Dan James

[weasel]

Believe what you like Weasel we missed a trick there as our previous boards have done so many times in the past

Had we pursued the deal in preparation prior to the January window opening we'd have probably got our man. In the end by leaving it too late we got into a dogfight & we missed out

Even with our best board in a long time Cjay is correct we haven't done enough in the three transfer windows

Leeds don't have an infinite amount of money as such we have to negotiate fees when it comes to signing players. Seems like we did a cracking deal with a proper club, Real Madrid, to get Kiko. However to do a deal you need both clubs to agree and as mentioned Swansea's priorities were to get rid of their high earners. With the high earners gone they no longer needed to sell Dan James and as such they simply ignored us after agreeing a deal. Childish amateur behaviour. Unfortunately it looks like they have come off better because of it with James enhancing his reputation but equally we could have overpaid for a player who failed to live up to his potential - ala Seth Johnson.

The pleasing thing is that the quality of the players we are looking to sign certainly is promising. Kiko has been a good signing and it looks like James would have been - happy to take quality over quantity. It bodes well for the future of the club that we are identifying young players with potential and going after them.

But feel free to keep slagging the board off. The only board since Ridsdale that has pumped money from player sales straight back into player purchases. However unlike the Ridsdale reign they are also acting prudently too and not overpaying for players. The long term planning is looking great and the short term planning isn't looking too shabby either.

[Cjay]

Fact remains that Radz has been around for 3 January windows, we have been in promotion contention every January.

We have failed to strengthen sufficiently in every window and our form has suffered every time.

Our post January collapse has occurred for years i remember seeing a stat and we have faded in January form wise for years and years.

Last 2 years failure to strengthen in January has cost us.

Under Monk we signed nobody.

Under TC we needed a cb, signed Halme for the u23s and Ideguchi who we immediately sent on loan never to be seen again.

We signed Roberts who was injured and Forshaw who was also injured.

This January we know MB wanted a winger and a Saiz replacement, undeniably imo.

We got neither.

Kiko was a great signing but regardless our squad was weaker at the end of January then it was in the summer.

We had a real chance to show some ambition and sign the winger MB wanted for a reasonable fee in this market, a risk but even so speculate to accumulate.

Similar to when we could have signed Canos, a risk but one worth taking.

We had 4 months time to plan, to get a winger signed and ready, we had a month to prepare for Saiz to leave.

Yes Swansea messed us about but 4 months and he was the only player we could find? Or the only player we thought we could get on the cheap?

Remember we were top at Xmas, if we dont go up now we will be a total laughing stock and I'm fed up of that

January was our chance to solidify our promotion chances.

Its all well and good talking about long term but that goes out the window when you very well may lose your manager, best players, its guaranteed, long term planning only works in theory in our experience

Just worried our January c**k up will see us back as the laughing stock of The Championship again.

And seeing a player we had a chance of signing but decided to be cheap doing so well makes it worse.

[1964white]

The pleasing thing is that the quality of the players we are looking to sign certainly is promising. Kiko has been a good signing and it looks like James would have been - happy to take quality over quantity. It bodes well for the future of the club that we are identifying young players with potential and going after them

Agree with you here, the quality of the player we are looking at has improved, Casilla strikes me as a Bielsa signing

But feel free to keep slagging the board. The only board since Ridsdale that has pumped money from player sales straight back into player purchases. However unlike the Ridsdale reign they are also acting prudently too and not overpaying for players. The long term planning is looking great and the short term planning isn't looking too shabby either.

I've already said this is the best board in a long time, just don't think we have done enough especially with a automatic place staring us in the face, just a little more ambition & that doesn't mean spending a fortune we could have skated this league without the thought of our chances going to the wire or god forbid the dreaded play-offs

[weasel]

The trouble is though that Dan James was our no1 target. Do we then sign our 2nd choice in case our first choice signing doesn't sign? In hindsight we could have done but hindsight is irrelevant when you have agreed a deal with a club and even had the player pass a medical. I am sure that if we had ever thought Swansea were going to pull out of the deal we may have been able to do another deal albeit possible just a loan signing where there was less risk (i.e. the player could sign on loan and not have to do a medical etc).

The fact that a deal had been agreed, Swansea didn't allow James to have his medical until they were happy with the deal (around 5pm on the transfer deadline day I believe). I fail to see why our board gets blamed when it was basically a done deal before Swansea refused to take our calls. It wasn't like they had kept Dan James at their club training - he was at Leeds waiting to sign as the clubs had agreed a deal and he had passed a medical. You can see why Leeds made him their no1 target and why also why they didn't expect the deal to not go through.

The only thing the club did wrong was to trust a club that is being run poorly and unprofessionally. If Swansea had simply rejected the deal at any point it would have given Leeds the chance to potentially do a last minute deal elsewhere. With Swansea simply ignoring Leeds's attempts to communicate the club was left in limbo, still expecting the deal to go through. After all when a fee has been agreed and the club allows you to perform a medical on their player then you don't expect them to then simply go into hiding for a few hours.

I just don't see why anyone would see those circumstances and blame our board.

Last season in the January window Tyler Roberts and Forshaw cost around £7m in transfer fees alone. That's a fairly hefty amount to spend.

[The Subhuman]

Think I'd rather own Bogusz than James who's probably just on fire right now and lets face it Dallas looks top class playing for N Ireland. Had we signed James he'd probably be a bench player as Harrison and Pablo have the wings locked down.

We had a cracking January with two top signings coming on good contracts...can't ask for more.

[The Subhuman]

Shackleton is also probably better than James

[1964white]

T
Last season in the January window Tyler Roberts and Forshaw cost around £7m in transfer fees alone. That's a fairly hefty amount to spend.

Both injury prone as are Bamford, Douglas & Brown

After saying that I have a lot of faith in PB & Tyler Roberts, hopefully they can remain fit to show their true form in time

[1964white]

Think I'd rather own Bogusz than James who's probably just on fire right now and lets face it Dallas looks top class playing for N Ireland. Had we signed James he'd probably be a bench player as Harrison and Pablo have the wings locked down.

We had a cracking January with two top signings coming on good contracts...can't ask for more.

We know very little of Bogusz, we have witnessed James quality v Man City, Brentford & Wales

Can't see Harrison playing for his country on current form

[The Subhuman]

We know very little of Bogusz, we have witnessed James quality v Man City, Brentford & Wales

Can't see Harrison playing for his country on current form

Neither do I but you're assuming we sign James and he starts ...MB loves Harrison.

[1964white]

Neither do I but you're assuming we sign James and he starts ...MB loves Harrison.

Bielsa also loves Forshaw which is why I think he'll play Phillips alongside Cooper as our CB's with AF as a holding midfielder v Millwall. Also expect Kalvin to be benched when Pontus returns just a inkling, I maybe wrong

[Sara]

The clubs who have spent the most money are all below us, and the two above us do not have expensively assembled squads. The price of decidedly average Championship players has become ridiculously distorted by the tv money available in the Prem. It simply isn't sustainable to chuck 10 million after every player who catches our eye on the off chance that he might be the key ingredient for achieving promotion; that is essentially the attitude of a problem gambler.

If this season has shown anything, it is that Bielsa's methods are right. A well coached squad is far more than the sum of its parts. We get better by improving and developing players in the system, and spending only when a particular upgrade becomes a necessity, as in Casilla.

The advantage that the teams above us have is simply time; their coaches have been building their systems for longer, and it is bearing fruit. They don't rely on individual talent, and the cohesion they have can't be bought. Would you have gone out in January and spent 10 million on Billy Sharp or McGoldrick? Or even Pukki a year ago?

There is no guarantee Dan James would have created the immediate impact we wanted this season. It takes time and hard work for players to build relationships and understanding on the pitch.

Our big investment was in Bielsa, and it is proving to be the wisest way to have spent the money. Otherwise you are Stoke under Gary Rowett; the most expensive squad in the league languishing in 17th, wondering where your next goal is coming from, with 30,000 fans chanting, 'your football is s**t'

[The Subhuman]

Top post

[1964white]

The advantage that the teams above us have is simply time; their coaches have been building their systems for longer, and it is bearing fruit. They don't rely on individual talent, and the cohesion they have can't be bought. Would you have gone out in January and spent 10 million on Billy Sharp or McGoldrick? Or even Pukki a year ago?

There is no guarantee Dan James would have created the immediate impact we wanted this season. It takes time and hard work for players to build relationships and understanding on the pitch.

You make some valid points Sara but truth is Bielsa wanted James in an effort to build his squad & he was denied. Under Marcelo's guidance James would have blossomed at Leeds as he has more about his game than Harrison has, pace for starters & a end product, he makes things happen.

As for building a team the nucleus of our first eleven have been at Leeds for two to four seasons.

Ayling
Pontus
Cooper
Hernandez
Klich
Roofe
Phillips
Alioski
Berardi
Dallas

So it's not as if we've had to start again & build from scratch

Farke who is now looking a top coach but may have got lucky with their signing of Pukki who has more or less sealed the canaries promotion hopes with his prolific goalscoring.

Wilder has done a marvellous job after seven years in League One, remember this is only the their 2nd season in the championship. The Blunts signed three attacking players cheaply in the January window which has produced three goals & three assists, we signed no one creative for this campaign

If we do miss out on promotion once again we've failed to less fashionable clubs who have nowhere near the financial income Leeds United generates.

Fingers cross we make promotion

[weasel]

You make some valid points Sara but truth is Bielsa wanted James in an effort to build his squad & he was denied. Under Marcelo's guidance James would have blossomed at Leeds as he has more about his game than Harrison has, pace for starters & a end product, he makes things happen.

As for building a team the nucleus of our first eleven have been at Leeds for two to four seasons.

Ayling
Pontus
Cooper
Hernandez
Klich
Roofe
Phillips
Alioski
Berardi
Dallas

So it's not as if we've had to start again & build from scratch

Farke who is now looking a top coach but may have got lucky with their signing of Pukki who has more or less sealed the canaries promotion hopes with his prolific goalscoring.

Wilder has done a marvellous job after seven years in League One, remember this is only the their 2nd season in the championship. The Blunts signed three attacking players cheaply in the January window which has produced three goals & three assists, we signed no one creative for this campaign

If we do miss out on promotion once again we've failed to less fashionable clubs who have nowhere near the financial income Leeds United generates.

Fingers cross we make promotion

As you say 64 Bielsa wanted James. He didn't want anyone else he wanted James. If Swansea had said they weren't selling him then maybe Bielsa would have wanted someone else. How you can blame Leeds for that baffles me as the only inkling we had that the deal wasn't going through was when Swansea went silent late on the transfer deadline day.

Good point about the nucleus of the Leeds side already being here but realistically how many of the players at the club would you have wanted in the first team this season? Possibly only Pontus and Pablo. Farke and Wilder have been able to bring in the players to fit into their system and remove players that didn't. If we fail to get promoted we may well see MB get rid of a few and sign a few next season as he will know which players have hit their ceiling.

[Sara]

I don't think there is any reason to conclude the failure to sign James reflects a lack of ambition or willingness to pay up on our part, unless it just happens to tap into your preferred narrative.

The players who have been here for a while didn't really show the signs of being a promotion chasing team until Bielsa took over, which again, reinforces the idea that proper coaching, rather expensively assembled talent, is the way to progress.

I see every reason to trust Bielsa's judgement that James would have been a worthy signing, and we had him at the club with a pen in his hand. Bielsa didn't want anyone else, and again, I trust his judgment.

If we don't go up this season I will be as gutted as anyone, but we don't have a divine right to win games. Even with the best players, it still comes down to fine margins on the day. I would still prefer that we go about it the way we have, rather than trying to buy the league, as so many others have tried and failed to do before.

Everything that Bielsa has put in place is sustainable for the future, in the way that a large, overpayed squad simply isn't.

[1964white]

As you say 64 Bielsa wanted James. He didn't want anyone else he wanted James. If Swansea had said they weren't selling him then maybe Bielsa would have wanted someone else. How you can blame Leeds for that baffles me as the only inkling we had that the deal wasn't going through was when Swansea went silent late on the transfer deadline day.

Good point about the nucleus of the Leeds side already being here but realistically how many of the players at the club would you have wanted in the first team this season? Possibly only Pontus and Pablo. Farke and Wilder have been able to bring in the players to fit into their system and remove players that didn't. If we fail to get promoted we may well see MB get rid of a few and sign a few next season as he will know which players have hit their ceiling.

Success or failure.....I just hope Bielsa stays at Leeds to finish off the job he started.

Marcelo has given the Leeds fans hope & a huge boost this season

[Sara]

Success or failure.....I just hope Bielsa stays at Leeds to finish off the job he started.

Marcelo has give the Leeds fans hope & a huge boost this season

No doubt about that. If Radrizzani actually had the foresight to push for promotion on the basis of top coaching and a coherent philosophy, rather signing a bunch of overpriced 'proven' players, then he's shown himself to be far more astute an owner than Coates, Morris, Marinakis, Chansiri et al. He deserves credit for that imo.

[weasel]

Success or failure.....I just hope Bielsa stays at Leeds to finish off the job he started.

I don't see why he would leave if we failed to get promoted. I doubt that he or the board realistically had automatic promotion as the target this season - obviously they would have hoped for it but realistically I would have thought that the play-offs would have been an optimistic target with the plan then being to push on the season after with the squad fully ingrained in the way Bielsa wanted them to play and 2 or 3 key signings and youth pushing through.

Even if it were that players were then sold this summer then I think MB is wise enough to know that this is just a fact of life and if he was then able to bring in the players he chose as replacements then he would still be happy. If you look at how MB started the season with Berardi and Cooper at centrebacks I feel he was planning ahead and expecting Jannson to be sold.

[The Subhuman]

Swansea struggling to tie James down to a longer contract as his current one runs out end of 19/20 season. Apparently the James party want a very low buy out clause inserted...

[Cjay]

After setting up the first, hitting the crossbar from outside the area and having four (FOUR!) players booked for fouls on him Daniel James has a goal to add to his night's work.

The Wales international slots in after Connor Roberts' effort comes back off the post.

James nearly joined Leeds on transfer deadline day in January and is out of contract next summer... On this form the Swans are going to have a real battle th