Great update and can't wait to see who he brings in!

2015-05-23 17:31#213618 LLMCrumble : Great update and can't wait to see who he brings in!

The next few updates should say a lot

Uwe Rosler took the reins at Leeds United last night and backed himself to thrive under volatile owner Massimo Cellino, saying: “I’m not suicidal.”

Rösler described his appointment as head coach as the “chance of a lifetime” and said he would not have accepted the opportunity at Elland Road without confidence in his ability to work with Cellino. The German became Cellino’s fifth first-team boss in the space of 12 months when he signed a two-year contract yesterday, replacing Neil Redfearn.

Leeds have been beset by controversy and problems during Cellino’s time as owner but 46-year-old Rösler insisted he was optimistic of building a good relationship with the Italian.
“I’m not suicidal,” Rösler said. “If I didn’t see a chance to be successful with this club then I wouldn’t have taken that chance.

“I had other opportunities but I chose this one because it was Leeds United. The owner is very passionate and I have passion. We all want to do the best for this club.”


Rösler, who revealed that the job had been offered to him “at short notice”, said he warmed to Cellino during discussions between them.

“It was very interesting and I really enjoyed it,” he said. “He’s a very knowledgeable football man. I showed him a presentation of my style of play and we discussed a lot of football. He has got a pretty good idea of what I’m looking for in terms of recruitment.”


Cellino staged a bizarre 70-minute press conference at Elland Road last week but he was absent yesterday as director Adam Pearson unveiled Rosler.

Pearson said: “We felt the press conference last week became too much about the owner. We wanted this press conference to be about a head coach who we believe in strongly.

“There’s one owner of this club and he’ll set the policies and make the ultimate decisions but to be fair, he’s putting in place people around him who are strong enough and capable enough to take the club forward.”

Another great update

Saint-Etienne coach Christophe Galtier has defended the club against charges they lack ambition, levelled by forward Max Gradel.

The former Leeds United hitman is considering his future with Les Verts and wants the club to show ambition he feels has been sorely lacking since he joined from the English side in 2011.

Gradel is not short of suitors, helped in no small part by his 15 goals in Ligue 1 this season for Saint-Etienne, and he could move on to pastures new. But Galtier does not share his opinion that Les Verts have been unambitious.


"We do not lack ambition, we just don't have the resources", the coach told RMC.

"The club have ambition. We have always been smart enough to be in the top five for three seasons. Max thinks that by selling players each year we are becoming weaker.

"For now, no, we are not weak, we're managing to stay at a great level. Now, if the ambition is to go and compete with PSG, we do not lack that ambition, we lack the resources."

Saint-Etienne finished the season in fifth in the Ligue 1 standings. Les Verts found themselves two points behind a top three Champions League qualifying spot. Marseille are fourth and Monaco third.

But this makes you wonder, especially with the new transfer strategy, that a return to Gradel's spiritual home Elland Road could be on the cards. The situation in West Yorkshire has calmed down since the appointments of Adam Pearson and Uwe Rösler, and Leeds are starting to settle down - a move their for the Ivorian shouldn't be written off at all, considering his love for the club and its fans.

Adam Pearson is optimistic that the appointment of Uwe Rösler as head coach will be the start of a period of stability at Leeds United and says the German will have his “fullest support” as he tries to make his mark on the job.

Pearson attempted to paint a picture of calm at Leeds after Rösler agreed to become the club’s fifth first-team boss in the space of 12 months by signing a two-year contract a few days ago.

The rapid turnover of coaches at Elland Road is indicative of United’s turbulent existence under owner Massimo Cellino but Pearson, who joined the club as executive director last week, said signs of unrest on the outside were “not what’s paddling under the water.”
Rösler’s arrival ended the reign of Neil Redfearn, the incumbent head coach who held the post for six months and has now been told that he is free to return to his old job as manager of the academy at Thorp Arch.


Redfearn’s removal came on the back of a spell of intense speculation about his future and savage criticism of him by Cellino in a Sunday newspaper last weekend. He is understood to be taking legal advice before deciding whether to return to his academy role. Cellino himself has only just returned from a Football League ownership ban and he is at risk of further disqualifications with two tax evasion charges against him due to be heard in Cagliari next month.

The Italian staged a chaotic, 70-minute press conference at Elland Road last week in which he struggled to address the numerous issues affecting Leeds but United are in the process of constructing a new backroom team and expect to appoint an assistant boss, a first-team coach and a head of recruitment in the next seven days. Pearson admitted he was aware of criticism aimed at the club and Cellino, but said: “We’re excited about the future. I know it’s easy for me to say that after 10 days here but I’ve only seen positive signs behind the scenes so far. I can only take that as the way we’re going.

“What you see on the outside is not what’s paddling under the water. I think you’ll find over the coming weeks that there’s a sense of order and stability which starts to pervade the club. We’ve brought in a head coach who knows his own mind and he’ll be strong in those principles. He’ll have my fullest support alongside him. There’s been a process in recruiting (Rösler) which I think has been professional. And that’s the way we intend to continue.”

Rosler has begun discussions about the summer transfer market following his appointment and both he and Pearson insisted that he would have a strong influence on signings at Elland Road, despite Cellino’s habit of controlling that area of the club’s business.

United recently released nine players at the end of their contracts, including Aidan White and Rodolph Austin, but they are yet to clarify whether any of the seven loanees signed last season will return to Elland Road.


Centre-back Sol Bamba is also looking for a permanent deal at Elland Road having finished the Championship term on loan from Palermo. The 31-year-old, however, signed off his time in Leeds with some critical comments about Cellino’s running of United.

Asked if Bamba might sign again, Pearson said: “He could well do. We’ve literally had no formal recruitment meeting at all and we know we’re perhaps a week behind where we should be.

“But we’ll very quickly get up to speed and the key people are close to coming in. Uwe is pretty clear on what he wants to come into the club. You’ll start to see some movement pretty quickly. We won’t hang around.”

Sol Bamba is an absolute rock and will help massively,

promotion all the way

LLMCrumble: Cheers mate

The Motivated One: Let's just hope I can get him permanently!

By Eddie Gray

The treatment of Neil Redfearn and the appointment of Uwe Rosler are separate issues in my eyes.

The way in which Redfearn’s been handled by Leeds United – and quite honestly, it’s been pretty appalling – doesn’t alter the quality of the head coach who’s replacing him.

If Neil wasn’t going to keep the job, Rösler is the sort of replacement I’d have been looking for. You can find faults and negatives with almost every coach in the world but the positives with Uwe easily outweigh the difficulties he’s had in his career.

He’s a considered and scientific guy who promotes a nice style of football and seems clear in his mind about what his teams should be doing. His tactics and formations worked to good effect at Brentford and had a big impact when he first went to Wigan. You’ll look at his time at Wigan now and talk about how it all went wrong, and obviously that’s a bit of a black mark. We’ve all got a few on our records. But I can’t help feeling that Wigan are suffering from a general malaise which will take a few years to recover from. I very much doubt that the blame in Uwe’s time there lay solely with him.


The encouraging thing about him is that he’s come in at the very start of the summer and he’ll take over with firm ideas about what needs to be done. Recent history at Leeds shows that head coaches don’t always get their way but I expect this summer to be more purposeful and organised than it was a year ago. And I very much doubt that when it ends we’ll be looking at a midfield diamond.

I’ve met Uwe a couple of times but I don’t know him especially well. All I’ll say is that as a player he was tough and no-nonsense and it stands to reason that his management style will be the same.

He’s clever enough to have done his homework on Leeds so he’ll know what he’s getting himself into. He’ll know what’s gone on in the last 12 months and deep down, he probably realises that it might not be plain sailing for him. It could all be over quickly. But he’s good enough for the job and for me it goes down as an excellent appointment.


The key here is Massimo Cellino. Everything at Leeds depends on Cellino. I can’t help but feel positive about Rösler’s arrival and the inclusion of Adam Pearson to the board. They’re fine acquisitions. But as we’ve seen before, they’ll count for nothing unless Cellino let’s them get on with their jobs without causing problems and unsettling things.

Sad as I am to say this, I don’t have much confidence in him managing to do that – because if you look at his record in football, he’s rarely been able to take a step back. But that has to happen for Rösler to succeed. And with someone as accomplished as Pearson on the board, Cellino’s got the perfect front man. It would do the club a huge favour if Pearson became their face and voice.


As for Redfearn, I feel for him at the moment. He’ll be sore about this, although I don’t think he’ll begrudge Rösler the opportunity. It’s not like he’s being replaced by a nobody and it was never guaranteed that he’d stay on as head coach this summer. But in the circumstances I thought his own performance was excellent and the process of replacing him has been so badly managed.

I saw Cellino’s comments about him in the Sunday Mirror last weekend and I thought they were disgraceful. If Cellino genuinely means what he said about Neil, he should have the nerve to say that to his face, not in the papers. The fact that Cellino hasn’t spoken to him at all since the end of his Football League ban is very poor, not least because Leeds are now trying to offer Neil his old job at the academy.

Given the way Cellino has criticised him, there’s no way that can happen without some proper reconciliation. I don’t care what anyone says – it’s impossible for Neil to return to the academy job with things the way they are. He and Pearson might get on fine but this is Cellino’s club and he calls the shots. He’s made it quite clear that he’s got no respect for Redfearn.

Of course, none of this is Rösler’s fault and it’s important to make that point. They’re separate issues, even though they’re connected in a way. I wish Uwe all the best and my main hope at this stage is that he’s still in a job this time next year. If he is then the club will be making proper progress with a proper plan and a good head coach. If not, you’d have to say that this merry-go-round is going to go on forever.

After losing three of their best players to The Whites over the past two years, Chesterfield fans must be thinking that their team has some kind of affiliation with Uwe Rösler's Leeds United side.

Last season, The Spireites lost their centre-back/left-back Liam Cooper to Elland Road after winning the Player of the Year award at The Proact Stadium the previous season.

The Englishman signed up for £750,000 after numerous scouting trips made by owner Massimo Cellino and former Sporting Director Nicola Salerno, in what ended as a disastrous season for the Whites. Following the departure of Jason Pearce to Rösler's old team Wigan, the Ivorian rock that is Sol Bamba joined the club on loan, which is when Cooper's turn in form started to take place.


But now, with the new transfer approach led by Adam Pearson and Uwe Rösler, Leeds have stolen two more of Chesterfield's brightest prospects off their hands. Defensive midfielder Sam Morsy had an immense season of last, making 34 appearances in Chesterfield's League Two campaign, with his superb defensive displays catching the eyes of many higher tiered clubs in the country.

The previous season, Morsy was playing for Port Vale in League Two and made 75 league appearances for the Valiants over the course of five years after graduating from their youth academy - aged 18.

Morsy joins Leeds for a fee of £195,000, being paid around £5000 per week.

The second player to join Rösler's revolution at Elland Road is Tendayi Darikwa. He mainly plays at right-back but is one of the most versatile players in the Football League, he's played in centre-midfield, as a winger, a striker, a centre-back - you name it.


There has been no official quote from Darikwa himself upon moving to the Whites but he is believed to be excited at the prospect of playing in the white shirt under Rösler - who has gone on record to call Darikwa 'an exciting prospect' recently.

Darikwa rose from Chesterfield's academy before making short-term loan moves to Barrow and Hinckley in the Conference leagues before his breakthrough season at The Proact Stadium in the 2012/13 season where he played 36 times, scoring 5 goals, and then 41 appearances with 3 goals the following season.

Darikwa joins Leeds for a fee of £245,000 being paid around £3500 per week

Can't wait to see what they bring to the table, brilliant players.

An English goalkeeper and a left-winger have both been snapped up by Leeds United manager Uwe Rösler as the summer recruitment process continues at Elland Road.

Leeds have had their eye on promotion-winning Southend shot-stopper Daniel Bentley for a number of months after a strong League Two campaign from the keeper, along with a host of other top clubs.

Southend gaffer Phil Brown had previously spoken to BBC Sport about him turning down offers from the big clubs to keep him at the Shrimpers.


"I watched him on the training ground and everything about him was almost Schmeichel-esque.

"You could see in his approach he wanted to be the best he could possibly be."

The Yorkshire side had also had a mass clear-out of goalkeepers recently, signalling their intent to move for Bentley.

Stuart Taylor, Alex Cairns and Daniel Atkinson all left the club on the 1st of July.

Rösler spoke of his new goalkeeper as 'magic' and 'one of the best British keepers around'.

Leeds snapped the 21-year-old up for £925,000 and will be on just under £3000 per week


The second player to join the ranks at Elland Road is ex-Rotherham winger/central midfielder Ben Pringle.

Rotherham boss Steve Evans brought Pringle to the Millers in 2011 as they tried to force their way out of League Two. He joined the club following 20 Championship league appearances for Derby before joining Steve Evans at the New York Stadium for an undisclosed fee.

He made 21 appearances in his first season, scoring 4 goals, before featuring heavily in Rotherham's League Two promotion season - playing 41 league games and scoring 7 goals. Pringle then went onto miss only one league game in the entire season in Rotherham's promotion to the Championship.

But after realising that he would be fighting for second tier survival at Rotherham every season, he turned down a new contract in a protest of moving clubs to match his ambitions. He left Rotherham on a free transfer on 1st July, and with many Championship clubs swarming around the Newcastle-born winger following his release - Pringle chose to join Rösler's Whites.

Ben Pringle signs for Leeds on a free transfer and on a wage of around £10,000 per week.

OTHER LUFC TRANSFER NEWS:

Leeds in Max Gradel link
Rösler watches Beckford at Wembley
Bamba close to agreeing permanent switch to Elland Road

Brilliant signings again, very different to the usual we see bought!

2015-05-25 13:01#213757 LLMCrumble : Brilliant signings again, very different to the usual we see bought!

Thanks mate! Trying to keep it original as possible

After years of shocking sales of Leeds' star players - they now seem to be bringing them all back to the place where they belong at long last.

Five years ago, Jermaine Beckford sent Simon Grayson's Leeds United star-studded side into the Coca-Cola Championship. It was a team containing the likes of Jonathan Howson, Bradley Johnson, Luciano Becchio, Max Gradel and Robert Snodgrass - the club was way too low for the calibre of players playing for it. But instead of keeping these players and investing, Ken Bates tortuously sold them all off - one by one. Even the good quality new recruits like Kasper Schmeichel and Alex Bruce were sold off to Premier League sides.

It was a regular feat though, beginning with the £6million sale of Yorkshire-born Fabian Delph to Aston Villa, and youth star Elliot Kebbie to Atlético Madrid for just £500,000. Pretty big fees for a League One side, right? Yeah, it's tonnes of money! But who did Leeds replace the stars with these massive fees, I hear you ask?

Journeymen in their late-30's on free transfers, on low wages. But how did that take up the whole £6million received for Delph? The answer: It didn't. The dictator that was Kenneth William Bates, sitting up in the cosy executive boxes, spent a fifth of that fee on improving the East Stand facilities - that to this day, have never been filled or even come close to be consistently being halfway filled. £5million wasted. The other £1million? In Bates' back pocket of course.

Bates' tenure was summed up by former Whites midfielder Neil Kilkenny - an integral part of the promotion-winning side of 2010, was sold on a free transfer to Bristol City. He scored at Elland Road against Leeds, his celebration? Running right up to Bates' exec. box in the brand new East Stand - unfilled of course, pointing towards that man before giving the 80-year-old a one-fingered salute.

But now all of that doesn't matter. Ownership of the club has changed two times since Bates, to GFH Capital - a skint Arab bank, then to the Italian madman Massimo Cellino, the current owner. But this Italian madman has given Leeds the nostalgic lift that they needed, bringing not one, but two players from the Bates era back to their spiritual home of Elland Road - along with last seasons loan star Sol Bamba on a permanent transfer.


Jermaine Beckford was a love/hate figure at Elland Road, but he symbolises the phrase 'you don't know what you've got until it's gone'. Beckford was heavily slated in his years at Elland Road for being lazy and was consistently booed by the Leeds United South Stand on several occasions. But his goals were extremely important to Leeds' League One campaign, scoring 72 league goals in three seasons in a row between 2007 and 2010. He put Leeds up into the Championship after following up a Bradley Johnson bobble shot against Bristol Rovers, but Bates refused to offer the hitman another contract before Becks left the Whites for Everton in the summer transfer window of 2010 for a free transfer.

Beckford's promotion winning goal:

Beckford re-signs with the club he blossomed at for a free transfer, following his release from Bolton. He will be paid £8000 per week back at Elland Road.


Max Gradel was adored ever since he arrived at Elland Road in 2009. The supporters took the Ivorian in with open arms, to which the pacy winger duly delivered. He earned himself a permanent move to Elland Road from Leicester City in the January transfer window for a fee of £250k - a bargain. He aided Leeds' push for promotion and stayed for the clubs' first year in the Championship, in which he scored 18 goals in 41 appearances. That was before his £2.2million move to France to join AS Saint-Etienne in Ligue 1. But even under contract at Les Verts, Gradel always hinted at a move back to Elland Road via social media, but a deal never took place until now.

Gradel arrives from France for £850,000 and receiving £12,000 per week


Sol Bamba has played alongside Gradel in previous years, and according to the centre-back himself, Gradel influenced Bamba to join Elland Road, calling it a 'beautiful place' to his Ivory Coast team-mate. Bamba enjoyed a very successful loan spell at Leeds last season, gaining plaudits within the Elland Road stadium and beyond. His commitment and bravery stood out as a main attribute, but that isn't taking away his exquisite defensive talent.

Bamba returns to Elland Road permanently on a free transfer and receiving £8,250 per week

Leeds still have a way to go if they want to re-sign all their talents from previous era's, with Adam Clayton at Middlesbrough, Luciano Becchio, Jonny Howson and Bradley Johnson at Norwich, Kasper Schmeichel at Leicester City, Ross McCormack at Fulham and Fabian Delph in his prime at Aston Villa.