
    Suggestions for future additions?
    Arm wrestling, old school show of strength stuff.
    While were on the subject of 'new sports' anyone seen anything of this new cricket format The Hundred?
    I thought we allready had bish bosh cricket in 20/20 format.
     
    #19
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  20. wakeybreakyheart

    wakeybreakyheart Well-Known Member

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    I have always thought along the same lines ref these sports in the Olympics. Does the host nation still get to choose an obscure sport if their own. Ill the nips be choosing whale harpooning?.
     
    #20
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