The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

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Breakfast Debate The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by YorkshireSquare »



Good Morning. It's Tuesday 20th July, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...


Leeds poised to sign Chelsea starlet Lewis Bate

The Daily Mail have reported that Leeds are one of a few clubs interested in signing 18-year-old Chelsea youngster Lewis Bate, whose current contract at Stamford Bridge is due to expire next summer. Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton also want the midfielder. Victor Orta is said to have admired the England youth international for a long time. The deep-lying central midfielder was a prominent part of Chelsea’s Premier League 2 campaign last season as well as wearing the captain's armband on two occasions in the FA Youth Cup. A 'slight but combative midfield player with an eye for a defence-splitting forward pass' he could be the young understudy for Kalvin Phillips Leeds have been looking for.

Bate has been stalling on signing a new deal with Chelsea which has prompted a number of clubs including Leeds to take a look. The player himself has fuelled the speculation of a move to Elland Road himself by following a number of Leeds players on Instagram. Amongst those followed are Raphinha, Kalvin Phillips, Patrick Bamford, Tyler Roberts, Sam Greenwood and Joe Gelhardt. Does Lewis Bate excite you as a signing, is he the young player we need to provide backup for Kalvin Phillips in that defensive midfield role? If he did sign could you see him spending the whole season playing for the U23s or would you expect him to deputise for Kalvin Phillips in the first team?




Pre-season fixtures get underway next week

Leeds United are set to kick off their 2021-2022 pre-season next week starting on Tuesday at Nethermoor Park against Guiseley before heading to Ewood Park on Wednesday to take on Blackburn Rovers. Leeds will have 4,500 tickets for the game with the potential for more based on sales. Tickets go on sale this morning at 10.30am to 2019/20 Away Season Ticket Holders who have purchased a 2021/22 Home Season Ticket or 2021/22 My Leeds Membership, then at 2.00pm to 2021/22 Home Season Ticket Holders on a first come, first served basis. Remaining tickets will go on sale to My Leeds Members on Thursday 22nd July.

It will be the first opportunity for Leeds United to (legitimately) go to an away game since February 2020 when Leeds beat Hull City 4-0 at the KCOM Stadium. Will you be heading over to Lancashire? Are you excited for pre-season? With so many fixtures in such a short time it will be an opportunity for the younger players to get some game time and for Bielsa to experiment as he tends to do in these games. Will we learn much about the team from these games? The 4-3 defeat to Oxford in 2018 didn’t exactly show us what to expect come Marcelo Bielsa’s first competitive game in charge against Stoke City!





Leeds youngsters in demand

Mark Jackson’s U23s side had an incredible first season in the Premier League 2. A nine-game winning streak saw them crowned Division 2 champions winning promotion to Division 1 in the process. It’s no surprise then that members of the side have attracted attention from other clubs. Cody Drameh and Sam Greenwood are amongst the names on the wanted lists with clubs poised to make a move should Leeds show any signs of sending them out on loan. Crysencio Summerville is another player attracting interest from clubs in Belgium and Holland.

But Leeds are showing no signs of letting the players go. Marcelo Bielsa famously prefers for the young players closest to breaking through to the senior squad to remain at the club, training in his methods, developing under his careful watch. With the likes of Gelhardt, Drameh, Greenwood and Summerville set to stay at Thorp Arch this coming season do you think any of them will make the breakthrough into the first team? If they don’t get their chance this season could they start to push for first team football elsewhere next summer?


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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by SG90 »

Morning all.

I'm excited about Lewis Bate signing. He's one of the best young midfielders in England. However he isn't going to leave Chelsea u23s to come to play in our u23s. There must be a promise of first team football.

Summerville should definitely go on loan, he was playing Eredivisie football before and is too good for the u23s. I'd loan Greenwood too, as I can't see him getting any game time. Drameh I'd keep as an understudy to Ayling, but Bielsa will probably play someone out of position than give him a chance.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by Ratscoot »

Morning EB et all

Bate looks an exciting talent although from the clips he looks a more attacking Midfielder than a DM as said I don't think he'd come here to play in the U23s so perhaps Prem games he'd be bench warming hoping for the chance to get on and he'd be used for all the Cup games.

I'm a bit on the fence with the U23s yes it would be good for them to go get experience but we all enjoyed them smashing the League last season so why not keep them together plus a few of them must be on the verge of first team debuts so they can't do that if thy are out on loan.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by whiteroseboy »

Ratscoot wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:40 am Morning EB et all

Bate looks an exciting talent although from the clips he looks a more attacking Midfielder than a DM as said I don't think he'd come here to play in the U23s so perhaps Prem games he'd be bench warming hoping for the chance to get on and he'd be used for all the Cup games.

I'm a bit on the fence with the U23s yes it would be good for them to go get experience but we all enjoyed them smashing the League last season so why not keep them together plus a few of them must be on the verge of first team debuts so they can't do that if thy are out on loan.
Agree on both accounts Bate looks more attacking style midfielder from what short clips I've seen.

The U23's are in the top flight this year so expect it'll be a proper test, expect them to be facing a few of the so called big boys fringe players, it will be a good watch and hopefully a chance to see them progress.
Last edited by whiteroseboy on Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by Chilli D »

I don't know anything about Bate but at 18 I doubt he would break into our first team for at least a couple of years.
I hope we see Joe Gelhardt and maybe one or two others become first team squad regulars this season.
I doubt any of the U23's mentioned by YS will go out on loan.

I think the team at Guiseley will be mainly U23's with a stronger team at Blackburn the following day. But they may have half the first team at each game?
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by mothbanquet »

I'm very excited about Bate. He seems to have an attacking flair coupled with strength, solidity and a positional sense uncommon for a lad so young. I think he'll be groomed to be not only Phillips's cover but also may fill in a similar role to Klich as well. Versatility is key and cover in both those positions will be so valuable in future seasons.

Can't wait for the season to start. Even the pre season games are giving me goosebumps.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

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Sign the best youngsters from the top 6. Let Bielsa turn them into ballers. Flog back to the top 6 for £100m. Rinse, repeat. Kerching.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

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Harry, are you happy with the word 'poised'? :)
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by YorkshireSquare »

Lewis Bate seems like an interesting young talent! Probably the kind of player we need as a more experienced player is not going to want to sit around waiting for Phillips to get injuted.

Pre-season under Bielsa always odd, tends to try things out as such the results are not always anything to go by. Apparently we have asked Fleetwood do some things which "aren't the norm". They played a four 30 minute quarters match the other day so could be something along these lines. Forget murderball, Bielsa want's 120 minute games now! Be interesting to see the youngsters get some minutes though.

Hopefully a few more will break though. Genuinely feel if a few of them don't get th eoportunities this season they will be looking elsewhere. How can we attract players like Bate if we can't give the young prospects we have any game time?
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by Ellandback1 »

Afternoon Everyone,

Another hot one in Southampton...

Bate looks an exciting prospect, and it looks like it will happen. He must have been promised some sort of first team football.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by YorkshireSquare »

Ellandback1 wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 12:41 pm He must have been promised some sort of first team football.

You would have though he had been if he were to come here. People keep talking about a 'pathway' into the first team but we have only really seen that with Struijk, perhaps glimpses of Poveda, under Bielsa.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by YorkshireSquare »

Anyone know if all the friendlies are on LUTV? They are all listed on there but the website said the Betis/Ajax games were on LIVEnow
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

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YorkshireSquare wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:00 pm You would have though he had been if he were to come here. People keep talking about a 'pathway' into the first team but we have only really seen that with Struijk, perhaps glimpses of Poveda, under Bielsa.
And Struijk was down to injuries. Jamie Shackleton has barely had a chance.

I assume Bate will be like Poveda, get a few run outs and bench, but will drop down to U23s when necessary.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

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SG90 wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:08 pm And Struijk was down to injuries. Jamie Shackleton has barely had a chance.

Be interesting to see how much gametime Struijk gets next seaosn if the three 'senior' centre backs are fit.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by The Subhuman »

IIRC both Bogusz and Summerville we thought had to be promised first team football.. I could see Bate on a 9 man bench though covering for KP, Dallas or Klich
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

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The promise of first team football holds no more water for us than it does any other club, especially at this level. The club wouldn't make it a contractual obligation, it would be utter insanity to do so. What if a run of games, even just one game, was the difference between securing a European spot (or on the opposite end of the scale, avoiding relegation), and we had no choice but to play an 18 year old instead of Dallas or Phillips? It's crazy, it's just not done.

Even senior players have no such guarantee of first team football, they have to compete for the shirt at every level. Except for Tyler Roberts, naturally.

However, Bielsa has shown historically that he is a manager who prefers to develop his own players, broadly speaking, to buying in big names. I think he's probably had to compromise a little with us because of Radz's desire to boost us up the league tables rapidly but these youngsters will have had this fact highlighted during negotiations and have been advised the chance for first team football is greater at Leeds, but it wouldn't have been 'promised'.

What they will have been promised (or rather, simply stated) is that Bielsa is one of the best coaches in the world with unmatched testimonials from some of the biggest names in football and an army of examples of his coaching handiwork. Only the likes of Memphis Depay are so arrogant as to believe they're first team superstars at 18, the vast majority of these lads know they're still students and are still learning their trade. They also know exactly what their chances are of making a matchday squad.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by weasel »

SG90 wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:08 pm And Struijk was down to injuries. Jamie Shackleton has barely had a chance.

I assume Bate will be like Poveda, get a few run outs and bench, but will drop down to U23s when necessary.
With youth it is a case of taking the chance when you get it and making it impossible to be dropped. Messlier did it, Clarke did it prior to his illness, Strujyk has certainly made it hard to be dropped. Shackleton has shown he can come in and not weaken the team significantly but probably not yet shown he is better than the other options.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by Ellandback1 »

YorkshireSquare wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:02 pm Anyone know if all the friendlies are on LUTV? They are all listed on there but the website said the Betis/Ajax games were on LIVEnow
If I were to criticise Bielsa, he would rather put a square peg into a round hole than give an U23 an opportunity.

Struijk got his opportunity by accident, as there was nobody else.
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by weasel »

Ellandback1 wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:56 pm If I were to criticise Bielsa, he would rather put a square peg into a round hole than give an U23 an opportunity.

Struijk got his opportunity by accident, as there was nobody else.
I don't think Bielsa sees it that way. He sees that player can play several positions and given enough time he could probably create a side that would contain 10 outfield players that could seamlessly interchange positions - try man marking against that! A team of Dallases is the future!
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Re: The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Tuesday 20th July) - Leeds poised to sign Kalvin Phillips understudy

Post by John in Louisiana »

Looking at the videos of Bate, the kid seems to have excellent vision and an outstanding ability to know where everyone is on the pitch . He can turn and make passes to players who couldn't possibly have been in his field of vision just a moment before. And his passes are superb.

I know the videos show only the best of him, but there's obvious talent there. Happy to have him aboard (if it does actually happen).
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