Is Positivity at last at Elland Road?

As Noel Hunt’s is on the brink of becoming Leeds’ 3rd signing of the summer and with Mr Bates drifting off into the sunset, Leeds signing a £1m player and GFH finally looking like they will back Brain McDermott. Is the sleeping giant finally going to be woken up?

Elland road set for better days?

It has been a dream last 48 hours for us Leeds fans and who would have thought it after the news on Friday that we had to sell to buy and with the departure of Steve Morison on a season long loan to Millwall, optimism wasn’t a word that could be associated with the majority of the Leeds United faithful.

‘Legend’ was how Neil Warnock described Morison, 3 goals in 16 appearances and he was the 1st major casualty of Brian Mcdermott’s reign

But the signing of Luke Murphy,23, for £1m, our first signing over a £1m since that of Richard Creswell from Preston North End way back in 2005, has now seemed to of created a cloud of positivity over Elland Road and quite rightly so too. Brian Mcdermott described Luke Murphy as the best player in league 1 and the fact that clubs like Wolves and Blackburn bid for Murphy whilst not to mention Swansea, Everton and Aston villa were all tracking the highly rated 23 year old shows how much of a coup this is for us. Mcdermott said it was a significant signing and showed the clubs ‘intent’ and he’s not far wrong there. Murphy is a classy midfielder who played over 100 games for his hometown club Crewe Alexandra and also went onto captain the Lancashire based side. He can create goals and score goals and this was something we were evidently lacking last season,with his cultured style of playing and with the combative style of Rudy Austin alongside him it seems we have a great balance in midfield and also early as it may seem it looks as if finally we have replaced Johnny Howson. Murphy is certainly a player of quality and a player we should all be excited to watch next season.

A delighted Luke Murphy pictured here with his Leeds shirt after completing his £1m move from Crewe

Matt Smith also joined the club and was our 1st signing of the summer. His signing has somewhat divided opinion between Leeds fans and with the 6ft6 strikers somewhat modest goal record at Oldham its easy to see why.But on abrighter note I think the giant striker certainly will give us something different up top and Will help fill the void left by Steve Morison and could complement Ross McCormack very well. As I mentioned earlier whilst his goal scoring record is questionable,14 goals in 75 games at Oldham Athletic, his overall contribution to the team and with his work rate shown at Oldham , it could turn out to be a very shrewd acquisition by Mcdermott. I just hope we give him time to settle in and not judge him too quickly. But he certianly has some section of the fans to win over for sure.

Can he win some fans over? here pictured after scoring against Liverpool in the fa cup 4th round

The imminent signing of Noel Hunt on a free transfer from Reading will add depth to our Attacking options which already boasts the likes of Ross McCormack, Matt Smith, Dom Poleon, Luke Varney and El Hadj Diouf. Whilst like Matt smith his goalscoring record is rather modest, 33 goals in 145 matches, he is a player who Brian Mcdermott knows all about,having managed him at Reading, and his willingness to work for the team and his unselfish play could prove to be invaluable for us next year and it gives us another alternative to our other strikers. He is a very good replacement for Steve Morison as he is a player who will give it 100% unlike a certain Mr Morison. Another savvy piece of business from Mcdermott I think and no doubt he’ll very quickly become a fans favourite due to his willingness to play for the club and to give it his all every match.

Noel Hunt’s signing is imminent

With Mr Bates finally not in control of the club and GFH’s signal of intent over this last 24 hours, if we can keep onto our key assets,Sam Byram, Tom Lees and Ross McCormack in particular alongside a new winger and a centre back,rumoured to be Matt Mills from Bolton Wanderers, it could prove to be a very good season for Brain and the lads!

Bates is finally OUT!!

Lets stay positive and hope more good news is on the horizon, lets trust Brian and GFH to get the required players in and lets back our new signings!!!
MOT

The big Steve Morison mystery

If we are all to believe the papers and the rumour mill then Steve Morison is set to return to Millwall on a year long loan, posing the question, why? I just don’t understand the thinking behind this, I mean, he did have a poor start with Leeds United but to completely write off a player who came in midway through the season after not playing at all for Norwich last season is crazy in my opinion. Okay, if we have to sell players to get players in then I would rather lose him than Sam Byram or Ross McCormack. But, another reason why this is deal is so strange is that we are loaning him out! If he doesn’t figure in McDermott’s plans then why don’t we sell him?

The rumours are that we are offloading Morison to bring in Noel Hunt, is this just a massive sidestep? He’s certainly no better than a fit Steve Morison. I’m not saying that Morison is brilliant and I’m certainly not defending his lacklustre performances last season but I actually thought he would go onto have a better season this season. With a whole pre season and a full season of games he should have been much more effective.

What do you think about this deal? Let us know your opinions.

Pre season and Leeds united

So the players are back finally and there is already negativity from the fans. Hardly surprising when the Manager says he’s going to have to sell to bring players in. This instantly sets off alarm bells of past years, the sales of Snodgrass, Gradel etc. McDermott says that he may need to sell to buy players, which members of Leeds United’s squad have good value? Sam Byram is the only stand out candidate. A lot of Leeds fans will say if we sell him then it’s same old same old and we’re showing no ambition but think about the other side of it. If we sold Sam Byram for £8m and it got put back into the team would you accept it? I know I would.

However from the outside right know it just looks as bleak as it has done for the past few years, no money or ambition. The only things that have changed this year from last are that Ken Bates is no longer in charge, a massive bonus and Brian McDermott. I heard all the stories this morning about us having no money etc and felt as disappointed as anyone. Then I turned on Yorkshire Radio and heard Thom Kirwin interviewing McDermott, it instantly made me feel more positive about the season ahead. Brian is a great motivator and sounded like he was really looking forward to the task ahead.

I think McDermott could still make some very good signings and the season ahead could still be a success, we shouldn’t be expecting instant success in the terms of promotion. As for the rumours of new ownership AGAIN I think the best thing to do is to let them get on with it until it happens. Remember how bad the atmosphere’s were at Elland Road when all you could hear was “Bates Out”? We don’t want that again with something like “GFH Out”. The players really need the fans support and it makes Elland Road a lot tougher place to come and get points for opposition sides.

The latest rumour is that Steve Morison could be going out on loan, I’m not sure if this would be good for Leeds or not. Getting rid of his high wages would be good but I can’t help think he could be good this season for us. Also if we are struggling to bring players in I’m not sure we should let players that we could use leave.

McDermott also said he had a verbal agreement with a player for them to become our second signing that should be done next week, all signs point towards it being Noel Hunt.

GFH Capital – Give them a chance or have they wasted their chance?

“Currently the silence coming out of Elland Road is deafening.” That seems to be the majority opinion of this summer’s activity so far. So far the club have only bought in Matt Smith, for the total of a free transfer… All too familiar or a good singing? Probably a bit of both in my opinion. Personally I’m quite happy with the signing of Smith, I think he will add another option for us next season, and plus we got the right Matt Smith because we all know Warnock would have signed Doctor Who!

The thing that is getting at me though is that at the end of the season Brian McDermott was adamant he wanted his signings in for when the team returned for pre season training, at the moment we are only two days away from that date. With the team returning on the 27th we have one new face and quite a few have been released from the club, could this be a problem for team spirit? I personally won’t be setting any alarm bells off until the squad leave for the pre season training camp in Slovenia. By the time we return from that we will only be a couple of weeks away from the season opener against Brighton, you have to wonder if that leaves enough time for any new players to settle in and get familiar with a system that even our current squad won’t be used too. We all saw how an unfit Steve Morison failed miserably to settle in when he signed in January, so there is some established ground work for these facts that we may run out of time.

GFH have been in charge since December 21st and were being slated for the money put up for transfers in January but is that a sign they don’t have any money or did they just not trust Neil Warnock with it? It’s a debate that we’ve all had since the back end of January and despite my hatred for Warnock and his shambolic signings you have to think that it’s the former that is the case here. With the new board openly and desperately seeking investment you get the feeling that Haigh and Patel would prove effective partners for Trotter’s Independent Traders!

I am willing to give GFH until the end of July to take this chance and really make a mark at this football club and bring in some quality players that can really make a difference and give us a push for promotion. But, what do you think? Do you think their time is up or they should be given a chance to turn this round? Please vote and let me know, all feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.

Paper talk – 24/06/13

Leeds are lining up a move for Reading ‘keeper Adam Federici according to The Sun. Federici, 28, struggled for form last season whilst Alex McCarthy was in sterling form when called upon.

Like every other rumour linking us with a former Reading player, I don’t believe there’s any substance to this rumour. I’d probably take him if we were offered him, but Reading will probably be asking for around 1.5-2 million for the Australian.

According to the Daily Mail, Millwall boss Steve Lomas wants to take Leeds forward, Steve Morison, back to the London club.

Morison hasn’t really got going since moving to Elland Road but that’s partly due to injury and not having much game time before moving to Leeds. Given a full pre-season I feel (more hope really) that Morison will turn out to be the goalscorer we all expected when we signed him.

Who do Leeds need to sign?

By wardylufc

Following Leeds’ disappointing campaign last season it was a general consensus that Leeds needed to strengthen in order to maintain a promotion push during the coming season.

I feel we need another striker to accompany Matt Smith, Ross McCormack, Steve Morison and Luke Varney. Two midfielders, a battling, defensive midfielder. An attacking, playmaker. Also a central defender to partner Tom Lees as in my opinion Jason Pearce is too inconsitent and prone to a mistake. I also feel a change of captaincy will bring a freshness to the dressing room. However the biggest weakness we had last season was not buying wingers and replacing outgoing captain Robert Snodgrass. A lack of width in the playing style and a lack of natural wingers meant it was going to be very tough to be a creative team.

With Noel Hunt reportedly a Leeds player and with the rumours flying around about possible other signings such as Anthony Stokes, Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle, Gary Mackay-Steven and Lewis McGugan, Leeds fans finally have a summer to look forward to and under the management of Brian McDermott it should be a good season in which we should challenge for a promotion place.