Seagulls last minute swoop for Rutter

Good Morning. It's Thursday 15th August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...


Seagulls last minute swoop for Rutter

Brighton have activated a £40m release clause in Georginio Rutter's contract just minutes before it expired! The Seagulls managed to secure the offer at the last moment to avoid attracting attention from other clubs. Leeds are desperate on keeping Rutter within their ranks having already seen their key talent depart this summer but Sky Sports Reporter Florian Plettenberg is reporting that the Frenchman has agreed to join Brighton and will head to the south coast for a medial.

Selling him after only 18 months for a marginal profit seems impractical, especially when considering the financial implications of profit and sustainability. The potential £10m profit would likely not suffice to cover the costs of finding a suitable replacement player with limited time available before the transfer window closes.





Middlesbrough midweek mauling

Three goals in sixteen second-half minutes saw Leeds unceremoniously dumped out of the Carabao Cup last night by fellow Championship outfit Middlesbrough. Leeds looked short of creativity and ideas, with much of what they were trying to achieve apparently well above their pay grade. Their often impenetrable backline of last season now seems more reminiscent of Russia's military defense - disjointed, disorganized, and desperate.

Exiting the League Cup early might not be the worst news had the starting line-up consisted players such as Crew, Debayo, and Chambers, but most who featured last night will be in Daniel Farke's lineup at the Hawthorns on Saturday lunchtime.





Bamford's race is run

It's fair to say that whilst Bielsa's brutal training methods turned the Whites into a lean mean fighting machine, the physicality was only going to be sustainable for so long! There's a reason why only Patrick Bamford (and Meslier) are the only remaining survivors of the Bielsa babes era. In the Argentine's own words, he would need to keep churning over the players on a three-year cycle to keep the squad fresh. Bamford has survived the culls thus far, due to his ridiculously high contract, which will see the 30yo leech off the club for a further two years!

Putting to one side his poor strike rate, his lack of team contribution makes him more of a liability than an asset. If he were a racehorse, there'd be a poignant smell of glue around Elland Road





Run like a League Two outfit

The thoughts of every Leeds supporter were encapsulated perfectly in one paragraph by Leeds United data expert Chris Taylor, following the conclusion of last night's thrashing. Fed up with the situation both on and off the pitch, the lifelong Whites fan, better known by his Twitter moniker @LUFCDATA pulled no punches in labelling the club 'Premier League in stature, but run like a League Two outfit'.

Leeds United continue to be a Premier League club in stature, plying its trade in the Championship but ran like a League Two club on so many levels (disrespectful to League Two clubs I know). Rinse and repeat. Dropped a lead balloon of epic proportions with this one.