Quote ="Gotcha"I see another player we were strongly linked with as today signed for Doncaster. Not that we will ever know if we definately were in for him, but he was in a position we require someone for, and we have been heavily linked for a couple of weeks.'" Strongly linked with and actually making a bid are completely different and i personally don't see LB as a priority. Statement from Papa Smurf... www.leedsunited.com/news/2010060 ... 85_2064597

Quote ="Gotcha"I see another player we were strongly linked with as today signed for Doncaster. Not that we will ever know if we definately were in for him, but he was in a position we require someone for, and we have been heavily linked for a couple of weeks.'" Strongly linked with and actually making a bid are completely different and i personally don't see LB as a priority. Statement from Papa Smurf... www.leedsunited.com/news/2010060 ... 85_2064597

Tom Kennedy?

I see that the Paul Connolly deal is all but done, heard that Simeon Jackson is on, but waiting for his agent to arrive back in the country from a holiday.

We are also linked with Ipswich defender David Wright in this mornings Yorkshire Post.

I hear Jamie Ward has opted for a new contract at Sheff Utd as Leeds felt he wanted too much salary wise.

Quote ="rhinoms"Strongly linked with and actually making a bid are completely different and i personally don't see LB as a priority. Statement from Papa Smurf... www.leedsunited.com/news/2010060 ... 85_2064597'" We should try aload of young Brazilians/Argies out. Just fly about 10 of them over and give them a trail.

Quote ="rhinoms"Strongly linked with and actually making a bid are completely different and i personally don't see LB as a priority. Statement from Papa Smurf... www.leedsunited.com/news/2010060 ... 85_2064597'" We should try aload of young Brazilians/Argies out. Just fly about 10 of them over and give them a trail.

To be honest I think that's wise business by Leeds, as in that instance a transfer fee was also been paid, so high wages on top would make the whole deal pricey. Presuming his wage demands were excessive to the market value.

But if your strategy is freebies, should you relly be losing out to Doncaster? presuming we actually wanted the player in reality.

Paul Connolly does look to be nailed on. A reserve full back from a mid table championship side on a free transfer.

Tom Kennedy was widely reported to be a Leeds target, also available on a free. Still, big club like Doncaster was always going to prove too much competition for Leeds.

Simeon Jackson - Had one season in League 1 rest in non-league/League 2. 17 goals in 50 appearances last year.

Still, at least Papa Smurf is going to a conference in Malta and some trialists available on free transfers will be looked at in July eh?

(On a more positive note some Scunny fans seem to think Hooper will come to Leeds, though other reports say Leeds offer is a million short of the valuation and Middlesborough are prepared to meet that valuation, but that Leeds would be Hooper's first choice).

Im on the 'lets wait and see' side of things here. I think everyone is being a bit to quick to judge considering everything really is just rumors, that we've refused to pay money for X player or Y player demanded to much wages. I wouldn't care if we didn't spend a penny on players along as they can do a decent job for us and help us push on as a club. I think we should reserve judgment until we are told there will be no new signings and were finished in the transfer market.

I wouldn't disagree with that Sibbs - to a point.

If the signings are made and its just slow to start with then all well and good. What worries me is another year of free transfers and loans - and the freebies to generally be cast offs from lower clubs. The last couple of years the excuse was that we were saving in order to buy back Thorpe Arch or that we just couldn't attract players to drop one or two divisions. Well, we didn't buy Thorpe Arch back and we're now a division higher.

There's some rumours about that Bates is only interested in surviving next year and doing it with as little as possible spent in order to sell the club in 12 months time. That's a concern.

What I'd like to see is the signing of a mix of players. Some youngsters hungry to prove they can make it in the Premier League but see Leeds as a way of proving themselves through week in week out Championship football and going up with Leeds. I'd be happy to see a few gamble freebies from the lower leagues as long shots/investments. I'd also like to see proven players from top Championship clubs or even also ran Premier League clubs.

Look at how Howard Wilkinson recruited for the promotion push - Chris Fairclough, Strachan, Sterland, Hendrie, Chapman, Vinnie Jones - all players with something to prove but still having had careers largely in the top flight. Add on the like of Andy Williams and Mike Whitlow - low league bargains to pad out the squad and grow in value after promotion.

What he didn't do was get players in on season long loans or go for free transfer older players from mid table sides or lower divisions.

I know there's plenty of time left but there's been precious little ambition shown in the transfer market for a couple of years and I'd hoped that after promotion Leeds would make a statement of intent.

Still, Gary Hooper to be the new Chapman and Alan Smith to be the new Strach.

I'd agree with most of that, I really do hope that any future signings we make are not stop gaps that will only do us two seasons at best, and we as you say get young and eager footballers with a point to prove. I think in the long run, paying larger amounts of money this season, to assemble a squad for promotion and to stay together in the future will obviously work out cheaper than signing cheaper older players that will have to leave if we got promotion. I would like to see a squad that only would require a few additions should we go up, rather than needing to rebuild it from scratch if the squad is filled with average, older championship players. This next season could define where we are going as a club in the future IMO, and I hope Bates doesn't want to do the bare minimum.

Can I add two loan rumours to my prayer list: Carlos Vela and Gael Kakuta

Great post



very good points well made. You know your stuff

One of the July trialists is alegedly Maheta Malongo a Swiss striker.

27 years old, he's made 33 appearances in the conference, league 1 and league 2 over a 4 year period, scoring three goals in the process.

Top drawer.

Quote ="Frosties."I see that the Paul Connolly deal is all but done.'" Lets hope so. Held in enormous regard by the Derby fans: boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tn ... 2121385905 "He is so stupid...i reckon weeds must be favourites to go down selling beckford and signing the useless connoly...I cant understand why anyone in the ccc would want him he's slow, always caught out of position, cant make a tackle, cant jump, struggles to make a 10yrd pass, i could go on and on. He's just not a footballer. The guys a waste of space!...I'll be delighted once he's off our books...what a flop this guy has been...This is almost better news than a signing...It's about time he was bagged off... He was responsible for a number of goals against us ...lethargic and awkward ...completely inept ...he lost us so many goals...he's not even the back up RB for Derby..."

Quote ="Frosties."I see that the Paul Connolly deal is all but done.'" Lets hope so. Held in enormous regard by the Derby fans: boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tn ... 2121385905 "He is so stupid...i reckon weeds must be favourites to go down selling beckford and signing the useless connoly...I cant understand why anyone in the ccc would want him he's slow, always caught out of position, cant make a tackle, cant jump, struggles to make a 10yrd pass, i could go on and on. He's just not a footballer. The guys a waste of space!...I'll be delighted once he's off our books...what a flop this guy has been...This is almost better news than a signing...It's about time he was bagged off... He was responsible for a number of goals against us ...lethargic and awkward ...completely inept ...he lost us so many goals...he's not even the back up RB for Derby..."

Linked with Andy o'brien and Billy Sharp again. www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... Sharp.html

Linked with Andy o'brien and Billy Sharp again. www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... Sharp.html

I've decided to be optimistic.

I believe that we'll sign 2 decent centre backs; 2 full backs, Alan Smith, Watt on loan, another really promising kid on loan, McArthur, and one of Hooper/Sharp/Nugent/Johnny Foreigner.

That is all.

You normally are so why you posted that bitter bile from Derby fans and the sarcasm re-Connolly signing is out of character for you mate imo

There isn't really any precedent that Papa Smurf will give Larry much to work with transfer wise despite the apparently healthy financial position, and activity to date, including those that have opted to go/stay elsewhere doesn't contradict that.

However, my optimism is that as Schmeicel and Paynter were signings with very little warning beforehand perhaps we'l be surprised by a Nugent or Smith and some of the dross we've been linked with - such as Connolly - will prove to be smokescreens.

Regarding Connolly specifically, I knew he was a back up player at mid table Derby, which didn't excite me, so i had a look at a link from Waccoe to what a Derby board had to say about his departure. There wasn't a single positive comment about him: he's seemingly 3rd choice right back and considered a complete liability.

I personally wasn't really impressed when we signed Higgs last year and thought we could of got better when i heard we'd signed Kisnorbo.
Both turned out very good signings and whilst Connolly isn't rated by Derby fans i'm prepared to give him a chance and trust SG.

For Higgs and Kisnorbo there's Crowe, McSheffrey, Dickov and arguably Doyle, Bromby, Gradel and Naylor.

When a manger is limited to freebies he's got to be very, very lucky to get many real gems.

Re- Dickov and Crowe agree but even Crowe had decent games.
Mcsheffrey wasn't fit enough imo and i think there's more to come from Gradel and Bromby.
As for Naylor i think he's done well overall and added steal when we needed it.
Agree completely about the freebie statement but thus far the 2 freebies have been good buisness imo and like you i also hope there's a Sharp/Hooper/Nugent tucked away somewhere.
Back to Connolly he did well at Plymouth in this league and seems to have lost confidence under Clough and the Derby Boo boys so maybe SG can get him confident and back on form for us.
I'm definately at "glass half full"

Great post

Quote ="Puig-Aubert"Lets hope so. Held in enormous regard by the Derby fans: boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tn ... 2121385905 "He is so stupid...i reckon weeds must be favourites to go down selling beckford and signing the useless connoly...I cant understand why anyone in the ccc would want him he's slow, always caught out of position, cant make a tackle, cant jump, struggles to make a 10yrd pass, i could go on and on. He's just not a footballer. The guys a waste of space!...I'll be delighted once he's off our books...what a flop this guy has been...This is almost better news than a signing...It's about time he was bagged off... He was responsible for a number of goals against us ...lethargic and awkward ...completely inept ...he lost us so many goals...he's not even the back up RB for Derby..."'" That sounds exactly like the Leeds United board about Andy Hughes early last season, and those fickle fans soon changed later in the year. That said however I am still in the Leeds camp that think Hughes is that type of player. So oohh goody, how great it will be to have two of them in the same team.

Quote ="Puig-Aubert"Lets hope so. Held in enormous regard by the Derby fans: boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tn ... 2121385905 "He is so stupid...i reckon weeds must be favourites to go down selling beckford and signing the useless connoly...I cant understand why anyone in the ccc would want him he's slow, always caught out of position, cant make a tackle, cant jump, struggles to make a 10yrd pass, i could go on and on. He's just not a footballer. The guys a waste of space!...I'll be delighted once he's off our books...what a flop this guy has been...This is almost better news than a signing...It's about time he was bagged off... He was responsible for a number of goals against us ...lethargic and awkward ...completely inept ...he lost us so many goals...he's not even the back up RB for Derby..."'" That sounds exactly like the Leeds United board about Andy Hughes early last season, and those fickle fans soon changed later in the year. That said however I am still in the Leeds camp that think Hughes is that type of player. So oohh goody, how great it will be to have two of them in the same team.

Santiago Silva is the latest striker linked and the Sunday Mirror mentions Mcarthur again.

Santiago Silva seems to have come from a rumour posted on Transfer Rumours - where a guy claimed he was processing his visa application.

It'd be nice but ,looks ropey!