Let’s not forget a couple of other crucial details which I’m not sure whether have already been raised as yet. If they have, my apologies.
Both Sheffield United and Burnley came down with their first year of parachute payments which are far in excess of ours.
If we go up, and one of the other two fails to make it, pay attention to the players they will have to offload in the summer, as we did.
Secondly, we have plans to redevelop our Elland Road stadium, so I am sure that additional factor is being kept in mind. I think the board is wisely keeping an eye on the future by running a tight ship with regard to overall player expenditure by the club.
Finally, there is one other very important factor to consider.
Should we achieve promotion back to the Premier League, then we have to remember that the calibre of player we will want to pursue will be very different to that we can obtain in this transfer window.
For me, the club has taken all of those factors into account and wants to back Farke’s instinct about not wanting upset the balance or clear rapport which clearly exists within the dressing room.
Thoughts? I am sure some of you will see it differently to me, but that’s surely why we’re here; to have adult discussions with each other about our different perspectives, right?
TRANFER WINDOW: Leeds v Sheffield v Burnley
posted on 4/2/25
"However, if we do go up, many of this squad will not
be good enough to help us in the Prem. In other words,
the rocking of the boat and breaking up of the tight
knit group has to happen in the summer."
Is it not normal for a club going up to sell at the same time as buying?..
The 49ers have brought some great players in this squad, you can bet they're planning for the premiership and know they'll have to bring in better, a reason why they haven't brought no short turmers that won't guarantee promotion!..
posted on 4/2/25
I think the answer is a simpler in truth.
Burnley and Sheff Utd needed to strengthen to keep pace. They had gaps in their squads due to summer sales (Burnley) and injuries (Sheff Utd).
Leeds didn’t need to strengthen. The only position that has cost us so far is keeper but Farke decided he wanted to back Meslier. The other positions we wanted - new striker, number 10 - weren’t essential. We have two strikers and are not struggling for goals. We have a number 10 who has 8 goals and is key to team with pressing and all round play and we’ve got two great wingers who could fill in if absolutely needed.
Sheff Utd signed players who immediately went into the starting 11. We could not offer that to any player and rightly so, no one deserves to be dropped
posted on 4/2/25
comment by LufcGermany (U6066)
posted 1 hour, 5 minutes ago
"However, if we do go up, many of this squad will not
be good enough to help us in the Prem. In other words,
the rocking of the boat and breaking up of the tight
knit group has to happen in the summer."
Is it not normal for a club going up to sell at the same time as buying?..
The 49ers have brought some great players in this squad, you can bet they're planning for the premiership and know they'll have to bring in better, a reason why they haven't brought no short turmers that won't guarantee promotion!..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Correct. That’s what Farke said. If they weren’t an improvement on the players already available, he wouldn’t bring any players in.
posted on 4/2/25
I think they had targets they wanted and when they couldn't get them they weren't going to buy just for the sake of it.
I'm good with that because I think we're still the strongest team in the championship.
posted on 4/2/25
Excellent analysis, Real Estate, I think that's a fair assessment of where the club is at the moment. However, the three clubs beneath us have all strengthened and they, along with us, now look significantly better than the rest of the division.
The risk we are taking by not improving is that the gap between the top four has narrowed. We have already seen how Sheffield United and Sunderland have benefited from bringing new players in. I'm not seeing core groups of players upset about that, or fans complaining about late winners. I am expecting Burnley to pick up the pace in the next few weeks too.
I can't help feeling we missed an opportunity to lock up a place in the autos. Farke's comments about being happy with what we have got, and not being able to find the quality and the character to improve the team borders on arrogance, in my view, we needed another couple of players just to keep ourselves ahead of the chasing pack.
From here on in, it's going to be a scrap to the finish line. I just hope we don't have an international break like we did last year.
posted on 4/2/25
Real estate.
Gotta challenge you on the second point… Elland Road redevelopment.
As I understand it, stadium redevelopment comes under a completely different category of spending. As such, because the 49ers are absolutely loaded ( which they are) they have enough free cash to do the stadium. Full stop. It will not affect FFP one zip.
So stadium spending will 100% not impact player spending.
posted on 5/2/25
comment by Stoopo (U4707)
posted 5 hours, 3 minutes ago
We can cross that bridge if we get promoted but I would keep the majority of the first 15.
First 11 plus about four or five of the bench.
New keeper
Striker
Playmaker.
Back up at centre back.
Left back
Definitely some upgrades needed but this first 11-15 could hold their own against most of the bottom 10 in the PL.
Only my humble opinion of course.
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Depends also on spending ethos I guess and a few factors though Stoopo.
If money isn’t an issue, then why not aim for a 60,000 stadium capacity, which clearly is a stadium capacity the club could fill every match day.
Regarding this topic, I was also thinking about the interim knock of effects of the stadium redevelopment.
Will it impact stadium capacity during the playing season and if so, how significant an impact would that have on our match day revenues and regulations related to our spending? Could the club request an offset against these temporarily reduced match day receipts? We haven’t a nearby Wembley Stadium as Tottenham had available, so there’s not a similar option available for us.
All of that said, promotion would vastly increase revenues anyway, and so render that issue irrelevant.
Yes, 49ers are loaded. Paraag was responsible for running USA Cricket for a long time and always run a tight and sensible ship. First foray into football and other investors on board who maybe lack any investment experience.
posted on 5/2/25
Farke said the positions we were looking at so there was an intention to look for players. I just imagine Buendia was top target and Archer was a possibility. When we couldn't get them there was no other person to look at.
As much as I am happy with the squad there is a risk there. People acting like we are already promoted which is a concern to me. We can't take anything for granted. A few shock losses and we could be in the play off places.
Lets just hope it doesnt come to that.
posted on 5/2/25
comment by Outwood White (U9610)
posted 2 hours, 34 minutes ago
Farke said the positions we were looking at so there was an intention to look for players. I just imagine Buendia was top target and Archer was a possibility. When we couldn't get them there was no other person to look at.
As much as I am happy with the squad there is a risk there. People acting like we are already promoted which is a concern to me. We can't take anything for granted. A few shock losses and we could be in the play off places.
Lets just hope it doesnt come to that.
^^^
That's where I am on this.
We've seen this fan mindset twice before
and we fell flat on our faces both times.
Nothing's ever a foregone conclusion.
posted on 5/2/25
comment by Batty (U4664)
posted 2 hours, 14 minutes ago
comment by Outwood White (U9610)
posted 2 hours, 34 minutes ago
Farke said the positions we were looking at so there was an intention to look for players. I just imagine Buendia was top target and Archer was a possibility. When we couldn't get them there was no other person to look at.
As much as I am happy with the squad there is a risk there. People acting like we are already promoted which is a concern to me. We can't take anything for granted. A few shock losses and we could be in the play off places.
Lets just hope it doesnt come to that.
^^^
That's where I am on this.
We've seen this fan mindset twice before
and we fell flat on our faces both times.
Nothing's ever a foregone conclusion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed also with both of you a batty and Outwood
Last season, Leicester were 17 (SEVENTEEN) points ahead of us at one point, and the fact is we actually overhauled that huge gap and reached the summit above them, (albeit very briefly), thus wiping out that huge deficit. It took injuries and the infamous Internstion breaks to disturb our momentum, so let’s not forget that both of those could in reality soon be over the horizon.
So one thing is clear, we can’t afford to be complacent and rest on our laurels, and almost certainly not at least until mid April in a best case scenario. Even with 3 games left, that’s 9 points available for others to overhaul us with, albeit with 9 of our final 11 games being against teams currently in the bottom half (4H and 5A), the remaining two being Middlesbrough away and Bristol City at home.