Wage bill
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Leeds United approx 37-40m
Sheffield United approx 21-23m
Incoming transfers
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Leeds United £30m
Sheffield United 6m
Points at start of season
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Leeds United 0
Sheffield United minus2
UNSETTLED PERIOD
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Sheffield United had a transfer embargo in 23/24 season.
Following relegation 23/24 season Sheffied United lost
Archer up to Aston Villa
Jebbison to Bournemouth
McBurnie to Spain
Trusty to Celtic
Bogle to Leeds United
Egan to Burnley
Baldock to Greece
Lowe to Sheff Wednedsay
Osborn to Derby C
Norwood to Stockport
Basham retired
Sheffield United had to make many transfer signings as a result
Shackleton (from Leeds)
O'Hare (linked with Leeds)
Burrows (linked with Leeds)
Gilchrist (linked with Leeds)
Rak Sakyi (linked with Leeds)
Moore (linked with Leeds last January)
Campbell
McCallum
Souttar
Cooper
Promoted from youth football and all playing a role
Arblaster 20
Brooks 20
Peck 20
League Table (pure footballing terms)
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Sheffield United 40 points
Leeds United 35 points
We are almost half way through season.
Appreciate we lost Rutter and Summerville who were as good as any in the 23/24 campaign plus Gray but we spent good money on replacements. I know statistics does not buy results but all things considered I have to ask the question why are Leeds effectively 5 points worse off than Sheffield United this season?
Competition 1
posted on 5/12/24
comment by The Spanish Italians - Its all coming home again (U21595)
posted 1 hour, 50 minutes ago
He just needs to take a leaf out of Bielsa's book.
——————-
I mean, as much as I love Bielsa, and would take him over Farke any day.. this is exactly the sort of blinkeredness NJS was talking about..
Bielsa also very stubborn - insisted on a small squad, never ever changed the way we play (maybe once away at city).. even when we getting battered week in week out in the premier league wrote his sacking he refused to change much.
Let’s not choose to forget these things to make a point about another manager
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He also changed it massively for Man Utd 0-0 home first season.
And if you take a glance of this report, and Bielsa’s comment we had actually done it for a few of the top 6.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56790342.amp
I have to say it’s very frustrating that he seemingly refused to adopt these tactics as a fall back when things started going wrong.
The loss of Phillips to injury did kill us though, as it is a slightly better team than us in Man City with the loss of Rodri.
posted on 5/12/24
comment by The Spanish Italians - Its all coming home again (U21595)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by The Light Brigade (U22847)
posted 50 minutes ago
Morning all🌞.
Yep, was just going to make a similar point Spanish about Bielsa’s stubbornness. If he hadn’t have been so, he might still be with us now, in the Premier League? But then again, if my grandma had cojones … 😁
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yeah Light but honestly not so sure that was so much his undoing, I mean, yeah maybe.. but..
looking back, and in hindsight, I think I still think the fact that we never properly backed MB by strengthening the squad properly that second season was criminal..
in a way, his success at raising the profile of players like Dallas, Klich, Alioski, Bamford, KP, meant maybe the club/MB trusted them too much.
who knows and its all irrelevant now. as stated I'd have MB back anyday.. but the man wasn't perfect either
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The plan was always to spend 2 seasons budget in the first season of promotion. To give us the biggest up lift in squad when most urgently needed. AR was quite open about this at the time. He took a gamble with the limited finances he had and I think it was pretty logical.
Unfortunately the guy just wasn’t anywhere near wealthy enough. Not something I blame him for. He should however have had less of an ego and planned for this by selling up before end of first season promoted. We all would have been far better off.
He would have made more money. Be remembered a lot lot better. And we could be much higher up the ladder.
posted on 5/12/24
Faithy, fair comments... and can't disagree.
sometimes when I think of Leeds' owners and these gambling's - I can;t help but wish we had MB as manager at the time when we were splashing cash all over the place... those timelines somehow together...
because I'm convinced an MB with unlimited (or so it seemed at the time) finances would be one hell of a team
posted on 5/12/24
Alan Smith for example ................ playing a Bamford role with MB...... the lad would be running everywhere, sticking his toe in everywhere... playing to the crowd too... wow.... a Kewell, a Bowyer, imagine what MB could have done to these players.. and these were acadomdy players (I know we got bowyer from charlton, but we were cr ap when we first signed him )
then add all the transfers... MB choices
posted on 6/12/24
The point I was making about MB was about one of his qualities. He never blamed players for a defeat. He didn’t blame injuries (our injury list was horrendous under MB), and he didn’t blame early kick-offs, tiredness or poor refs.
Of course he had failings, and stubbornness was right up there, but I really liked the way he avoided criticising his team.
posted on 6/12/24
comment by The heart of Farkeness (U19827)
posted 35 minutes ago
The point I was making about MB was about one of his qualities. He never blamed players for a defeat. He didn’t blame injuries (our injury list was horrendous under MB), and he didn’t blame early kick-offs, tiredness or poor refs.
Of course he had failings, and stubbornness was right up there, but I really liked the way he avoided criticising his team.
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Agreed
posted on 6/12/24
but I really liked the way he avoided criticising his team.
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yeah that was really refreshing to be honest
posted on 6/12/24
How do you know he didn’t criticise the team or individuals in private? it’s hard to believe he never
criticised…. if he was never critical of the team or individuals well that’s not good coaching, is it?
posted on 6/12/24
comment by NJS Vaguely Noble (U8272)
posted 8 minutes ago
How do you know he didn’t criticise the team or individuals in private? it’s hard to believe he never
criticised…. if he was never critical of the team or individuals well that’s not good coaching, is it?
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I think that's the point NJS, he didn't 'publicly' do it to escape criticism for himself... was very refreshing when you compare him to managers like Jose for example, always crying its somebody else's fault etc
he may well have done privately, and that's exactly where it should stay.
I'm going to get you the Beilsa auto biography for Christmas NJS ... I;ve already got Bamford's for Batty.
oh and a book of jokes for Dennis
posted on 6/12/24
comment by The Spanish Italians - Its all coming home again (U21595)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by NJS Vaguely Noble (U8272)
posted 8 minutes ago
How do you know he didn’t criticise the team or individuals in private? it’s hard to believe he never
criticised…. if he was never critical of the team or individuals well that’s not good coaching, is it?
--------------
I think that's the point NJS, he didn't 'publicly' do it to escape criticism for himself... was very refreshing when you compare him to managers like Jose for example, always crying its somebody else's fault etc
he may well have done privately, and that's exactly where it should stay.
I'm going to get you the Beilsa auto biography for Christmas NJS... I;ve already got Bamford's for Batty.
oh and a book of jokes for Dennis
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well the point is you have to take into account what he was like in private with individuals or the team…it’s a rather sweeping statement to say he didn’t criticise the team or individuals in public as if he was some saintly saint in heaven, without knowing what he was like in private. Oh well back to reading about Bobby Fischers most outrageous chess moves!