Good Morning. It's Wednesday 7th October, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Bayern Munich eye Muharemovic capture
Leeds United will face a tough battle to retain the services of star defender Tarik Muharemovic in 2027, with the Bosnian’s impressive performances in the Premier League thrusting him into the realms of super-stardom and firmly onto the radar of European heavyweights, Bayern Munich. The 23-year-old only arrived from Sassuolo in July, in a deal worth up to £34 million, and signed through to 2031. He was brought in as the left-footed centre-back to replace Pascal Struijk, and he has not looked like a new signing. Daniel Farke has started him in all five league games, and thus far Leeds are still unbeaten. He has already scored in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea and produced a backheeled assist for Dominic Calvert-Lewin.On international duty this month he helped Bosnia and Herzegovina to a clean sheet against Poland and returned among the higher-rated players in the camp. What he gives Leeds is balance and certainty at the back. At 1.92 metres, left-footed and happy on the left of the centre-back pair, he wins the aerial duels that used to drift toward Struijk’s side and clears the second balls that follow. He defends on the front foot when the striker is isolated, then drops into the spaces behind a high line without panicking. In possession he is calmer than the “no-nonsense” label suggests: short passes out of pressure, then the occasional clipped diagonal or through-ball into the channel.
Set pieces work both ways. He is a target when Leeds load the box and a body in the way when they are defending one.That profile is why the noise has started so early. Several reports this week suggest that Bayern have him listed as their top defensive target heading into 2027, with a January approach regarded as unrealistic and a summer push more likely. Other reporting has Inter and Barcelona in the same conversation. Leeds are said to value him north of £60 million and have no sporting reason to sell a player who has become the anchor of an unbeaten start. His contract runs to 2031. The performances are already making that number look negotiable.
Are fans getting disillusioned with International breaks
The season has barely started, and the Premier League has already vanished for three weeks. Five matchweeks in, the table was still taking shape. Form lines were short, new signings were still bedding in, and the first real arguments of the campaign were only just beginning. Then FIFA’s calendar stepped in. The old September and October windows were merged into one stretch from 21 September to 6 October, so national teams could play up to four matches rather than two. Club football resumes on Saturday with Arsenal against Leeds.For fans, that is not a pause. It is a hole punched in the only competition most of them actually follow week to week. There was a time when an international cap meant something scarce. Billy Wright became the first player to reach 100 caps in an era when England played roughly ten games a year and substitutes barely existed. Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton finished their careers in the same range. Cristiano Ronaldo’s total, well past 200, is the logical end of that inflation.
A cap is still an honour, but rarity was a large part of why the old internationals felt like events rather than fixtures. Nations League games, qualifiers and warm-ups arrive so often that an England or France night no longer stops the week. Many of the matches in this window were competitive on paper and still felt optional to the people who pay for season tickets. Players fly across continents, play three or four times in a short camp, and come back tired or injured just as the league restarts.
This break has already produced the familiar list: Erling Haaland limped off for Norway, Kai Havertz was forced off for Germany, Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo returned early to Liverpool. The next break arrives in November, then another in March. By then the fixture list will be heavier, European weeks will be stacked against league matches, and the same players will be asked to reset again. Caps can still matter, but they just do not need to be handed out like confetti in the middle of a league that has only just found its rhythm.
