Leeds banter 5

26 May 2026 05:35:13
Not sure it's going to be a bumper window that we are hoping for. Pm already throwing cautious words out there re funds. Wonder what their plan will be. Get rid of as much of the loans and dead wood as possible.

Maybe they are going to bring in squad players rather than quality. It does seem they are expecting a struggle for few years. They probably gambling on the 3 up to be the 3 down.

26 May 2026 06:15:17
I think the spending pot is 100Mil with PSR in mind, and I also don't think there will be a clamoring for the players we don't want to keep.
It's a bit like the JH situation; nobody wants these players, so for some of them we have to wait until their contracts expire.


Having said that, there may be one or two inquiries from the Championship clubs or lower-league foreign clubs.
Amassing a tidy fortune from unwanted players is way off the mark in my opinion.

26 May 2026 09:41:44
I saw an interesting article this morning. PSR is not in force next season. It is now based on player cost [transfer + wages] as a ratio of revenue. It must be kept below 85%. By all accounts, we have been operating at 88% this season.

I think that will be a key difference this year, i.e. we will try and sell a lot more players than we did last year.

Sounds like another scheme aimed at keeping the big teams in place.

26 May 2026 10:43:19
Yes you are absolutely correct on that, Ani4.

26 May 2026 10:46:31
Apparently we will be slightly worse off under the new restrictions? I think, based on what has been said, we need to realistically prepare ourselves for another 2 seasons similar to this! If we avoid the slow start of last year, we should be able to be in the upper-mid-table mix.

26 May 2026 10:55:56
I believe that's correct, Bright, from the initial mutterings coming from the 49ers.
It will be that dreaded season two and three, as far as I'm concerned.
We will all hope for some improvements, but it's still going to be a wobbly ride for us. Anything more than that will be a bonus.

26 May 2026 11:52:51
Prepare ourselves for another 2 seasons similar to this, you say, lads?

Oh joy.

The past 3 EPL seasons' relegation-anxiety slogathons have been mostly a very tough watch.

When's it gonner be (more) fun, like the "good old days". 😔

26 May 2026 12:02:23
Agree with your first sentence, Aus, but I can't see the 9ers making the mistake of underestimating and expecting promoted sides to be fodder. I also doubt we will target "squad" players. I am thinking 3 or 4 quality signings, with also competitive cover. Definitely need a clear out and get some extra funds in.

26 May 2026 12:04:30
It's gonner be better next season for you, Baz; your Ipswich darlings are around for you to cheer on. :)

If we are really being fair, the last 7 - 8 seasons have been pretty good all up, when you think about the previous two decades.

Two x Champions, Two x Play-offs, 5 [to be] Seasons in the EPL, FA Cup semi-finalist, Elland Road full to brimming every week, no debt - given the dire times after 2003 relegation, we should be a little bit more circumspect, in my view.

These last 10 years of supporting Leeds have on the whole been pretty good, well the best. since my first 10 years!?

26 May 2026 12:18:01
Yep, ok Ani. It's a fair post from you, Ani, re Leeds United past 10 years 2016 to 2026 compared to 2004 to 2015.

(although I did not enjoy the bottling of 23/24 in Farkeys first season) .

Yay. my Ipswich darlings are back, Ani.

😆

But, please, Ani, a special request from Baz: would it perhaps be possible this time for you to refrain from proposing 'Ipswich are gone (ie in this case relegated) in December'.

Merci beaucoup.

26 May 2026 12:31:27
Only if you promise to stop saying Leeds are certain for relegation, because:

1..
2..
3..
4..
5..
6..etc

d'accord?

26 May 2026 12:33:33
Polish up that Massey Ferguson and get the muck spreader out, Baz. 😁

26 May 2026 13:07:50
Didn't the so called top 6 clubs all vote for the new SCR to replace PSR?

26 May 2026 20:22:18
Tells you all you need to know, Cork. The money men only have tunnel vision, so there's obviously benefits galore devised from the rule, with money men lobbied by vested interests.

25 May 2026 16:51:57
So, chaps, who are the outs? Got my tin hat on, so here goes: all loaners except Ramazani, James, Gnonto, Piroe, Perri, Gruev, Longstaff, Arronsen all sold.

25 May 2026 20:23:34
To go. Ramzanni, Willie G, Piroe, Gruev or Tanaka (preferably Gruev) , Joffy, Schmidt and Wober, and eventually Joseph when he's fit. Aaronson and Pascal will go if they don't sign new contracts. If they do, then I think they will be retained.


Dan James and Harrison should go, but we'd have to take a hit in buying out part of their contracts. DJ has 3 years, and JH has 2 years.
Nmecha has one year left, so a decision to make.
All of the others out of contract, such as Mez and Byram, are gone.

25 May 2026 22:16:16
Are you sure Harrison has two years left on his contract? Seems like at least four years since he signed a five-year contract.

25 May 2026 22:26:39
Signed a 5 year contract until June 2028 as far as I can see.

25 May 2026 22:27:31
But Google has been known to be wrong!

25 May 2026 22:50:26
In January 2023 transfer window, Jackie was at Leicester City having a medical for a £25 million transfer.

. when our owners Radz, and specifically Paraag and Co, suddenly pulled out of the deal.

Thereafter Uncle Victor Orta and Co at Leeds United immediately presented Jackie with a 5 year deal to 2028.



So he still has 2 more years of the 5 year deal (spent 2 years on loan at Everton and one year on loan in Italy) .

26 May 2026 06:22:45
If there's any player who is stealing a living, then it is Harrison. He is a veritable financial burden to Leeds United.
I don't think you can even give him away!
Huge error by previous owner, one of the many.

26 May 2026 09:57:12
I don't think there will be a lot of business early on, because.

a) until June 30th, players are still fighting and hoping for new contracts with their clubs.

b) There's a World Cup on, with lots of players in the shop window.

Who knows? But I think this summer will be a slow burner early on.



Notwithstanding that, there are some big relegation casualties this season, e.g. Leicester & West Ham, who will need to be offloading a lot of players. Also, lots of new managers all over the EPL looking to bring "their" players in.

26 May 2026 10:48:08
Again, I totally agree with all those points, Ani4.
And it will be an enormous irritation to fans demanding all the transfers done early.
I think it will be inevitable that most of the transfers will be quite late, more so than previous summers, if that's even possible?

26 May 2026 12:02:41
Correction, OP.

It was a huge error by our current owners, Paraag and Co (not previous owner Radz) .

It was entirely their decision to stop JH being sold.

Paraag and Co were calling the shots at ER by then in Jan 2023 (Rutter and McKennie were Paraag and Co Jan 23 signings) , what with their impending purchase buyout of Radz share of Leeds United a few months later.

26 May 2026 13:57:36
Correction, Baz.

The 49ers may or may not have been calling the shots at that period, for which there appears to be no evidence. What is absolutely conclusive is that it was Jesse Marsch's insistence that Harrison was given a new contract.


What makes it highly unlikely that the 49ers were in control is that they would not have given him such a long contract, which was a trait typical of Radz and Victor.

26 May 2026 14:02:56
What a burden on the Club Harrison is. And it wouldn't surprise me to see him ride out the remainder of his expensive contract. Come on Parag, show us your negotiating skills to get shut of him.

26 May 2026 14:37:05
Op, come off it. 🤣

1) Brenty had zero influence re JH. End of January 2023, he was about to be sacked a week later, Feb 6th 2023.

2) On the contrary, re long contracts, 49ers gave DJ a long 4 year new contract in 2025.

26 May 2026 16:35:40
Hate to say it, but Baz is correct on this one!

26 May 2026 16:47:21
You forgot, as usual, Corky.

26 May 2026 17:11:58
Not according to The Athletic, Cork. It clearly states that it was on Marsch's insistence that Harrison had a contract extension.

26 May 2026 18:28:46
Hate to say it, but OP is correct on this one!

26 May 2026 18:35:23
Brenty was always merely a mouthpiece for the 49ers, OP. nowt else. we all know that.

It was well documented that it was solely the 49ers' decision to keep Harrison, not sell to Leicester on the 31st January 2023 transfer window deadline.

As for Brenty, he had zero influence by then, he was on his way out and was sacked 6 days later, on Feb 6th 2023.



As for Harrison, the contract extension was granted in April 2023. almost 3 months after Brenty had been sacked and had left the club. an ownership decision.

26 May 2026 19:30:01
Ok, no matter who is correct on this, it's absolutely diabolically ridiculous that he is on a wage of 90k a week! Yes you read it correctly, 90k a week!
Hopefully Fiorentina take him off our hands even on a free transfer. Any fee will be a bonus at this stage because nobody is paying the quoted 6 mill, unless fat frank still rates him?!

26 May 2026 20:27:43
Don't know why you are so vehemently against the 49er's Baz, even if it was them that sanctioned the Harrison contract extension, which it wasn't, then it should have pleased you very much as "Jackie" was and still is your prized player, which you have reminded everyone on this forum on numerous occasions.

26 May 2026 22:34:52
Facts are OP. Jackie was great at Leeds for 5 seasons. Sadly, his loan spells set him back.

And there is no way the 49ers didn't agree to and sanction JH's contract in April 2023 for 5 years till 2028, with just 4 weeks before they took over 100% ownership.

Keep it real.

26 May 2026 22:37:08
P S, the 49ers have done a lot of good things.

25 May 2026 15:58:31
Need to sort goalkeeper situation next season, do we stick or twist on Perri?

Darlow had a great Season, really earned his place, but we need at least three strong goalkeepers for next season.

As a club our track record compared to the likes of Brighton is woeful. Top two keepers in championship last season: Rushworth, Coventry and Walton, Ipswich both Brighton loanees.

Sunderland found a bargain in Roefs, controversial, but I believe there’s at least four/ five keepers in championship as good as Darlow.



And wouldn’t cost that much when compared to Trafford who is hugely over rated and overpriced in my opinion.

Not saying bin, Karl, just saying we need to get much better in the recruitment of our goalkeepers and for some strange reason they are commonly the least expensive to recruit in a team.

25 May 2026 20:43:40
Always thought Zetterstrom from Derby was a good keeper - certainly ups his game when we play them!

No point in hanging on to any of those who've been on loan this season (with the exception of Harry Gray) . Get what we can for the others.

Of those currently with us, for everyone we offload, we need to upgrade (cannot afford to offload 8/9/10 if we haven't got the money to bring in the same amount, otherwise we'll be short-staffed) .



Personally I'd ship out either James or Gnonto (but not both) , Piroe and Pascal.

Definitely need to bring in a CAM, central defender and partner for DCL. Anyone else is a bonus (and only if we can afford it) .

25 May 2026 21:32:44
I watch a lot of Zetterstrom and I agree, he always seems to turn up for us, but he does make mistakes. I think we stick with what we have.

Take a look at the goals against column in the EPL this season, and there has only been one standout keeper.

26 May 2026 06:19:36
Other than the loanees and end of contracts, I don't see a lot of departures this time unless we get offered silly money for someone we see as a "second string". We need more quality, but also more quantity, as last Sunday demonstrated, so I see us holding on to most of those we've got already, plus maybe 2 to 4 quality imports.

26 May 2026 10:49:03
Will there be an expectation that younger players will break thro? Necessity has seen us have a few varied ones on the bench lately, all of whom have reportedly had good seasons.

25 May 2026 15:46:32
6 points off Brighton who qualified for Europe. What could have been if we started the season like we ended it?
If Palace win their European trophy, then there'll be 10 English teams in Europe next season. Most of those teams, I suspect, won't have the squad depth for competing on all fronts, probably prioritise Europe.

I think we can take advantage of that, the right players recruited and finish higher up the league than this year.
MOT.

25 May 2026 22:36:54
It will be a lot like this season, where we will have a lot of Sunday games because of all the teams in Europe.

If you look at the start of this season, because of the above, we had long gaps between games, and I'm convinced it was a disadvantage; we never got any momentum.

25 May 2026 13:00:37
Anderson will almost certainly leave Forest this window and they're allegedly already making moves for Hackney who will no doubt not want to spend another season in the Championship.

25 May 2026 20:03:25
And Newcastle are looking as well, because Tonali wants out and could well end up at Old Trafford.

25 May 2026 22:17:58
Have Newcastle a buy back clause, I wonder?

25 May 2026 11:50:27
Farke deserves a well earned rest, but the recruitment teams better get their bums in gear now, before the World Cup starts and prices are inflated based upon a couple of moments.

Building work progressing, which is being driven by Lowry and fantastic for the long term future, but we need significant reinforcements 6/ 7 players if better than we currently have before next season, which is not unrealistic based upon last season’s star buys.


Although I truly doubt a team will be relegated with 39 points again, however based upon my predictions record let’s not leave things to chance and get our transfer work done asap!

25 May 2026 12:11:17
Yep.. It would be great for a change for Leeds United to sign at least 2 or 3 players early in summer..

More Stach-like quality signings and no Perri-like ones, thanks.

25 May 2026 21:51:37
Strike while the iron is hot, and for God's sake don't pursue for weeks/months on end, players who will never sign for us.

25 May 2026 09:55:25
Melbourne White takes out the top and bottom 3 competitor with 5 out of 6 right. Congrats mate. Us Aussies know our football.
The most guesses in their right final position was only 2 and goes to dave0123 and Bright.

25 May 2026 10:37:06
It was a great idea, Aus! Nice one for collating it all, and nice work Melb!
I love the word "guesses" over "predictions". 😂

25 May 2026 11:48:38
Aus, yep, you Aussies sure know your Aussie Rules Football. 🏈

And, you are ok at cricket. 🏏

25 May 2026 11:57:42
No guessing, just unbelievable knowledge. A lad from Shadwell, living in Oz, still on top of things. Am I the oracle?
MOT.

25 May 2026 12:07:15
No, thats our very own ( good boy ) Bazman. 🤣
Oracle supreme.

25 May 2026 12:12:38
Correct, Chris!
Go to top of Baz Class!

25 May 2026 12:26:47
Someone say my name?

25 May 2026 13:23:15
You two don't want to know your scores. Trust me. Leave it to the Aussies.

25 May 2026 13:55:10
What did I win? 😂😂😂

25 May 2026 14:05:03
Bazzies memoirs, Davey. Enjoy. Don't share.

25 May 2026 14:22:31
Bazzies Memoirs is one hellavu gift Aus.
Also available in all good book shops.

26 May 2026 10:51:03
I think I ate some chips with scraps from a few pages from that one, not long back? 😬😂
Jesting, Sir Basil! It was 99p rollback at Asda!

25 May 2026 09:27:43
We currently have too many players who are just not up to the quality required. From the current squad, 9 players should be moved on for me.
Cairns, Perri, Meslier, Bornauw
Byram, Gruev, Bounette, Ngoto, Piroe

We would be left with 16 players.
So, to have a 27 man squad we would require the following:

With 11 new players to come in:
2 Keepers
Left/ Wing Back
2x CB
2x CM
2x Wingers
No 10
Striker

6 or 7 of these would need to be up to first choice starter quality while the remainder would be very good squad players.



While some of our best players will undoubtedly be subject to transfer, we should over the following windows be looking at upgrading the 5 or 6 weakest players in the squad every season. Every 4 or 5 season you should have a new squad.

25 May 2026 10:15:02
Leeds agree with that, mate.

25 May 2026 10:54:43
Bornauw has done ok when he's played, so if he's happy as a squad player, I'd keep him. Same goes for Gruev.

25 May 2026 11:52:09
Yep, likewise, probably keep Bornauw and Gruev.

Of the other players on the list above, Cairns, Mes and Byram's contracts end this summer. Buononotte is a loan.

25 May 2026 12:29:12
Agree, Corkey. But I'd dump James before Gnonto.

25 May 2026 13:58:39
Problem with getting rid of James and Harrison is the length of their contracts, and the big increase in salary when they signed. Nobody will give them what they currently have, so we'll probably end up paying off at least part of their contracts if we decide to move them on.

25 May 2026 14:23:29
Bingo Dune re both DJ and Jackie.

25 May 2026 15:06:26
I think this window the priority has to be out:

Meslier (frees nice wages) .
Gelhardt (allegedly on 60k a week when we're in Prem - not sure I believe that) .
Piroe.
Byram.
Wober.
James / Harrison (we may have to eat some wages) .
Buononotte loan end.
If 49ers back Farke, Ramazani has to go too, as Farke doesn't fancy him. If they go for someone new, let the new coach check him out.
Perri if we can recoup most of the fee, otherwise give it another look or backup.
One from Tanaka/Gruev, probably the former if we are backing Farke.

Middle ground - decide to stick or twist with Aaronson. Either sell now or new contract to protect the value. If the USA have a decent World Cup, there'll be some interest stateside, so at the right price send him home.

Ins - new terms for Darlow - 2 yrs.
New terms for Ampadu - 5 yrs.


A 10. Zian Flemming maybe, I have mentioned him before. And he can lead the line too.
Openda perhaps as a wide forward to replace Harrison/James/Ramazani, our terms not Juve's.
A rotating left back. Someone to challenge Gabby, but also understand current form, Gabby is first choice.
Another cm to replace Tanaka or Gruev. Depends on market. Another winger (as my outs have us losing three, maybe) .
Replace any true starter who also leaves, e.g. Aaronson.

That's only actually 5 signings and a net lower squad. But the point is, with one or two exceptions most of the out list haven't contributed much. It would be a smaller squad overall but more impactful if they got it right. A lot of the team chemistry we have is built that everyone feels like they have a role. Too big a squad can hurt that.

25 May 2026 09:19:45
Major rebuild needed. As posters said below. We have been lucky with injuries but also been lucky that late season injuries have highlighted our lack of depth. Originally thought 3-4 quality starters needed but now think we need 3-4 off bench too. Lots to do in next few months. Wrecking ball needed.