2019/20 Transfer Rumours & Discussion Thread

[YorkshireSquare]

Vurnon Anita contract cancelled...

Next to go was Vurnon Anita who departed the club my mutual consent. The signing of Anita in July 2017 always seemed like a useful one on paper, a versatile defensive midfielder with experience of promotion. His appearances for Leeds were limited to providing cover for Luke Ayling and Gaetano Berardi at full back to limited success. Anita managed 18 appearances for Leeds but was not given a shirt number ahead of the 2018-2019 season as part of the Bielsa revolution. Last season was spent on loan at Willem II with rumours of a move to Panathinaikos or MLS emerging this summer but failed to materialise. With 12 months left on his Leeds contract a mutual parting of the ways seems like the best option for a player who will not get a look in at Leeds this season.

[YorkshireSquare]

Conor Shaughnessy on loan to Mansfield...

Defender Conor Shaughnessy also joined Mansfield Town on a season-long loan. Shaughnessy started his career at Reading’s academy, signing for Leeds United after a successful trial in September 2016. His first team debut came just under a year later during a victory away at Bolton Wanderers in August 2017. A serious ankle injury limited his opportunities for the rest of the 2017-2018 season. Despite starting against Preston in August 2018 was not in Marcelo Bielsa’s plans and he went on load to Hearts in January 2019 where he picked up a Scottish Cup Runners Up medal. The move to Mansfield will be an opportunity for the 23 year old to get his career back on track with regular football.

[Cjay]

Good old Victor has appeared in the Italian press in time for January to tell us how skint we are and how difficult January windows are yada yada

"We have made a conservative line in the summer, we will do it in winter. The new ones need time, in January there are few options. 

"I can say that it will be a quiet market for Leeds. We have information and ideas but I believe little in the winter market. Only 25% of winter shots are successful, it's incredible."

Please learn from last Season.

[1964white]

Good old Victor has appeared in the Italian press in time for January to tell us how skint we are and how difficult January windows are yada yada

"We have made a conservative line in the summer, we will do it in winter. The new ones need time, in January there are few options. 

"I can say that it will be a quiet market for Leeds. We have information and ideas but I believe little in the winter market. Only 25% of winter shots are successful, it's incredible."

Please learn from last Season.

All the usual bullsh*t, where has Orta got that 25% success-rate figure from ?

Why are we not surprised CJay

Our fans were going nuts when Cellino & Bates were voicing such blarney

[weasel]

Christ people just want to always have a pop. Of course it will be quieter in January than in the summer. New arrivals in January have to hit the ground running and get used to Bielsa's methods whereas those arriving in the summer can have a few weeks and even then it wasn't long enough in the case of Costa and Eddie for them to be fully accustomed to the Bielsa way.

Last season if we'd have got the James deal over the line I think it would have been a great window. This season at most I would have thought we need 1 or 2 players at the most and to be honest a lot of that would depend on if Eddie and/or White were recalled or what the injury situation is like. Why would we be looking to bring in more than that?

But hey we're Leeds so let's shoot down someone speaking common sense.

[Cjay]

All the usual bullsh*t, where has Orta got that 25% success-rate figure from ?

Why are we not surprised CJay

Our fans were going nuts when Cellino & Bates were voicing such blarney

Commercial side i think Radz has done well tbf to him.

Transfer wise he hasnt, lower net spend under Radz then any other Chairman i read in the summer.

Over £50mil in fees paid to the club, have we seen that reinvested well?

And when you trot out the line about QSI making us on a level with Man City can you really then not spend in January?

[Cjay]

Christ people just want to always have a pop. Of course it will be quieter in January than in the summer. New arrivals in January have to hit the ground running and get used to Bielsa's methods whereas those arriving in the summer can have a few weeks and even then it wasn't long enough in the case of Costa and Eddie for them to be fully accustomed to the Bielsa way.

Last season if we'd have got the James deal over the line I think it would have been a great window. This season at most I would have thought we need 1 or 2 players at the most and to be honest a lot of that would depend on if Eddie and/or White were recalled or what the injury situation is like. Why would we be looking to bring in more than that?

But hey we're Leeds so let's shoot down someone speaking common sense.

A quality number 10 is a must imo.

And our January business is always crap, last season was a joke and the previous one was to.

We always mess up in January and for 3 seasons in a row we have largely all pointed to this as a major factor in us falling away in the promotion race for 3 seasons running.

They always come out with this stuff every Novemberish time and people defend it and then January is always a let down and we fall away.

Then the club tell us how hard it was and they tried and lessons learned.

Will wait and see and pray for camels but the last 3 seasons dont give much room for optimism that we will use January positively like others teams have in the past.

Understand the point about Bielsa but given how he has never until last January wanted signings in January (something he did confirm himself aslong as they are better then what we have) then i think if MB agrees to a player coming in January then he will play them fairly sharpish.

Dan James for example i think would have been in the 1st team quickly enough.

[Sara]

Lowest net spend, and yet we're competing at the top for the second season running. Whereas Stoke, for example, have spent tens of millions and made dozens of signings. Bielsa is not Harry Redknapp, he doesn't work by flinging the cheque book at it.

White, Costa, Nketiah, Casilla, all quality players. The only transaction I regret is losing Roofe, but that may yet pay off if Nketiah gets us 10 or 20 goals by the end of the season.

For every club succeeding at buying promotion, many more have failed. I would prefer us to be prudently run, whilst making consistent improvements.

The signing of Bielsa has transformed the club in a relatively short space of time - this is the context to take, not 'why aren't we Man City yet'!

[Chilli D]

Good old Victor has appeared in the Italian press in time for January to tell us how skint we are and how difficult January windows are yada yada

"We have made a conservative line in the summer, we will do it in winter. The new ones need time, in January there are few options. 

"I can say that it will be a quiet market for Leeds. We have information and ideas but I believe little in the winter market. Only 25% of winter shots are successful, it's incredible."

Please learn from last Season.

The "only 25% of winter signings are successful" quote is absolute nonsense.
Has he reviewed evry single January signing and personally decided which ones were and which ones weren't successful in his opinion.
What constitues a failure?
A striker bought in to score goals but only gets 5 instead of a target of 10 even though he plays consistently well?
A defender who plays well every game but the team concedes more goals?
To an outsider they seem like a failure but to the club they may be delighted with them.
I have no idea how you would even quantify it?
Taking Weasel's point about January signings having less time to bed in than those bought in the summer, then the number of successes is probably higher if you take the following season in to account.
I don't doubt for a moment that VO is correct about us having a quiet January window, nothing new there, but the 25% comment is just ridiculous.

[1964white]

I know we have a 100% failure rate over decades in not making the necessary signings required

[1964white]

Lowest net spend, and yet we're competing at the top for the second season running. Whereas Stoke, for example, have spent tens of millions and made dozens of signings. Bielsa is not Harry Redknapp, he doesn't work by flinging the cheque book at it.

We are not advocating spending tens of millions Sara, just add a couple of quality signings to get us over the finishing line, we can't afford to mess up this time. It's now or never as the song goes

[Norm]

Is it assumed that this is Bielsa's last season Leon?
I honestly don't know what the state of play is with that one.

[Norm]

I also don't know about Corberon's current standing.
There was talk of him succeeding Bielsa if he left but I haven't heard any more of that.

[SG90]

Bielsa won't pick them anyway, so pointless signing anyone. But we need another Pablo, a winger and if Nketiah and White are recalled, we must replace them. No ifs or buts.

[1964white]

Is it assumed that this is Bielsa's last season Leon?
I honestly don't know what the state of play is with that one.

All speculation Norm

I suspect this maybe Marcelo's last season

[1964white]

Bielsa won't pick them anyway, so pointless signing anyone. But we need another Pablo, a winger and if Nketiah and White are recalled, we must replace them. No ifs or buts.

How the hell do we replace White if he goes?

[SG90]

How the hell do we replace White if he goes?

Well I thought we'd struggle to replace Jansson ... Likelihood would be Berardi-Cooper partnership

[1964white]

Well I thought we'd struggle to replace Jansson ... Likelihood would be Berardi-Cooper partnership

For the final four months.....OMG

[weasel]

When looking at how well White has done I can't help but wonder if he'd have done anywhere near as well at any other club. Biesla somehow has managed to transform average players (Cooper, Dallas etc) into good players and potentially good players (KP, White etc) into great players. Bielsa has made Berardi look comfortable as a centreback and certainly not look out of place, yes people point to a lack of height but that would have been the same for Berardi if he'd been a centreback all his life, Bielsa can make players better but can't make them taller.

[1964white]

When looking at how well White has done I can't help but wonder if he'd have done anywhere near as well at any other club. Biesla somehow has managed to transform average players (Cooper, Dallas etc) into good players and potentially good players (KP, White etc) into great players. Bielsa has made Berardi look comfortable as a centreback and certainly not look out of place, yes people point to a lack of height but that would have been the same for Berardi if he'd been a centreback all his life, Bielsa can make players better but can't make them taller.

Will be interesting to see how Bielsa's players develop under their future managers/coaches