In Hindsight

[Cjay]

Should we have kept Ronaldo Vieira, Jay Roy Grot and Caleb Ekuban?

Was never keen on selling Vieira and felt he was the player with the most potential in the squad. Bielsa wasnt keen on selling him either and while Vieira has struggled for game time in Italy (6 starts and 6 sub apps) he is being eased in to Italian football due to the difference between the Championship and Serie A, he is very well thought of at Sampdoria.

Additionally his stats when he has started are superior to Phillips in a number of waysagainst better teams (AC Milan and Roma included), higher pass accuracy, higher long pass accuracy (very little between passes attempted) more tackles, interceptions and clearances.

Really feel Vieira would have made every bit the improvement Phillips has and probably more.

Additionally as Bielsa has said Phillips is our only natural defensive midfielder (after being converted by Bielsa), Vieira was a natural dm and would have given us more flexibility.

Was always a fan of Ekuban, bless his heart if he could have found a goalscoring touch then he would have been perfect. Pace, power, great work rate, good link play, he had everything Bielsa would like but his finishing was poor, cant help but wonder if Bielsa could have helped him?

He seems to have found some form in Turkey to, 20 games (minutes played taken into account) 8 goals 2 assists.

Now an international with Ghana where he scored on his debut.

Given our own striking issues and the fact we only have 2 strikers should we have kept Caleb?

Finally Jay Roy Grot, he took dogs abuse last season and clearly was under to much pressure.

But still only 21 and given our own issues on the wing could he have been useful?

6ft4, powerful, pacey, he had a decent touch to and was able to beat a man, very raw but he had lots of things we lack.

Seems to have found some form back in Holland, 3 goals in his last 3 games (all sub games) 6 goals and 1 assist in total, considering he has only played 18 games worth of minutes thats decent.

So should we have kept these 3 in hindsight? Did Bielsa maybe get Grot and Ekuban wrong?

[The Subhuman]

You're preaching to the choir when it comes to Vierra, archetypal DMF, we'd probably be headed for the Prem had we kept him and MB worked a bit more magic.

[YorkshireSquare]

I think Ronnie is a class act, we should have kept him if we could have but unfortunately we are not quite at that level where we can afford to turn down big offers.

Jay Roy Grot and Caleb Ekuban are no better than what we have in my opinion. Had we had Chris Wood up front this season however and we'd be top of the table.

[SG90]

We couldn't afford to keep Ronny sadly. I do think we have two very good DMs in Diaz and Rey though.

Grot and Ekuban just aren't good enough sadly. They will have good careers elsewhere away from all the pressure at LUFC.

[weasel]

Grot is only out on loan isn't he so will be returning. Ekuban it looks like he will leave due to the sale clause in his loan contract - but it is a decent profit. Despite Ekuban's good form it still isn't anything spectacular so I think the £10m valuations are very wide of the mark so admittedly whilst we won't get a huge fee due to the fee agreed in the loan deal at least it is profit on a player that I still don't feel is good enough for us.

A shame RV was sold but we realistically only had 2 saleable players (that would bring in any decent money). So it was either him or PJ and presumably we didn't get any offers for PJ (or he turned the move down).

[Dalton]

Shame really that we didnt take ANY loan players on to save money, kept Ronaldo for Forshaw and kept Wood for Bamford.

Surely we would have won the league and only been a couple of mill worse off tops.

[The Subhuman]

Wood went to play in the prem didn't he?

[Dalton]

Wood went to play in the prem didn't he?

Yes fraid so. cant help but feel just 2 pieces of the jigsaw could have seen us alright
just that little extra class to swing it

[Cjay]

I think Ronnie is a class act, we should have kept him if we could have but unfortunately we are not quite at that level where we can afford to turn down big offers.

Jay Roy Grot and Caleb Ekuban are no better than what we have in my opinion. Had we had Chris Wood up front this season however and we'd be top of the table.

Think Radz was desperate and just grabbed the first offer he could.

£6-7mil for Ronnie was ridiculous in todays market imo.

A decorated youth international with over 50 1st team games to his name before he was out of his teens.

A player who months earlier had been named one of the top 20 under 20 players in the whole of Europe.

Forest had paid twice that for Carvalho a month before who was older withno where near the experience or reputation.

The price tag bothered me most and still think Radz got off far lighter then any other owner would have.

[Mick Jones shoulder]

Wood nowhere near mobile enough for a Bielsa side. Viera shame he went for relative peanuts.

[1964white]

I wish we could have kept Vieira but it was pretty obvious from the start that our board has no money & needed the dosh to shell out for Bamford.

I'm unconvinced Ronaldo would have been better than Phillips after the terrific season Kalvin has had in the white shirt of Leeds, Bielsa has transformed him into a top player so much so he :

Seriously challenged Pablo for player of the season
In the Championship team of the season
There is a £20 bid on the table from a prem club for Kalvin
He will play for England

I know some fans on here don't regard or rate him as highly as I do but it just seems some are underestimating KP for a player who wasn't the finished article. After saying that I have no doubt Ronaldo would have shown significant improvement under Bielsa's guidance

[BGwhite]

Wouldn't sell him for £20, 25 yes but not 20.

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