Marching On Together

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


One stumbling block in the way of Rodon's £10m-£15m transfer

Multiple back page stories are suggesting Spurs have set Leeds a very affordable £10m - £15m asking price for Joe Rodon, but there is one obstacle in their way.

The Welsh International is only interested in making the move permanent if Leeds win promotion! The 26yo centre-back has been in the form of his life this season, and is well on the way to 3500 minutes of game time this season (for club and Country).

His performance on the pitch have not gone unnoticed. Most clubs in the bottom half of the top flight would give their right arm to have him at their club, especially for such a negligible amount, but if Leeds can win promotion, he wants to stay.





Anything less than £30m would not make financial sense

Leeds are open to the idea of selling Jack Harrison in the Summer, even if they get promoted, according to an article by Journalist Pete O'Rourke.

The 27 year old has made a real impact at Goodison Park since joining on loan last August. Everton have already expressed their desire to make the move permanent, and now they may get their wish.

The emergence in form of Crysencio Summerville, Wilfred Gnonto and Dan James has meant the Whites no longer have a need for Harrison - nevertheless, he remains one of Leeds Utd's Crown Jewells.

He signed a new four year deal last April, tying him down until the Summer of 2028. This should at least put Leeds in the driving seat, and negotiate a decent profit!

He joined the Whites from Manchester City in the Summer of 2021 for £11m, plus £9m in loan fee's from the previous three campaigns. We know Everton have no money - we didn't even receive a loan fee for him.

Any offer that the Toffee's make is likely to be well under market value, but will Leeds buckle under the pressure like they have done so many times before? Any deal less than £30m would be scandalous, and surely not make financial sense!





Radz tried to renege on Raphinha deal

During a recent interview, Deco has claimed that Andrea Radrizzani tried to renege on a promise to sell Raphinha to Barcelona, after Chelsea tried to hijack the deal!

The former Portuguese star was acting as Raphinha's agent, but just wanted to make Raphinha's dream come true (of joining Barcelona), and even waived his fee to try to make it happen.

In truth, many consider Deco a parasite. It has been suggested that the 46yo had more than a vested interest in Raphinha joining Barcelona, and as such should not have been acting as his agent.

Football is a dirty game, especially behind the scenes, and agents blur the lines even further. Radrizzani wanted to sell his prized asset to the highest bidder, as is his right, wouldn't anyone else do the same?

Leeds wanted to sell Raphinha. Then bids came in, even bigger than Barcelona’s. The owner of Chelsea [Todd Boehly] called, put pressure on me, really wanted Raphinha. The owner of Leeds had promised, in a desperate moment for Leeds, to sell Raphinha to Barcelona for a certain amount.

After the club avoided relegation, largely due to Raphinha’s contribution, the president changed his stance because of Chelsea’s offer. I did waive my fee because I thought Raphinha deserved to be happy where he dreamed of playing. He wanted Barcelona. It was an effort I made so he could be here.

on Roddon its obvious we can afford him but all hinges on whether we go up or not, he's ceratinly a good defender worthy of playing in the premier league, so we had better make sure we get promoted or it will be our loss

So Rodon is a mercenary too? What a shock!!

Actually it's probably click bait bullshit

Let’s not fool ourselves - if we don’t get promoted this season Rodon will not be the only one we’ll lose.

We have the right balance, we just need to keep our nerve and deliver.

Morning all.
Rodon will stay no matter what, the fans love him and he loves the fans , the club and all that goes with it, next we'll be seeing same story about Ampadu, both have now finally found a spiritual home, they won't want to lose that, plus a manager that has more faith in them than anybody else has.

It would be just like Leeds United to lose out big style on harrison and any other player, unless the 49ers have decided enough is enough.

Feck raphina and deco.

Carrick Dave wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:45 am Let’s not fool ourselves - if we don’t get promoted this season Rodon will not be the only one we’ll lose.

We have the right balance, we just need to keep our nerve and deliver.

Absolutely agree with that comment. A good few have been in the shop window now. And everything hinges on going up

Scoobychief wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 10:11 am Absolutely agree with that comment. A good few have been in the shop window now. And everything hinges on going up

You could say that
You could also flip the coin and say, we'll maybe lose summerville and his sidekick, the rest are here to finish the project, and give it another season.

Morning EB et all,

All of our players are in the shop window, if we don't get promoted there will be clubs and agents all over our 1st Team squad trying to get a deal done, some will have their heads turned, others won't have a choice as the club will need to sell them and a couple might just say no and stay so pretty much like every summer window then really.

We need to dig our heels in over Jackie, £30m should be the minimum and if Everton can't afford it plenty of other mid to low table Prem teams can and would love to have him in their teams so come on 49s turn the table start touting him around now build up a bidding war.

Raph, Deco who cares didn't he leave, he's not our player, Radz isn't even our owner now, move on.

methinks you could spend £30m a bit more wisely than Jack Harrison

The Subhuman wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:36 am So Rodon is a mercenary too? What a shock!!

Actually it's probably click bait bullshit

great point

just goes to show the hypocrisy of a Leeds (or general football) fan!

The Subhuman wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:36 am So Rodon is a mercenary too? What a shock!!

Not quite the same situation, as he's only here on loan from a premier league side. Not like he signed for us, got us relegated, then fucked us about.

There is no loyalty in football any more, money talks and players will say all the right things when they arrive at their new clubs to make themselves sound good.
Rodon has been great for us and as part of our club he is playing for the shirt and doing all that he can to help us get promoted. We cant ask any more from him than that. Whether he stays or goes at the end of the season is irrelevant at this moment in time.
Glad we have him

Sara wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:40 am Not quite the same situation, as he's only here on loan from a premier league side. Not like he signed for us, got us relegated, then fucked us about.

I'd agree but if we're going off the quote it seems he's made a choice and that choice is mercenary. It's seems exactly the same as the Wobers/Harrison/Sinsterra's etc, the latter being the only true numpty as he appears to have threatened to sue and you just don't do that and expect to come back...

Aaronson looks the only one we'll make a substantial loss on, and all team take hits on players. If you have a 60% hit rate on player buys that's a great return.

Again not wishing to call Rodon out as it's probably some arsehole of a clickbaiter winding Leeds fans up.

I'd argue all day that really s**t management got us relegated and not the players who were good enough to keep us up if we had a halfway competant manager in charge.

You set up a team to fail, it's gonna fail, and ours were just not fit enough to go the distance, Marsch's "system" failed spectacularly and at the end we looked a disorganised mess, (it happened under Chritiansen too)

mentalcase wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:46 am Morning all.
Rodon will stay no matter what, the fans love him and he loves the fans , the club and all that goes with it, next we'll be seeing same story about Ampadu, both have now finally found a spiritual home, they won't want to lose that, plus a manager that has more faith in them than anybody else has.

It would be just like Leeds United to lose out big style on harrison and any other player, unless the 49ers have decided enough is enough.

Feck raphina and deco.

Did we not think Raphinia loved the club also ?

Mental forget honourable Romantic notions that players love the club so much it is their primary career focus. They don’t - they love their families and they are far more likely to make themselves financially secure above everything else. That will not happen by signing for a Championship club. Especially at his age.
It is plainly obvious that we need promotion this season to even contemplate retaining what we perceive to be our Crown Jewels.

Harrison will have a sell out clause - can you honestly see him sighing a new contract at the back end of last season after the Leicester fiasco and our likely imminent relegation. I have seen reports it is 20 million, which sounds about right. It will not stop the “ why do we always get fecked over brigade” from piping up if and when this happens.

Pretty obvious that Rodon will be playing in the premier league next season. Just hope it's with us, And that's a really good fee if the story is true.

Harrison: I'd hold out for decent money. Otherwise I'd take him back. We have decent wingers. But we do need to add a few to our squad if we're a premier league team. And who's to say we won't lose any of those we have. Could be lucrative bids coming in for Summerville especially.

That Raphinha story is old news. We knew at the time Chelsea came in with a late bid. And that Raphinha only wanted to go to Barcelona.

Forgot about Harrison TBH. Pretty happy to sell him given our current squad. Don’t think he’d be in the first team at the moment.

Echo others here. Rodon will be one of a few we might lose if we don’t go up.

I think it will be a massive reset if we don’t go up, and statistically it is more difficult the second season to get promoted.

DDB220 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 3:01 pm Did we not think Raphinia loved the club also ?

Mental forget honourable Romantic notions that players love the club so much it is their primary career focus. They don’t - they love their families and they are far more likely to make themselves financially secure above everything else. That will not happen by signing for a Championship club. Especially at his age.
It is plainly obvious that we need promotion this season to even contemplate retaining what we perceive to be our Crown Jewels.

Harrison will have a sell out clause - can you honestly see him sighing a new contract at the back end of last season after the Leicester fiasco and our likely imminent relegation. I have seen reports it is 20 million, which sounds about right. It will not stop the “ why do we always get fecked over brigade” from piping up if and when this happens.

I don't think raphina loved the club, just used us, I rated him in the English, he's ceratinly lost his way in Spain.

I don't have any romantic notions, you and I are too long in the tooth to think, but I do think Joe has seriously taken the club to heart, as I say, himself and Amps have now found a home and a manager with trust, hopefully they repay the faith a bit longer than others have.

Harrison, never been a favourite of mine, wouldn't get back in this team, might next season if we lose WG & CS though.
Let's hope we get promoted this season , it will certainly help with negotiations.

Sara wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:40 am Not quite the same situation, as he's only here on loan from a premier league side. Not like he signed for us, got us relegated, then fucked us about.

I always appreciate your thoughts Sara, and i don't know about you, but i've recently found some inner peace reading between the lines of what DF puts out in his interviews.

He's made me feel he's in control, and after the clown the relief is making me feel like he's proper hands on, i just sense the whole backroom team are on his wavelength including the owners. The vast majority is common sense stuff, like the Roberts signing, we know there's still lots to sort out, but i just feel like we're in safe hands for once, and very much opposite to 'rudderless'

How do you actually feel things are shaping up ?

It is straightforward with Rodon. He will be in the last year of his contract so Spurs will be looking to sell and Rodon will be looking to get a decent 4 or 5 year deal with a premier league club - likely it will be his last big deal due to his age. If we don't go up then it is highly unlikely we could offer him the sort of deal a prem club could. It wouldn't be anything other than Rodon looking after his family. If we go up and offer Rodon a contract similar to what he could get elsewhere and he went elsewhere that would be disappointing. Whatever happens and wherever he goes if he has helped us get promoted then I will wish him well. After all another welshman, Vincent Jones, was only with us just over a season.

If we are talking £30m for Harrison then break the bank for Rodon (in terms of wages) and convince the kid is future is secure here in West Yorkshire. You can see he loves playing for Leeds United. I can't see his International career being in jeopardy if he was to give it another year in the Championship. I do think we will go up but in the worst case scenario we would smash the league next year. Gnonto, Jimmy & Possibly Rutter would be sold for big big bucks it would be about the right recruitment to go again. £10-15m is a steal in any league.

Regards Raph. We got to witness an elite footballer in West Yorkshire again after a long time. What i liked about Raph was he played every game like it was his last.