Becchio, Byram & Lees....

[1964white]

Speculation all three players are being touted by various clubs

Lets see how many we keep this time.....i won't hold my breathe they'll still be here come February !

[ldj90]

you can be sure that we will hold onto them until January 31st, at which point an offer that was "too good to turn down" will be received, leaving us precisely no time whatsoever to bring in a replacement.

[becchio bear]

Speculation all three players are being touted by various clubs

Lets see how many we keep this time.....i won't hold my breathe they'll still be here come February !

We'll hold onto Becchio and Byram, if someone has to go then bye bye Lees

[Gurj]

I have to say I dont believe Mick Jones comments help..........I know he was probably only answering some questions from a journalist but I believe the response he gave kind of advertises that these boys are up for grabs if the bid is high enough !!
Surely he would have been better of just saying (even if he didnt believe it deep down) we are fighting for promotion and therefore not wanting to jeopardise that by selling our best players etc etc

NW only said 2 weeks ago that NO ONE would be sold unless Leeds wanted it to happen.......

[1964white]

I reckon we need to sell players to generate monies for new signings as we are skint just as we have been for the last twelve months. Wouldn't be surprised if GFH only have very limited funds for the players budget side of the club
Funny how desperate Warnock was in November/December wishing for the transfer window to open & a week gone by in January....absolutely nothing !

[1964white]

I have to say I dont believe Mick Jones comments help..........I know he was probably only answering some questions from a journalist but I believe the response he gave kind of advertises that these boys are up for grabs if the bid is high enough !!
Surely he would have been better of just saying (even if he didnt believe it deep down) we are fighting for promotion and therefore not wanting to jeopardise that by selling our best players etc etc

NW only said 2 weeks ago that NO ONE would be sold unless Leeds wanted it to happen.......

What do you expect from Warnock's sidekick ? just one part of the IDIOT BRIGADE running our club

[Gurj]

I reckon we need to sell players to generate monies for new signings as we are skint just as we have been for the last twelve months. Wouldn't be surprised if GFH only have very limited funds for the players budget side of the club
Funny how desperate Warnock was in November/December wishing for the transfer window to open & a week gone by in January....absolutely nothing !

I think we need to give GFH a chance here Leon........hardly any club has ventured in the transfer market seriously so far. It's still very early days in the transfer window. Most stuff happens towards the end of the month.

[Crude]

I think we need to give GFH a chance here Leon........hardly any club has ventured in the transfer market seriously so far. It's still very early days in the transfer window. Most stuff happens towards the end of the month.

Good post!

[1964white]

I think we need to give GFH a chance here Leon........hardly any club has ventured in the transfer market seriously so far. It's still very early days in the transfer window. Most stuff happens towards the end of the month.

Leicester straight in for their main target Chris Wood to beat the competition, Wood has already been instrumental in two winning games for the Foxes. Grab the players & points now if a club has serious intent on promotion. We could lose our next three games, then by the end of January we maybe further behind & chasing the pack once again, plus players have less time to bed into the team !

[Gino 1959]

I think we need to give GFH a chance here Leon........hardly any club has ventured in the transfer market seriously so far. It's still very early days in the transfer window. Most stuff happens towards the end of the month.

Leicester straight in for their main target Chris Wood to beat the competition, Wood has already been istrumental in two winning games for the Foxes. Grab the players & points now if a club has serious intent on promotion.

I kind of agree with both posts - there is an element of 'wait and see' in terms of probably not knowing at this stage who is actually available - but I would prefer that we were proactive like Leicester were with Wood, which came across to me as a definite statement of intent.

[Twiggster]

I have heard that the Wood deal to the crisps was signed pre contract last year - before our new owners put pen to paper.

[theleedsmango]

When you are offering average, or around there, fees and wages...the big clubs will be happy to wait throughout January until a better offer comes through. Especially given the extra publicity "Leeds interested in James Pace and Jimmy Lightning" will cause, will attract other clubs.

I imagine for Leeds its a case of parent club saying "Mr Pace is worth £500k" whilst Leeds only value him at £250k and are prepared to wait it out because both clubs know he's worth less than the £500k. Leicester probably just jumped in there with a £1m bid and took him home there and then.

All 3 of our potential losses may be just rumours; although all credit to Jones living up to his title of "Ass Man" by coming out and talking about fear of losing Becchio to encourage more bids. Excellent work there...

I hear we are after Hill, which effectively means we couldn't get Tate. If true I hope it's on a 6 month loan because he just won't be good enough for what we need.

[The Subhuman]

god forbid we lose any of them.

[1964white]

god forbid we lose any of them.

Doesn't bear thinking about

[weasel]

Delph and Gradel are the only players in the last 5 years who were sold but weren't in the last year of their contract (or in the case of Snoddy entering his last year and not going to sign). I may even be wrong about Gradel cos think he was in the last year too. I don't get where all the pessimism comes from about us supposedly selling everyone because it simply isn't true. Would people rather we carried on keeping hold of players and then watching them leave on frees such as Beckford and Johnson?

Like it or not until we are a premiership side we will always be f*cked if a player has a good season because he will attract premiership interest and as such want premiership wages which leaves us unable to get them to sign new contracts.

[1964white]

Delph and Gradel are the only players in the last 5 years who were sold but weren't in the last year of their contract (or in the case of Snoddy entering his last year and not going to sign). I may even be wrong about Gradel cos think he was in the last year too. I don't get where all the pessimism comes from about us supposedly selling everyone because it simply isn't true. Would people rather we carried on keeping hold of players and then watching them leave on frees such as Beckford and Johnson?

Like it or not until we are a premiership side we will always be f*cked if a player has a good season because he will attract premiership interest and as such want premiership wages which leaves us unable to get them to sign new contracts.

I don't know about that Weasel...Norwich, Southampton, Reading & Swansea managed to hold onto their better players in their quest & rise towards the premiership...Different story at Leeds it seems
We are a mid-table championship side now, take out Becchio & Byram & we are left with basically a average/dross team which will struggle to even make mid-table mediocrity unless we replaced them with similar quality which hasn't been the case over the last ten years

[weasel]

I don't know about that Weasel...Norwich, Southampton, Reading & Swansea managed to hold onto their better players in their quest & rise towards the premiership...Different story at Leeds it seems
We are a mid-table championship side now, take out Becchio & Byram & we are left with basically a average/dross team which will struggle to even make mid-table mediocrity unless we replaced them with similar quality which hasn't been the case over the last ten years

Southampton and Norwich both achieved back to back promotions. Far easier to keep players when doing that as not many players make the leap from League 1 to a prem move (Delph and Beckford did but fairly rare). If Norwich or Southampton had not gone straight through the Championship then the likes of Wigan etc may well have been able to buy their players with the lure of the prem.

Reading had been in the prem and as such had the pyramid payments to keep the players on high wages.
Swansea were unable to keep Bessone when he left on a free to come to us when both were in the Championship. They did however sell Bertrand to Chelsea, Khinashvilli to Blackburn, Shane Long to WBA, Matt Mills to Leicester etc.

Swansea went from League 1 to Prem with just 1 additional season in the Championship. Despite this they sold leading scorer Jason Scotland to Wigan along with Jordi Gomez during their championship time. They also sold Stephen Dobbie to Blackpool. So basically Swansea did sell first team players at a similar ratio to us.

If we'd have achieved back to back promotions I rather think we'd have been able to get Johnson, Howson & Snodgrass to sign new contracts.

[Blakerb-LUFC]

Weasel, you seem perfectly happy with everything that goes on at our club?
Will you be happy still if the rot really sets in and we end up in L1 or worse L2 with no hope of clearing this 19.5m approx
worth of debt?

Its good to put a positive twist on things or a realistic one at times but the difference between us and all the other team that got promoted was speculate to accumulate.

Alot of fans seem to accept we have no money, we cant compete but yet watch these teams get promoted whilst we stay in mediocrity.

Every single one of these clubs that went up had a smaller fan base, lesser infrastructure and a worse youth academy.
Go on, justify it now, I'm sure you can make it all make sense so that the reality hurts less.

You do have to show ambition and open the purse strings, it leads to a better footballing and financial future in the end when you do it right (not ridsdale-type obviously)


Regarding Swansea, Weasel.

Here are some in depth figures during 2 seasons from the championship.

Compare them with ours, please..

Players in 2010/2011

PLAYER FROM FEE DATE
Scott Sinclair Chelsea £500,000 09 Aug, 2010
Kemy Agustien AZ Alkmaar Free 09 Sep, 2010
Luke Moore West Brom £850,000 07 Jan, 2011
Ryan Harley Exeter Free 20 Jan, 2011
Leon Britton Sheff Utd £400,000 21 Jan, 2011
Danny Graham Watford £3,500,000 07 Jun, 2011
Total: £5,250,000
Players out
PLAYER TO FEE DATE
Marcos Painter Brighton Free 01 Aug, 2010
Leon Britton Sheff Utd Free 01 Aug, 2010
Kristian O'Leary Neath Free 01 Aug, 2010
Chad Bond Neath Signed 04 Aug, 2010
Jordi Lopez Vitesse Arn. Signed 20 Jan, 2011
Shefki Kuqi Newcastle Free 10 Feb, 2011
Kerry Morgan Neath Free 31 May, 2011
Alberto Serran AEK Larnaca Free 31 May, 2011
Dorus De Vries Wolves Free 22 Jun, 2011
Total: £0

2011/12

Players In

PLAYER FROM FEE DATE
Jose Moreira Benfica Signed 08 Jul, 2011
Leroy Lita Middlesbro £1,750,000 03 Aug, 2011
Wayne Routledge Newcastle Signed 04 Aug, 2011
Michel Vorm FC Utrecht Signed 10 Aug, 2011
Gerhard Tremmel RB Salzburg Signed 30 Aug, 2011
Fede Bessone Leeds Free 31 Aug, 2011
Darnel Situ Buyente Lens Signed 31 Aug, 2011
Rory Donnelly Cliftonville Signed 10 Jan, 2012
Curtis Obeng Wrexham Signed 31 Jan, 2012
Total: £1,750,000
Players out
PLAYER TO FEE DATE
Darren Pratley Bolton Free 01 Jul, 2011
Ryan Harley Brighton Signed 15 Aug, 2011
Shaun MacDonald Bournemouth Signed 26 Aug, 2011
Yves Makaba-Makalamby Mechelen Free 15 Oct, 2011
Total: £0

[1964white]

Weasel, you seem perfectly happy with everything that goes on at our club?
Will you be happy still if the rot really sets in and we end up in L1 or worse L2 with no hope of clearing this 19.5m approx
worth of debt?

Its good to put a positive twist on things or a realistic one at times but the difference between us and all the other team that got promoted was speculate to accumulate.

Alot of fans seem to accept we have no money, we cant compete but yet watch these teams get promoted whilst we stay in mediocrity.

Every single one of these clubs that went up had a smaller fan base, lesser infrastructure and a worse youth academy.
Go on, justify it now, I'm sure you can make it all make sense so that the reality hurts less.

You do have to show ambition and open the purse strings, it leads to a better footballing and financial future in the end when you do it right (not ridsdale-type obviously)


Regarding Swansea, Weasel.

Here are some in depth figures during 2 seasons from the championship.

Compare them with ours, please..

Players in 2010/2011

PLAYER FROM FEE DATE
Scott Sinclair Chelsea £500,000 09 Aug, 2010
Kemy Agustien AZ Alkmaar Free 09 Sep, 2010
Luke Moore West Brom £850,000 07 Jan, 2011
Ryan Harley Exeter Free 20 Jan, 2011
Leon Britton Sheff Utd £400,000 21 Jan, 2011
Danny Graham Watford £3,500,000 07 Jun, 2011
Total: £5,250,000
Players out
PLAYER TO FEE DATE
Marcos Painter Brighton Free 01 Aug, 2010
Leon Britton Sheff Utd Free 01 Aug, 2010
Kristian O'Leary Neath Free 01 Aug, 2010
Chad Bond Neath Signed 04 Aug, 2010
Jordi Lopez Vitesse Arn. Signed 20 Jan, 2011
Shefki Kuqi Newcastle Free 10 Feb, 2011
Kerry Morgan Neath Free 31 May, 2011
Alberto Serran AEK Larnaca Free 31 May, 2011
Dorus De Vries Wolves Free 22 Jun, 2011
Total: £0

2011/12

Players In

PLAYER FROM FEE DATE
Jose Moreira Benfica Signed 08 Jul, 2011
Leroy Lita Middlesbro £1,750,000 03 Aug, 2011
Wayne Routledge Newcastle Signed 04 Aug, 2011
Michel Vorm FC Utrecht Signed 10 Aug, 2011
Gerhard Tremmel RB Salzburg Signed 30 Aug, 2011
Fede Bessone Leeds Free 31 Aug, 2011
Darnel Situ Buyente Lens Signed 31 Aug, 2011
Rory Donnelly Cliftonville Signed 10 Jan, 2012
Curtis Obeng Wrexham Signed 31 Jan, 2012
Total: £1,750,000
Players out
PLAYER TO FEE DATE
Darren Pratley Bolton Free 01 Jul, 2011
Ryan Harley Brighton Signed 15 Aug, 2011
Shaun MacDonald Bournemouth Signed 26 Aug, 2011
Yves Makaba-Makalamby Mechelen Free 15 Oct, 2011
Total: £0

Interesting Blake...the other factor is Swansea, Reading, Norwich & the Saints employed up & coming managers with the necessary nous required to do the job

[Kyle_5351]

It's a hard one. If you receive a whole lot more than someone is worth, should you take it?

I guess that all depends as to whether you have cover (which we don't) and if you could use that money to get someone better in. During January I see that as a stretch. I would rather wait until summer and keep the players we have.