Hot on the heels of probably the greatest ever Leeds United press conference, where Bielsa gave the waiting media, the media pundits, the fans and Frank Lambard a master class in tactics in response to the #spygate nonsense, the Championship club are hitting the headlines again, announcing the arrival of Kiko Casilla from Real Madrid.

The keeper joins on a four and a half year deal having signed on a free transfer  after bought himself out of the remaining 18 months of his contract abroad.  It is the first time the keeper has left Spain and is indicative of the pull that Leeds, and probably the tactical genius of our manager can have.

Bailey Peacock-Farell is expected to make way for the new signing, having played 31 times.  There is no doubting the youngsters ability.  He has pulled off some outstanding saves this season, however he is inexperienced and has made a couple of errors, and having an experienced professional like Casilla at the club will not do his development any harm. 

The signing not only gives Leeds strength in goal for the promotional push, but secures a healthy future for the club in between the sticks.

Part 3 of our look at the fantastic talents in the u23’s sees us run the rule of Bulgarian striker Kun Temenuzhkov

Kun joined the fabled Barcelona academy in 2014 as a player they had tracked for some time. Whilst small in stature, the 18 year old makes up for it with acceleration, speed of thought and finishing. This season has seen him move up from the under 18’s to become a big part of the very successful under 23’s, whilst also making his senior debut, coming off the bench in the recent FA cup game at QPR. Kun has come with a weight of expectation on his shoulders – featuring in the Guardians’ top 60 European youngsters to look out for.
His style of play, partly due to his size, is that of an Aguero or Luis Suarez. He has spent the last year or so getting used to the physicality of the English game, but there are hopes that this season could see him feature again as his impressive performances for the u23’s have him knocking on the door. He is a Bulgarian youth International, all the way up to under 19’s

Woke up Friday to the ‘spygate’ story and had a little chuckle – seemed a bit of harmless fun. Fast forward 24 hours and I was looking for effigies of Bielsa hanging from lampposts. In all my time, I have never seen an overreaction like this.
It was something I thought would be pretty standard practice, and whilst the majority of the football world accepts it is, there are some who seem outraged beyond belief. Some, are fighting for column inches. Slate Leeds on social media/the press etc and you’ll have your name all over – profile raised. The others, I cannot figure out – with the utmost respect, some must be a little thick – there is no other reason I can think.
Jermaine Jenas suggested we must be docked points – before back tracking to a heavy fine when he realised how stupid that was. The most bizarre for me was Stan Colleymore – ‘the match should be replayed’. Is that a serious thought? We should replay the game because someone looked over a hedge?
Diving is cheating
Appealing for a throw in when you know you kicked it out, is cheating
Feigning injury, is cheating
Grabbing someone’s shirt in the box from a corner, is cheating
Watching a training session from public land – IS NOT CHEATING.

Whilst loads of work has been done to stamp a lot of issues out of the game, let’s not kid ourselves that there are some massive problems – racism, homophobia, tapping up players, financial fair play (what a joke that is), illegal approaches and historical sexual abuse need everything throwing at them – but Jenas, Lampard, Colleymore, Andrews et all seem to think ‘spying’ (we call out it scouting) is where we need to focus our attention. If this was Lincoln or Morecambe (no offence to those clubs), would it be national news? No chance. But you know what – all it’s done is increase the siege mentality-something we thrive on. I didn’t think I could love our manager any more – then he does this, and my love has gone up a notch.

*subnote to pay respect to little Toby Nye who sadly passed on Saturday, and Phil Massinga, a true gent. RIP and thoughts and love with both of their families*

Somewhat lost in all the madness of ‘spygate’ (thoughts on that tomorrow), was the actual most important part of yesterday-the match... and what a game it was. Leeds were back to their imperious best, back to the scintillating form of the first month of the season. From the very first minute when Alioski was wrongly denied a penalty by a poor linesman’s call, Leeds destroyed ‘Frank Lampard’s Derby’. After recent defeats, a result and a performance was needed-and both came. Leeds has their swagger back, and the magnificent crowd lapped it up. The opening goal was brilliant from Jack Clarke-skipper round his man, but the finish from Roofe was equally impressive. Second half saw Harrison finish after more good work from Clarke, and it was as one sided a 2-0 win as you could see. Forshaw was brilliant, pulling the strings, Alioski looked like he had played left back all of his life, at the returning Cooper, alongside the ever brilliant Jansson showed how much he had been missed. The stand out though, was Clarke-what a talent he is and you can see why so many of the big guns are casting their eye over him..
finished 2-0, could have been double, but we’ll take it and move on to Stoke.

s part 3 of our look at the youth players, today we run the rule over Robbie Gotts.

19 year old Robbie Gotts has had a bit of a breakthrough season at Leeds this year. Despite not making his debut yet, he has been included in a number of matchday squads and been on the bench fairly regularly recently. Gotts can play at full back or wide midfield, and like many of the youth players, his versatility is a big plus for manager Marcelo Bielsa. Born in Harrogate, Robbie is a local boy, and there is every chance he will get some minutes in this season. His strengths are skill, pace, workrate and tackling. He can also score, showing this last Monday against Hull u23’s when he fired home a great shot to complete a good team move.