This is good news. I know that we wanted Oliver Skipp which I don't feel will happen. Being honest, I would have preferred Son Heung-Min on loan, but this is just my shit football opinion.
LOL. But Rodon is the exception here. Imagine turning down Premier League teams to come back to Leeds. There's not many players out there like Joe Rodon.
For me we need a right back and a striker, Bamford just isn't gonna cut it for more than 10 games this coming season and then we only have Piroe. Wober doubles up as a lb and cb so theres no problem with that
Frustrating that we have two great ones already in Joseph and Piroe but Farke doesn’t seem to want to trust him with the main role. Piroe also a fantastic number 9 before he came to Leeds. We need to make the most of the squad we have but Farke can be frustrating in not trusting players or playing to Piroe strengths etc.
Would love us to get Skipp from Spurs, Sessegnon on a free and then we need a good RB. Sepp Van Der Berg from Liverpool would be quality. Also replace both Cree and Gnonto for me. Can’t do with either
Assuming we keep Wober around, I think we just need a right back and a striker now and we're set fair until possibly someone like Summerville or Gnonto go and need replacing. Wouldn't be against getting Connor Roberts permanently myself. He didn't get to play too much on loan but I quite liked him.
Rodon is superb. Instantly the best centre half in the league, probably- or at least top three. He gets Leeds, he wants to be here and he'll Instantly make us a more solid prospect through the middle. Welcome back.
Wober was a lot better than Struijk during his 6 months here, I don’t particularly like the guy buy Wober and Rodon would be a very good championship pairing
Not sure how anybody can have listened to how Farke talks about Struijk for a full season and think he will be anything other than our first choice LCB
If struijk stays fit we have the best centreback duo by far.
Firpo is elite at this level, get a solid right back in and our defence is going to be filth
Agreed, he was stated to have had a good season last year.
Using the comparison as an example that Firpo did well last year in an area he is weak in, certainly in the prem.
It’s the same team minus Gray…how is that stronger? Granted we have £30m or so, but is that going to be reinvested? And if so, will it pay off?
Morale is also now a heck of a lot lower amongst much of the fan base with this transfer, red bull etc…I’d say we’re in a far weaker position currently.
>It’s the same team minus Gray…how is that stronger?
The point he was making was the same team minus summerville and rodon (no gray) is better than not having them but with gray still here
Yeah this
Also people overestimate the morale thing
Ppl are grumpy over summer and there will be a slightly lower tolerance for shit football. But realistically if we we are top of the table or second for a lot of next season fans will be fine. If we aren’t they will be angry anyway. Ultimately people want to see us do as well as they think we should. People aren’t going to sit there not enjoying football matches we are winning because Archie isn’t there
True but there was just something magical about archie being with us last season, similar to Raph and kalvin being our stars shining in the premier league even though we were crap, similar (obviously to a very high level this one) bielsa being at the club and everything that came with it.
My point being that alot of the anger is coming from a lack of that magical aura going into the new season that we've had in small and large doses since 2018ish and like you said if we aren't doing well from the get go things are going to get ugly.
Yeah I agree to a point - in the East stand (as an ex season ticket person that’s where I must watch from) Archie only has to not lose the ball to get the crowd going - when he does a little turn people go nuts
I suppose my point is that either we are gonna be looking good to go up and the crowd will be happy, or we aren’t and it’ll be febrile anyway - end of the day fans move on quickly. I think like you say, what it does do is probably shave some weeks off how long it turns to get nasty but ultimately that’s quite minor in a context where you’re talking about us being able to keep Summerville and Rodon….(or spend big to replace Summerville)
The fact he turned down PL interest for us makes him ~~an~~ ~~Icon~~ a player I hold in high esteem (happy now, jesus) in my book. Can't wait to see him and struijk lock down strikers this season.
Love it when players feel like they've found a home. Really seems to get the club, and I loved the passion last season, celebrating clearances like he'd scored. Just the kind of mindset the club needs in it's players.
Alone it doesn't make up for selling archie. I hope we see a quality rb in quickly and we hit this season running otherwise i know things are going to turn toxic at the 49ers/redbull quickly
Honestly the fact the Grays baked a release clause into Archies deal if we didn't go up has made me feel a lot more relaxed about him going. Its obviously what he thought was best for his career - and everyone knew someone would come knocking for that sort of money this summer. Agree though that we need the right signings to replace him, but so far most of Farke/the49ers signings have been good.
Sadly they were put in to all contracts. I can imagine at the time of signing the Gray’s were happy with everything and would just ignore the fact that there’s a release clause there. Just a side note, so to speak. Then we don’t win at Wembley.
Why wouldn't it. Let's be honest when he signed that contract no-one could've foreseen he was going to be worth that money. The club probably put a stupid high valuation in to stop other clubs sniffing around a promising youngster. No-one was expecting him to do as well as he did in his 1st year.
You could but then you get into arguments with the player if they wanted to go and you're not letting them. With a release clause you don't have that conversation.
Let's remove the Leeds family factor and use Raphina as an example.
We sign him for 10 million and don't put in a release clause. Barcelona come in and offer 50 million but we want 75 million. Raphinas dream is to play for Barcelona but we're stopping him and force him to play in a relegation battle again. The amount of resentment will destroy the club / player relationship.
However if we put in a 75 million release clause, he can't argue that we should let him go to his dream move for 50 million as he signed the contract agreeing to leave for min 75 million.
These release clauses only look bad if the player happens to play out of this world and the release clause seems too low or in the case of Archie just about right.
As I said, when Archie signed that contract no-one was expecting him to be worth 40 million after a year.
welcome back Joe. this is something i honestly didn't think we were going to be able to pull off given the season he's just had but it seems like this is where he wants to be. it's a shame about what went on around this but it is what it is. MOT
To be honest I hadn’t seen any news at all 😂 Sums up his status at the club tbh, I knew we’d offered him a deal but don’t see why he’d accept. Same with Drameh.
Sad to lose Archie, but delighted to have the best center-back in the Championship back playing for us.
I take that.
Now let's get some more signings and piss this league.
Great signing, the continuity with him at the back this season will be massive for us. Hopefully, be it Struijk or Wober (?) his defensive partner stays fit. 20+ clean sheets anyone? 😮💨
Somewhat softens the blow - and look at it this way, it's much better than the picture on Sunday when we thought Archie was off for 35m to Brentford with no players coming the other way, and having to compete against Ipswich/Leicester for Rodon.
Over the moon to see Joe back, he was almost perfect last year, had some massive moments and prevented what would've been certain goals. I think it's a good price as when Spurs activated that year to protect his value, I expected them to be looking for 15+, so we've done well there.
This is good news. I know that we wanted Oliver Skipp which I don't feel will happen. Being honest, I would have preferred Son Heung-Min on loan, but this is just my shit football opinion.
Not sure if Sonny is good enough for the league…/s
LOL. But Rodon is the exception here. Imagine turning down Premier League teams to come back to Leeds. There's not many players out there like Joe Rodon.
For me we need a right back and a striker, Bamford just isn't gonna cut it for more than 10 games this coming season and then we only have Piroe. Wober doubles up as a lb and cb so theres no problem with that
Frustrating that we have two great ones already in Joseph and Piroe but Farke doesn’t seem to want to trust him with the main role. Piroe also a fantastic number 9 before he came to Leeds. We need to make the most of the squad we have but Farke can be frustrating in not trusting players or playing to Piroe strengths etc.
I, too, am delighted.
Would love us to get Skipp from Spurs, Sessegnon on a free and then we need a good RB. Sepp Van Der Berg from Liverpool would be quality. Also replace both Cree and Gnonto for me. Can’t do with either
Proper CB our Joe.
Assuming we keep Wober around, I think we just need a right back and a striker now and we're set fair until possibly someone like Summerville or Gnonto go and need replacing. Wouldn't be against getting Connor Roberts permanently myself. He didn't get to play too much on loan but I quite liked him. Rodon is superb. Instantly the best centre half in the league, probably- or at least top three. He gets Leeds, he wants to be here and he'll Instantly make us a more solid prospect through the middle. Welcome back.
Sorry to say this but we need GK. Sadly we won't get the quality needed right now, but in PL Meslier needs to go
Good job we’re in the champo then
Why would Wober stay to be third choice? I don’t see it at all
After the way he has been skinned in the Euro’s I think he has found his level 😝
Wober can also play LB.
So can Struijk but he shouldn’t
Wober was a lot better than Struijk during his 6 months here, I don’t particularly like the guy buy Wober and Rodon would be a very good championship pairing
Honestly I have no words. Farke absolutely loves Struijk. He is number 1 with Rodon.
Not sure how anybody can have listened to how Farke talks about Struijk for a full season and think he will be anything other than our first choice LCB
We also need a left back
Personally I think Firpo with Byram as cover is perfectly fine, although injury records, I guess, are the issue.
Firpo very likely sold due to only having a year left on contract
If struijk stays fit we have the best centreback duo by far. Firpo is elite at this level, get a solid right back in and our defence is going to be filth
Firpo is ok going forward but hes no good defending.
Yep hes decent enough for the championship and thats it
He starts for 90% of the teams in this league, off the top of my head I can't think of a team he wouldn't get in
His defending stats last season were better than Grays. He’s really good at this level.
Gray isn’t a fullback
Agreed, he was stated to have had a good season last year. Using the comparison as an example that Firpo did well last year in an area he is weak in, certainly in the prem.
Welcome. Now we need alot of new players cause we're gonna lose a couple more
Honestly, a RB and a midfielder as cover and we're set until the outgoings arrive
If the Archie transfer means Rodon plus we keep Summerville we will all have to concede we are in a stronger position to be promoted Still shit tho
It’s the same team minus Gray…how is that stronger? Granted we have £30m or so, but is that going to be reinvested? And if so, will it pay off? Morale is also now a heck of a lot lower amongst much of the fan base with this transfer, red bull etc…I’d say we’re in a far weaker position currently.
>It’s the same team minus Gray…how is that stronger? The point he was making was the same team minus summerville and rodon (no gray) is better than not having them but with gray still here
Yeah this Also people overestimate the morale thing Ppl are grumpy over summer and there will be a slightly lower tolerance for shit football. But realistically if we we are top of the table or second for a lot of next season fans will be fine. If we aren’t they will be angry anyway. Ultimately people want to see us do as well as they think we should. People aren’t going to sit there not enjoying football matches we are winning because Archie isn’t there
True but there was just something magical about archie being with us last season, similar to Raph and kalvin being our stars shining in the premier league even though we were crap, similar (obviously to a very high level this one) bielsa being at the club and everything that came with it. My point being that alot of the anger is coming from a lack of that magical aura going into the new season that we've had in small and large doses since 2018ish and like you said if we aren't doing well from the get go things are going to get ugly.
Yeah I agree to a point - in the East stand (as an ex season ticket person that’s where I must watch from) Archie only has to not lose the ball to get the crowd going - when he does a little turn people go nuts I suppose my point is that either we are gonna be looking good to go up and the crowd will be happy, or we aren’t and it’ll be febrile anyway - end of the day fans move on quickly. I think like you say, what it does do is probably shave some weeks off how long it turns to get nasty but ultimately that’s quite minor in a context where you’re talking about us being able to keep Summerville and Rodon….(or spend big to replace Summerville)
Welcome back, the best defender we've had in a good while, break some ankles lad.
Brilliant news welcome back
Absolutely over the moon to have him back. Great player and clearly gets what it is to be leeds.
The fact he turned down PL interest for us makes him ~~an~~ ~~Icon~~ a player I hold in high esteem (happy now, jesus) in my book. Can't wait to see him and struijk lock down strikers this season.
Yeah he’s not an icon yet lol
Love it when players feel like they've found a home. Really seems to get the club, and I loved the passion last season, celebrating clearances like he'd scored. Just the kind of mindset the club needs in it's players.
“icon” jfc
Great player for us but these days you’re a legend or an icon just for doing the Leeds salute. Very low bar.
Yeah, but early for that kind of noise.
They used a capital ‘i’ as well 😂 Leeds fans constantly outdoing themselves when it comes to knee-jerk reactions
Alone it doesn't make up for selling archie. I hope we see a quality rb in quickly and we hit this season running otherwise i know things are going to turn toxic at the 49ers/redbull quickly
What kind of RB would you want?
Honestly the fact the Grays baked a release clause into Archies deal if we didn't go up has made me feel a lot more relaxed about him going. Its obviously what he thought was best for his career - and everyone knew someone would come knocking for that sort of money this summer. Agree though that we need the right signings to replace him, but so far most of Farke/the49ers signings have been good.
Sadly they were put in to all contracts. I can imagine at the time of signing the Gray’s were happy with everything and would just ignore the fact that there’s a release clause there. Just a side note, so to speak. Then we don’t win at Wembley.
I don’t think it would make sense for the club to include a release clause if he didn’t want one,
Why wouldn't it. Let's be honest when he signed that contract no-one could've foreseen he was going to be worth that money. The club probably put a stupid high valuation in to stop other clubs sniffing around a promising youngster. No-one was expecting him to do as well as he did in his 1st year.
How would a release clause do that? We can turn down any offers.
You could but then you get into arguments with the player if they wanted to go and you're not letting them. With a release clause you don't have that conversation. Let's remove the Leeds family factor and use Raphina as an example. We sign him for 10 million and don't put in a release clause. Barcelona come in and offer 50 million but we want 75 million. Raphinas dream is to play for Barcelona but we're stopping him and force him to play in a relegation battle again. The amount of resentment will destroy the club / player relationship. However if we put in a 75 million release clause, he can't argue that we should let him go to his dream move for 50 million as he signed the contract agreeing to leave for min 75 million. These release clauses only look bad if the player happens to play out of this world and the release clause seems too low or in the case of Archie just about right. As I said, when Archie signed that contract no-one was expecting him to be worth 40 million after a year.
Couldn’t agree more. Probably a policy to include in each one though.
Release clauses are put in to all player contracts now as a club policy.
I don’t think it would make sense for the club to include a release clause if he didn’t want one?
Omg Bridgey is that you
I am guessing they won't be letting us know about the release clause he inevitably has
ngl we knew about Archies. when he signed a new contract it was reported on.
welcome back Joe. this is something i honestly didn't think we were going to be able to pull off given the season he's just had but it seems like this is where he wants to be. it's a shame about what went on around this but it is what it is. MOT
Just waiting for the news that we're loaning him out to a premier league club as part of his contract /s
Great stuff- Needed to be the priority this summer and they've done it so fair play to the owners
Good. Does he also play at RB? 😄 Because I'm pretty sure we've gone from too many RBs to almost none?
Byram, Shackleton (maybe), Drameh (maybe) EDIT: Completely forgot about Kristiensen (also a maybe)
The Sheffield United player Shackleton? That one yeah?
Is it confirmed yeah? Yeah?
Yes lol
Not yet
Apologies my mistake thought they had but doesn't appear so
To be honest I hadn’t seen any news at all 😂 Sums up his status at the club tbh, I knew we’d offered him a deal but don’t see why he’d accept. Same with Drameh.
Byram would be decent enough for this level but he just can’t stay fit for more than 5 games
Sad to lose Archie, but delighted to have the best center-back in the Championship back playing for us. I take that. Now let's get some more signings and piss this league.
Great signing, the continuity with him at the back this season will be massive for us. Hopefully, be it Struijk or Wober (?) his defensive partner stays fit. 20+ clean sheets anyone? 😮💨
Ampadu & Gruev protecting Rodon & Struijk could be catastrophic for the championship (but not for us).
Although limited evidence, it didn’t seem like ampadu and Gruev could play together. Both defensive, need someone to progress the ball
Somewhat softens the blow - and look at it this way, it's much better than the picture on Sunday when we thought Archie was off for 35m to Brentford with no players coming the other way, and having to compete against Ipswich/Leicester for Rodon. Over the moon to see Joe back, he was almost perfect last year, had some massive moments and prevented what would've been certain goals. I think it's a good price as when Spurs activated that year to protect his value, I expected them to be looking for 15+, so we've done well there.
Great signing and he actually wants to play for Leeds given he seemingly rejected other offers in the Prem. Rodon > Gray