Last weekend of the season and for us one of the most satisfying and fairly relaxed seasons ever. We have been comfortable all season and have been everyone’s 2nd fav team. We have battered some teams and scared the crap out of the top 6 teams. We look to have broken records for a newly promoted team, and it has been the way we did it without moaning about not having our first 11 on the pitch until March this year. Even now we are just getting Rodrigo back to form and the season is over. Raphinha is not back to his best yet and we only got Llorente back in March but wow, the difference since Llorente came in. Only 10 goals conceded in 15 matches, 24 points won and against some tough top 6 teams too. We have conceded 53 goals this season as we never had our best defenders on the pitch until March. 43 of those goals came before we had Llorente back and fully fit. Koch started well but then went out injured for months, Cooper got injured and also suspended, Struijk came in and did well, Ayling back as a CB to help out, Dallas at LB etc, but would love to have seen what we could have done if we had our best players on the pitch. So as it’s the last weekend here we go with a few talking points: Transfers will be the big talking points as of Monday and there will be lots of talk about who we are buying, who we are selling, who we are releasing, who goes out on loan etc. Remember the U23s will play a big part maybe the biggest in all this. Bielsa’s contract, will he, wont he…… But can we try and think about the man himself as he has a wife Laura back in Argentina and a daughter Ines who is setting out on her own sporting career as a top Hockey player. The pandemic must have been hard when you’re separated for a year. I believe Laura comes over occasionally but hasn’t been able to this year. Ines visited her father early last year but its over a year since he saw her. Bielsa is hopefully going to sign another contract, but hes hardly been home in 3 years, because he works non-stop. I have never seen a photo of him not in a track-suit. Harry Kane will be an important pointer to finances in European football. For example at the moment spurs say he goes nowhere until someone starts the bidding at £150m. The only clubs who can do that are: · Man City · Chelsea · Man Utd · Barcelona · Real Madrid Who wants him, who can afford him and would you chose him over Erland Haarland. If Kane moves a lot of other transfers will happen in different countries. Paddy Bamford is now also being mentioned as a replacement for Kane and also Mane at Liverpool. Roy Hodgson retires this weekend and you have to say well done Woy on an outstanding career, but there are people like Dyche, Howe and Lampard sniffing around Palace. Wonder who will get the gig. The Bamford penalty dispute needs sorting out because twice now our players refused to dive and we have been penalised for not diving. On the transfer front one new name is hitting the headlines. Santiago Moreno who is a 21yo Columbian who plays for America De Cali. Fastest thing on the planet and scores goals? Hoffenheim midfielder Matheus Cunha £25m Brazilian with better stats than Rodrigo De Paul. Yes get used to tranny talk on here every day now. Our season has been brilliant and hopefully we will bring in new players to take us to the next level. We are a way behind Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea who have been the most consistent teams. Just behind these 3 we see Liverpool, Leicester City and Spurs closely followed by Everton and Arsenal. I think we would have competed better without the injuries and see us alongside Everton and Arsenal now as well as West Ham. So we see 9 places to get stuck into. A couple of top players and a fit squad gets Leeds close to Europe next season. Radz is right when he says we need to follow the Leicester model, but remember Leicester bought cheap and sold high. Mharez, Chillwell, Kante, Maguire all bought for peanuts and sold for a profit of £180m. so if we sell someone for top money, lets hope we can buy good still? Seriously though next season I expect us to compete for top 6 or 7
Apparently Bielsa will announce his plans for next season after the game on Sunday and Chris Wilder may be the next WBA manager, but at least we wont have to look at his sad little moaning face
Nuno Espirito Santo has resigned from Wolves after Sundays game. The Chinese money flight from English football has hurt Wolves this season. They sold some top players but replaced them with lesser talents due to not being given the cash. Nuno has been fuming all season, so fully expecting him to turn up at top gig........... could be Spurs
If Spurs get £150 million for Kane, we should ask £50 million for Bamford if they see him as a replacement - I'd take that.
We have some good players and other clubs will fancy some of them. Before Bielsa nobody wanted our players, so lets see the club just brush them off and add to the squad.
Seems there are going to be lots of transfer deals done around Europe using player swaps as part of the deal, due to not many having cash. Man Utd are offering Spurs Martial and Lingard plus cash for Kane. Rodrigo De Paul may end up at AC Milan in exchange for 4 fringe players plus cash. Nihaten Nandez may go in Italy in exchange for players plus cash too. So this window is going to see some strange deals. Leeds lost £46m in match day revenues and Spurs lost nearly £80m. Think about the same stuff happening all over Europe and in France a collapsed Tv deal
Great thread as always doc. i can't see Kane going to barca, they are skint, will probably sign Kun on a free and try to convince messi to stay, jury is also out on Koeman. Madrid are after mbappe or haaland, they allways find the cash, Zidane could be another one out of the door. I would hope Bielsa gets on a flight on monday to spend a month with his family, just leave a note for Orta, Selll, xxxx players. DO NOT SELL xxxx players, Try to buy xxxx players.
Yes its a fact that Real Madrid want Mbappe but he says if he goes there ZZ must be there too? Paulo Fonseca the present Roma manager is being lined up for Wolves as Wolves want to keep the Portuguese theme alive Chelsea are offering Spurs Kepa and Tammy Abrams plus cash for Kane as its well known they are looking for a top keeper and a striker
Well they wouldn't be getting a top keeper. If I was Spurs, there is no way I'd sell Kane to a PL club. They're miles behind the top 4 in terms of quality players as it is.
One thing to watch out for is loan players coming in. Jack Harrison is about to sign full time for Leeds, which means we have no loan players at all. I guess we could see a loan from an English club and another from overseas. A classic loan would be from a top European side who have excess of players they cant fit into the squad right now. Riqui Puig from Barcelona is a good example as we know talks were held between Orta and Barca in January, and we know Barca wanted to keep Puig so gave him a new contract, however he will not be part of the first team next season..... Chelsea want over £30m for Connor Galagher but have no chance of getting it, so expect him back out on loan......
Another top thread Doc. Hope that's true after the game Bielsa will tell us his plans. it's the most important cog and the main switch to everything else to start next season. I think Kane will stay in the Prem where?? I only see to one of the team's over the Pennines. Transfers. as Doc posted in the tranny thread we will be linked with every LB. Also every South American name under the sun. It's how it is. I hate getting excited about signing someone only for it to be untrue which 98% are. I will wait till they are through the door first.
Reading about how Barcelona and Real Madrid are having to clear the decks. Messi has still to sign but is now on holiday and joins the Argentine squad soon. PSG chasing him, but Barca signing Aguero, Depay, Garcia all on free transfers and lower wages. Pique leaving to get rid of his wages and replaced with a freebie too. Swaps are going to be the fashion this Summer
Surely Barca could sell quite a few fringe players, and could easily raise 100m, without it really effecting their first team
Brentford v Bournemouth play off Championship first leg 12:30 http://uhdstreams.club/hd/ch6.php https://techoreels.com/playoff/
Barca have some of the best players in the world and some of the highest wages. Nobody will buy at the prices Barca would want and no Barca fan would want them to go. But theres a whole bunch of top kids waiting to break into the first team, but cant until theres room. The President is in a vicious circle bringing free players in and moving out high wage players. If he moves out a superstar he needs to replace with another superstar so Pique out and his high wages and Garcia in from Man City on a free and lesser wage. Still leaves fringe players nit breaking through. they screwed up last Summer by getting rid if Suarez who is now leagues top scorer again and about to win the league with Athletico Madrid. They got rid of his wage, took a hit on the fee and lost the title and out of Champions League. Balancing fans expectations whilst trying to balance the books. Aguero going in on a free, Memphis Depay going in on a free, Garcia going in a free, Winjaldun going in on a free. 4 top top players for free they cant afford Messi but if he goes they will have 2 worldy strikers on freebies. when Leeds were sniffing around Riqui Puig earlier the fans kicked off so he got a new contract but will hardly be used..... all politics within REal Madrid and Barcelona
I'm absolutely convinced that the club are more on the ball this transfer window than any. They have a larger transfer kitty & they have made us one of the most attractive clubs to join in the PL - in fact, anywhere, & a certain Snr Bielsa at the helm will probably help a wee bit too. I would expect that they've had a long list of players to target, with players being added & deleted, as circumstances changed throughout the season. I'd also hazard a guess that players have already been tapped up this time around. So, all this guessing. Why? We, the fans, never get it right, mainly because the media don't get it right. Time for us all to relax this summer & let the club sort everything out for us. We have had a 100% success record for the players we signed for the PL. I expect no less this time around. We're obviously a lot more careful & focussed that we were in the Championship (shudders when thinks of Cellino practically signed a squad of no-hopers that season ). Plus there's so much more opportunity for a club with money to spend this season - we may benefit from this face-mask stuff after all! This is going to be a major TW, & for me, my curiosity is more piqued by what's going internally - i.e. who's retained & who's not. (Anyone know when the list is due out?). We'll be saying goodbye to quite a lot of players, some forgotten & even unseen at ER for years. The toughest decisions revolve around our u23s, & I'm expecting some surprises. And some more obvious decisions too.
