Orta is the man who informs our owner on football players and squad. Remember we we signed Raphinha it was our owner and CEO who did the deal not Orta. Casilla, Rodrigo and Llorente from what i heard just recently is their agents and Orta have deep connections...
I'll never badmouth MB. He did something nobody else has since Wilko - got us promoted. And he had us playing some of the most breathtaking football we've ever seen at Leeds. He turned ordinary players into premiership performers and in some cases - into football stars. I fully believe had he remained, he would have turned the results around. I know it's impossible to prove, but he turned bad runs around before, and past performance is always the best predictor for future performance.
Rest assured I'm not throwing in the towel, it aint over till the fat one sings☺. Lufc remains in my blood. As you say the board & MB got us where we wanted to be. To be frank I've raised & voiced my concerns about the lack of true reinforcements to the squad, from the start of the season. Not sure that equals having a pop at the board. As if fans opinions would change things. As you & Soopa say we don't know what happened between them & MB regarding transferbusiness. The problems were that obvious, that a blind man could see them. The standard answer "players need to be better than those already at the club..." seriousky worked on my system. In January MB clearly stated he was open to getting new players in. Did I expect us to be in this much trouble, certainly not. Injuries are probably the main factor.
Yes there were warning signs pre-season i agree with you guy, but we haven't been relegated yet so why throw in the towel and fire a shot across the bow of Radz & Orta now?
Its their decisions that got us back to the PL in the first place so why not stand by them and support them now in the time of need?
Mistakes were made, YES but give me any organization that doesn't make a mistake? Even stay inside the footballing world of mistakes the mighty pep has made mistakes in CL QF's and semi-finals, but still the City board stood by him. We constantly say "there is no loyalty in football anymore" but for me that's a two way street, fans need to be loyal to the Board too and not just be happy when things are going well and sticking the boot in when they aren't.
None of know what was or wasn't said inside the boardroom, how do we know that if the Board sign 3-4 players without Bielsa's say so that he himself would have jacked. MB has done that in the past, he walked away from Lazio after two DAYS as what the board said they would do wasn't done, so like every story there are two sides to it.
Did i think we would struggle this year? I wasn't expecting us to improve on 9th but i certainly wasn't considering us to be in the position we are in with just 3 games to go.
Yes fans are frustrated i get that, but while we still have an opportunity to stay up we need to support the CLUB (and that includes the board) after all, and again i agree with you guy relegation would be nothing short of a disaster.
Our game tomorrow night can see us out of 18th, that's the first step, get something from the game anything, put the pressure on Burnley then to get something from their next game against spurs. And if as i suspect they dont get anything in that one we go all out for the win in ER versus Brighton to put 4 points between us and Burnley. Now thats the ball firmly in Burnley's court and one i don't think they would recover from. Yes we have three games left but if we can somehow manage 4 points from the next two games then id say the away fans could bring their better half's to London for the Day while they relax and watch the game at Brentford ;)
It is not that we can afford to but if their agents push the agendas.
My friends who scouts in Europe heard that Dremah representative asked the club before leaving if Dremah would be guaranteed first team place if he outplayed Ayling and was told that he was required squad member. Hence he ask to go on loan so he could actually play football. Apparently it was the same type of conversation with Summerville. Robbie Gotts agant had the similar conversation and moved his player to a new club.
As i said beforehand on the site. Imagine coming to a new club after being a young stud at your former club and already in first team game time to only play in the odd U23's game while being forced to continuely just train with first team and never actually play? It does not help that Mark Jackson is no where near the coach that Calderon was/is.
Bielsa and the management played a dangerous game where they:
1) believed that the youngsters would patiently and humbly wait and wait for their time to come,
2) …and avoided to invest in players of actual PL-quality,
3) …while over-trained, but less talented, players were kept in the team to perform yet another miracle, instead burning down, one after the other, in the process,
4) …and, as a result, we may lose some of all that talent.
I hope that AR cries himself to sleep if we go down which I’m afraid that we do. Am I bitter and disappointed? Yes I am.
And now it seems dramah may not be able to play in any of our last three games as his "loan" spell wont expire until 30th June. Eventhough Cardiff are finished the Championship season isnt so "Loans" are still in place until 1st July.
But because we have a injury crisis can we ask for his return?
Problem is i hear that Man united are interested in Cresswell. Summerville has had offers from Rangers in Scotland and Dutch, Belgium and German clubs. Gelthart has interest from EPL teams. Dremah may press for a exits due the fan abuse after his loan. It could be hard summer.
Everything that went with us last season has certainly gone against us this season. The injuries have played a major part, but as Danish has pointed out.
As a team and as individuals last season our players overperformed, punching well above our weight.
Found it hard to believe that some fans felt we had actually improved the team/squad.
To blame MB for everything is stretching it somewhat to put it mildly.
Was he faultless nope, never understood the Pontus mistake (what odds against him scoring against us?), selling our then best CB or even best defender for a paltry some of money. His persistand use of a limited sqaud & loyalty towards some players who hardly performed.
The thing that bothered me most was his stubborn persistance in playing in the same open way, it didn't matter who was available/fit to play and no matter the quality of the opposition. Losing 2-0 or 6-0 he just didn't seem to care.
I've already given enough flak towards the board, perhaps at times a bit unfairly, but as always there are 2 sides.
I'm praying and clutching at straws that we'll somehow survive.
Anyway, a complete overhaul of the squad will happen.
If we go down, Raphina (certain to go anyway) and Philps will go, probably not at fees we would like.
Then there's Meslier & Bamford, good chance at least 1 of them will go too.
Next up, the foreign group of Llorente, Firpo, Koch, Rodrigo (signed for ± 70M), can't see any of them sticking around. We would do well to get 25M to 30M for them, but suppose we loan them out and still pay a big part of their wages.
Add to that the question marks hanging over players like Forshaw & Dallas, will they return to anything like they used to be?
We would need to look at a new goalkeeper to compete with Klaesson (if Meslier goes), a leftback, a rightback (if Drameh does not return) and a couple of decent midfielders + a striker.
Vital we get a striker in to get us 20+ goals (most teams that get promoted have one of those → Fulham, Bournemouth, Norwich)
This will leave Orta or someone else to deal with Klich (end of the road at lufc?), Casilla, De Bock, Costa, Roberts...
I think if we were all honest none of realistically thought that we would get anything from City or Arsenal, we didnt so in my book we havent lost anything apart from Dallas (sadly) and now Bill like ive no idea what goes on inside a professional footballers head but like why "tackle" like that???? Even if he got the ball he could still have received a red card for "endangering an opponent".
My youngest was playing in a county final yesterday at 2pm so i didnt see the game live, but jezz talk about giving yourself a mountain to climb.......
I said last week that i felt it was between ourselves and Burnley for the drop and after the results over the weekend that seems to be the way its panning out.
I honestly believe Burnley only pick up one more point (villa game), we have two home games left and with chelski playing in the FA cup final on Saturday TT surely wont be picking his first xi on Wednesday night.....
Chelski are 5 points clear of Spurs and a way better GD, they also play Leicester & Watford at home after the FA cup so CL football is guaranteed already, "if" TT manages a trophy this season with all that's gone on with them that will be seen as an excellent season.
Get stuck into Chelski from the off on Wednesday night, The roar of fans behind the team get something from the game and we can go into the Brighton game on the up.
2 weeks ago i thought 5 points from our last 5 games was realistic, 5 points from our last 3 still doable but much harder now on account of Dallas and Ayling being out. "if" Jesse is pondering over playing firps then he aint the man to take us forward, Firpo is awful, everyone can see it, he is worse than Costafortune and that's saying something.
Slot Cody Dramha into a back 4, the guy has been in excellent form since going to Cardiff on loan in January and should now be given the Jersey and told this is your Jersey now and its up to you to hang onto it.
Yes we are in the drop zone now but we still have 9 points to play for and "if" we manage to win 5 from 9 and go down with 39 points then i honestly cant blame JM as he would have won 16 of those points. But hey one game at a time win or draw Wednesday back out of the drop zone, Burnley play Spurs on Sunday so nothing there and we win our game against Brighton thats will be us safe 4 points ahead of Burnley then the pressure is really pilled on top of them.
As Graham Smyth said, or wrote, after the match was over: three matches to go, and not only effort but also much more quality required. Where shall it come from: Cresswell, Bate, Gelhardt, Greenwood? Yes, and they should have played much more already. Now, it may be too late, and it would be like sacrificing them for the saddest possible occasion. Still, Elland Road will be electric on Wednesday, and far bigger miracles than Leeds beating Chelsea of course have happened, so fingers crossed. MOT
This was always going to be the hardest of the final four games. We now have two home matches and Brighton away. Whereas Burnley have two away matches against Spurs and Villa and home against Newcastle. The run in favours us, though only just, and we still have to make it happen. A draw with Chelsea might prove just to be enough.
Each and every player in the squad has performed at a lower level than last season. Injuries has played its part, but still... Through murder ball and other intense methods, Bielsa made the players better than what they actually are (Cooper, Ayling, Dallas, Klich, maybe even Bamford), but in the longer run (this season) it came at the cost of tiredness and, yes, injuries. And the owners didn’t get the 2-3 players (except Firpo…) that we so badly needed - and the promising youngsters never got a chance except as last resort, ie. when injuries really meant that there was no other choice. Rant over. MOT.
So second half showed Phillips and Bates could work. Firpo with headed assist ;-) to Llorente.
A 4-4-2 is probably our best formation. Is Shackleton going to play right fullback next game or will Marsh just play a back 3. Maybe Llorente as centre forward ;-).
Still can not understand Strikers play deep nor can i understand playing out from the back when more often the person you play short to is in a position deeper then the person passing. Our fullbacks play to narrow and deep basically inviting pressure. Our Forwards shot shoot instead of trying the miracle ball.
If it was me i go 4-4-2 with the following side.
Melier
Shackleton, Llorente, Cooper, Firpo
James, Bates, Phillips, Raphinha
Rodrigo, Gelthart
Maybe Koch for Shackleton and if Cooper is injured then Struijk. If Dremah is back then straight into right fullback he goes. Kind of want to see Greenwood and Gelthart operating as strikers together. As I want see Rodrigo and Bamford together upfront as Strikers.
Ironic that the player who has let us down today was here before Orta. The player who could have replaced him was brought in by Orta and not played by Bielsa.
But hey-ho blame Orta if it helps.
For me, this is sadly down to the damage done under Bielsa after all we're in the drop zone right now because of our goal difference - Marsch still has 3 games to save us, with 2 at home but without Dallas, Ayling, Drameh we have no fullbacks (not willing to count Firpo). We desperately miss Bamford, Phillips isn't fully match fit either.
The fans will keep going to the end but we haven't got the tools for the job thanks to Bielsa's "small squad" philosophy, bad injuries and now a needless suspension.
Orta is the man who informs our owner on football players and squad. Remember we we signed Raphinha it was our owner and CEO who did the deal not Orta. Casilla, Rodrigo and Llorente from what i heard just recently is their agents and Orta have deep connections...
I'll never badmouth MB. He did something nobody else has since Wilko - got us promoted. And he had us playing some of the most breathtaking football we've ever seen at Leeds. He turned ordinary players into premiership performers and in some cases - into football stars. I fully believe had he remained, he would have turned the results around. I know it's impossible to prove, but he turned bad runs around before, and past performance is always the best predictor for future performance.
Rest assured I'm not throwing in the towel, it aint over till the fat one sings☺. Lufc remains in my blood. As you say the board & MB got us where we wanted to be. To be frank I've raised & voiced my concerns about the lack of true reinforcements to the squad, from the start of the season. Not sure that equals having a pop at the board. As if fans opinions would change things. As you & Soopa say we don't know what happened between them & MB regarding transferbusiness. The problems were that obvious, that a blind man could see them. The standard answer "players need to be better than those already at the club..." seriousky worked on my system. In January MB clearly stated he was open to getting new players in. Did I expect us to be in this much trouble, certainly not. Injuries are probably the main factor.
Yes there were warning signs pre-season i agree with you guy, but we haven't been relegated yet so why throw in the towel and fire a shot across the bow of Radz & Orta now?
Its their decisions that got us back to the PL in the first place so why not stand by them and support them now in the time of need?
Mistakes were made, YES but give me any organization that doesn't make a mistake? Even stay inside the footballing world of mistakes the mighty pep has made mistakes in CL QF's and semi-finals, but still the City board stood by him. We constantly say "there is no loyalty in football anymore" but for me that's a two way street, fans need to be loyal to the Board too and not just be happy when things are going well and sticking the boot in when they aren't.
None of know what was or wasn't said inside the boardroom, how do we know that if the Board sign 3-4 players without Bielsa's say so that he himself would have jacked. MB has done that in the past, he walked away from Lazio after two DAYS as what the board said they would do wasn't done, so like every story there are two sides to it.
Did i think we would struggle this year? I wasn't expecting us to improve on 9th but i certainly wasn't considering us to be in the position we are in with just 3 games to go.
Yes fans are frustrated i get that, but while we still have an opportunity to stay up we need to support the CLUB (and that includes the board) after all, and again i agree with you guy relegation would be nothing short of a disaster.
Our game tomorrow night can see us out of 18th, that's the first step, get something from the game anything, put the pressure on Burnley then to get something from their next game against spurs. And if as i suspect they dont get anything in that one we go all out for the win in ER versus Brighton to put 4 points between us and Burnley. Now thats the ball firmly in Burnley's court and one i don't think they would recover from. Yes we have three games left but if we can somehow manage 4 points from the next two games then id say the away fans could bring their better half's to London for the Day while they relax and watch the game at Brentford ;)
MOT
Feel pretty much the same Danish.
Relegation would be nothing short of a disaster!
The years of waiting & hoping to get back, the massive efforts, toll, patience & pain it took to get back to the big time.
Alarm bells were ringing in pre-season, things got worse and still they ignored all the warning signs.
In stead we heard the same BS x-times → new signings need to be better than those we've already got!
That stance certainly backfired into their and ultimately the fans faces.
Daniel, we don't always agree on things, but can we afford to let those upcoming talents slip away?
Bielsa and the management played a dangerous game where they:
1) believed that the youngsters would patiently and humbly wait and wait for their time to come,
2) …and avoided to invest in players of actual PL-quality,
3) …while over-trained, but less talented, players were kept in the team to perform yet another miracle, instead burning down, one after the other, in the process,
4) …and, as a result, we may lose some of all that talent.
I hope that AR cries himself to sleep if we go down which I’m afraid that we do. Am I bitter and disappointed? Yes I am.
And now it seems dramah may not be able to play in any of our last three games as his "loan" spell wont expire until 30th June. Eventhough Cardiff are finished the Championship season isnt so "Loans" are still in place until 1st July.
But because we have a injury crisis can we ask for his return?
Anyone shed any light on this for me?
Problem is i hear that Man united are interested in Cresswell. Summerville has had offers from Rangers in Scotland and Dutch, Belgium and German clubs. Gelthart has interest from EPL teams. Dremah may press for a exits due the fan abuse after his loan. It could be hard summer.
Everything that went with us last season has certainly gone against us this season. The injuries have played a major part, but as Danish has pointed out.
As a team and as individuals last season our players overperformed, punching well above our weight.
Found it hard to believe that some fans felt we had actually improved the team/squad.
To blame MB for everything is stretching it somewhat to put it mildly.
Was he faultless nope, never understood the Pontus mistake (what odds against him scoring against us?), selling our then best CB or even best defender for a paltry some of money. His persistand use of a limited sqaud & loyalty towards some players who hardly performed.
The thing that bothered me most was his stubborn persistance in playing in the same open way, it didn't matter who was available/fit to play and no matter the quality of the opposition. Losing 2-0 or 6-0 he just didn't seem to care.
I've already given enough flak towards the board, perhaps at times a bit unfairly, but as always there are 2 sides.
I'm praying and clutching at straws that we'll somehow survive.
Anyway, a complete overhaul of the squad will happen.
If we go down, Raphina (certain to go anyway) and Philps will go, probably not at fees we would like.
Then there's Meslier & Bamford, good chance at least 1 of them will go too.
Next up, the foreign group of Llorente, Firpo, Koch, Rodrigo (signed for ± 70M), can't see any of them sticking around. We would do well to get 25M to 30M for them, but suppose we loan them out and still pay a big part of their wages.
Add to that the question marks hanging over players like Forshaw & Dallas, will they return to anything like they used to be?
Leaving us with a squad of talented youngsters:
Gelhardt, Cresswell, Summerville, Greenwood,Bate, Hjelde McKinstry...
Fully expect them to feature a lot, maybe both Drameh, Poveda & Boguesz will also return.
Think Coops, Ayling, Harrison, James, Struijk, Shacks, Klaesson + obviously Dallas & Forshaw will stick around.
We would need to look at a new goalkeeper to compete with Klaesson (if Meslier goes), a leftback, a rightback (if Drameh does not return) and a couple of decent midfielders + a striker.
Vital we get a striker in to get us 20+ goals (most teams that get promoted have one of those → Fulham, Bournemouth, Norwich)
This will leave Orta or someone else to deal with Klich (end of the road at lufc?), Casilla, De Bock, Costa, Roberts...
I think if we were all honest none of realistically thought that we would get anything from City or Arsenal, we didnt so in my book we havent lost anything apart from Dallas (sadly) and now Bill like ive no idea what goes on inside a professional footballers head but like why "tackle" like that???? Even if he got the ball he could still have received a red card for "endangering an opponent".
My youngest was playing in a county final yesterday at 2pm so i didnt see the game live, but jezz talk about giving yourself a mountain to climb.......
I said last week that i felt it was between ourselves and Burnley for the drop and after the results over the weekend that seems to be the way its panning out.
I honestly believe Burnley only pick up one more point (villa game), we have two home games left and with chelski playing in the FA cup final on Saturday TT surely wont be picking his first xi on Wednesday night.....
Chelski are 5 points clear of Spurs and a way better GD, they also play Leicester & Watford at home after the FA cup so CL football is guaranteed already, "if" TT manages a trophy this season with all that's gone on with them that will be seen as an excellent season.
Get stuck into Chelski from the off on Wednesday night, The roar of fans behind the team get something from the game and we can go into the Brighton game on the up.
2 weeks ago i thought 5 points from our last 5 games was realistic, 5 points from our last 3 still doable but much harder now on account of Dallas and Ayling being out. "if" Jesse is pondering over playing firps then he aint the man to take us forward, Firpo is awful, everyone can see it, he is worse than Costafortune and that's saying something.
Slot Cody Dramha into a back 4, the guy has been in excellent form since going to Cardiff on loan in January and should now be given the Jersey and told this is your Jersey now and its up to you to hang onto it.
Yes we are in the drop zone now but we still have 9 points to play for and "if" we manage to win 5 from 9 and go down with 39 points then i honestly cant blame JM as he would have won 16 of those points. But hey one game at a time win or draw Wednesday back out of the drop zone, Burnley play Spurs on Sunday so nothing there and we win our game against Brighton thats will be us safe 4 points ahead of Burnley then the pressure is really pilled on top of them.
Stay Positive lads
MOT
Stevie Boy, I am up for it. Turned off the tell and feared 7-0. Went to my allotment and pulled up weeds. 2-1 is not that bad, TIME TOBELIEVE!
So who’s up next
As Graham Smyth said, or wrote, after the match was over: three matches to go, and not only effort but also much more quality required. Where shall it come from: Cresswell, Bate, Gelhardt, Greenwood? Yes, and they should have played much more already. Now, it may be too late, and it would be like sacrificing them for the saddest possible occasion. Still, Elland Road will be electric on Wednesday, and far bigger miracles than Leeds beating Chelsea of course have happened, so fingers crossed. MOT
This was always going to be the hardest of the final four games. We now have two home matches and Brighton away. Whereas Burnley have two away matches against Spurs and Villa and home against Newcastle. The run in favours us, though only just, and we still have to make it happen. A draw with Chelsea might prove just to be enough.
Each and every player in the squad has performed at a lower level than last season. Injuries has played its part, but still... Through murder ball and other intense methods, Bielsa made the players better than what they actually are (Cooper, Ayling, Dallas, Klich, maybe even Bamford), but in the longer run (this season) it came at the cost of tiredness and, yes, injuries. And the owners didn’t get the 2-3 players (except Firpo…) that we so badly needed - and the promising youngsters never got a chance except as last resort, ie. when injuries really meant that there was no other choice. Rant over. MOT.
So second half showed Phillips and Bates could work. Firpo with headed assist ;-) to Llorente.
A 4-4-2 is probably our best formation. Is Shackleton going to play right fullback next game or will Marsh just play a back 3. Maybe Llorente as centre forward ;-).
Still can not understand Strikers play deep nor can i understand playing out from the back when more often the person you play short to is in a position deeper then the person passing. Our fullbacks play to narrow and deep basically inviting pressure. Our Forwards shot shoot instead of trying the miracle ball.
If it was me i go 4-4-2 with the following side.
Melier
Shackleton, Llorente, Cooper, Firpo
James, Bates, Phillips, Raphinha
Rodrigo, Gelthart
Maybe Koch for Shackleton and if Cooper is injured then Struijk. If Dremah is back then straight into right fullback he goes. Kind of want to see Greenwood and Gelthart operating as strikers together. As I want see Rodrigo and Bamford together upfront as Strikers.
If we go down i see Phillips, Raphinha, Llorente, Koch, Rodrigo all going. In fact even James, Cooper as well.
My team for the chapionships with zero money spent as i do not trust Orta with a single dollar.
Goalkeeper
Dremah, Cresswell, Struijk, McCarron,
Shackelton, Boguez, Bates, Summerville
Gelthart, Greenwood
well the lucky pants aint working lads sorry
and i kin dislike leicester
This is bad. Can’t really see what Marsch can do with the players at hand. The fear of relegation has never been more real.
Ayling is a complete f8ck wit. Your the captain and you do that. The sooner Dremah is back to replace him the better.