The Nearly Men

A top-half finish in your debut season in the Premier League is an astonishing finish. Given your woes at one point in the season, that's very impressive. You seemed to identify the issues and addressed them quickly, which is what a good manager does. So well done on that. I'm shocked to see Shankland actually contribute positively by scoring against Watford, too! Given the budget next season, it presents the opportunity to further on the early-success you've had throughout your tenure and once again you've identified the areas that need improvements. The question about Willock is a challenging one because naturally you're inclined to want to re-sign him on loan, but will a permanent signing be more fitting, even if you're neglecting re-signing such an influential player? It's a tough one. I suspect you'll make the right moves, regardless of what you opt to do!

Two seasons in, lets do a little round up of the other eligible sides

Lyon getting to the final, wow!

Another club to add and you are slowly building towards getting Leeds off the list. A good season and hopefully with that generous budget you can bring in some good deals to help progress next year.

Thanks for the support guys! Means a lot.

I may have gone a little wild and off plan in terms of transfers so it could be an interesting 3rd season especially as we have Man City, Spurs and Liverpool all within the first 5 league games of the season.

A very respectable 9th place finish. Transfer budget isn't the best in modern day football but it is something to work with. Onwards and upwards.

Good top half finish. Think you’ve got another 5 seasons before you can truly challenge the Champions League elites. But good luck nonetheless.

Transfer Window

Season 3 is underway and things went a little mental in Leeds as my plans went out of the window as i added a tonne of new faces to the squad. I think its stronger for sure but it will take a little time to get everyone fitting in to the side meaning performances could be a little up and down for the early part of the season. There were the usual releases as 12 youngsters were released from their contract seeing that none of them were going to challenge for a 1st team spot any time soon. So let's get to the major moves..

Goalkeepers

No major moves in this department as expected with Kiko Casilla staying on as No.1 with young 17 year old Sherwin Greaves stepping up to be the No.2 this season. Which left Bailey Peacock-Farrell as the No.3 for the season and so he was loaned out to Scunthorpe and 4th Choice Goalkeeper Will Huffer being sold to Hull for £235k. It means our 3rd choice for the season is going to be young 17 year old regen Keith Lee who came through as our top prospect in the 1st intake.

Defenders

I have a centre back problem in the sense that i can't stop buying young centre backs as not one, not two but three young centre backs came in. Serbian Wonderkid Svetozar Markovic was the first through the door in a bargain £1.3m from Partizan and will play in the first team squad after we sold Liam Cooper for £5.25m to Watford. Boubacar Kamara's loan spell was ended as well with South African Rivaldo Coetzee coming back from his impressive loan spell at Feyenoord having done enough to get a Work Permit, leaving me with Coetzee, Markovic, Dunk and Jansson for the season.

The other two are here for the future. U19 England centreback Bobby Copping was signed from Bury for £900k and immediately loaned back to keep his development going whilst Italian Antony Anglieri was signed from Sassualo for £3m and will play in the U23 side next season. All 3 could have a big future at the club and we still have Bruno Amione who we signed in January who went out on loan to Nice for the season to compete with them. So 4 excellent young centrebacks to compete with Dunk, Coetzee and Jansson.

At right back we kept with Clyne and Bogle but at left back we made a change. Barry Douglas was sold to Hull for £8.25m and we replaced him with Junior Firpo from Betis who cost a little less at £8m with the Spaniard having the ability to compete with Lukaku at left back. Out side of the first team action we sold a few surplus defenders including Tom Pearce, Paudie O'Connor, Oriol Rey, Leif Davis and Patrik Struijk all being moved on.

Midfielders

In the end the debate on Joe Willock led me to feel like we should let him go back to Arsenal and bring in our own new face. The man i chose was Italian Alessandro Murgia from Lazio who was signed for £12.5m to be a box to box midfielder and to give us the energy we need in the middle of the park. That was all i had planned in terms of central midfielders but then recently relegated Huddersfield came in with a £10m bid for Jamie Shackleton and i thought it was a good deal so i went back to Arsenal and loaned in Joe Willock for the season with the Wonderkid accepting a 3rd spell as the right thing for him.

At times we were a little short in the attacking midfield options and i had planned for just the one wider man but i let Jack Harrison go back to Man City after deciding £22m was not the best deal i could get. So we added in two more wingers with Ryan Sessegnon joining from Championship side Fulham for £15.5m and Patrick Roberts joining from Mainz for £8.5m.

So that was for the now but there were two more signings for the future. Colombian Aldair Morales was signed for £1.2m and than immediately loaned to IFK Norrkopping of Sweden for game time, whilst 17 Year old Hugo Kroken joined from Molde for the same amount and will play in the U23's this season.

From the U23's we shifted on Pawel Cibiki (£1m) and Conor O'Shaughnessy (£900K) to raise some more funds.

Strikers

I also may have gone overboard with strikers. Lawrence Shankland completed his free transfer to the MLS whilst i also sold Patrick Bamford to Rangers for a fee that should rise to £13.75m meaning we had just Raul de Tomas upfront. The problem was i really struggled to find some suitable strikers and i kind of panicked before finding the eventual solution.

The panic season was Tottenham flop Vincent Janssen from Leicester for £4.7m with an Extra £1m if he scores a decent amount of goal for us. He isn't bad and as a back up it would have been ok. However, i was than able to sign 20 year old Serbian Dejan Joveljic for £2m which again would have been ok until i signed Wonderkid Erico Chicco for £2.6m who now gives me a real quandry with 4 strikers all expecting game time.

In the outgoings we eventually let Welsh International Tyler Roberts leave for £2.6m to help clear some funds. Venezuelan striker Marques was loaned out again to keep his development going although it is now looking increasingly unlikely he could break into that team.


So that was the busy window with lots of improvements for now as well as some good little youngsters for the future as i look to make a sustainable team. Our net spend of £20m was pretty good considering and i suspect there will be some players leaving in January with a lack of game time being spouted but i will get to that where i can.

How do you think it went?

On the field

Pre-season went well as we won all 5 friendlies including victories over Celtic and RB Leipzig being the most impressive which left us with the Premiership and the Carabao Cup for the rest of August. The fixture gods were not kind to us with our first 5 games including 3 games against the big 6 and because of that we have had had a mixed start to the season.

It started well enough thoush as we smashed West Ham in the season opener beating them 4-1 with three debutants (Joveljic, Murgia and Sessegnon) all scoring in the rout with Wonderkid Jack Clarke finally putting his injury hell behind him to put in a Man of the March performance. A 3-3 draw agains Southampton was not what i wanted before the match but considering we were 3-1 down at one point it was certainly a point won rather than two points lost. Jack Clarke smashing in 2 more goals with Eric Chicco bagging his first for the club to seal the draw.

From there it has been tough as Tottenham pulled us apart 3-0 which wasn't helped by me forgetting to switch the tactic to one i was hoping to use in the Big 6 games. I remembered for both the Chelsea and Man City games but it still wasn't enough for us to get a point as we lost 2-1 and 2-0 putting a dour end to the month.


However, we did though in the midst of them three defeats progress nicely in the Carabao Cup as we beat Swansea 3-0 to get us to the 3rd Round of the cup. Now it is time to start putting the league form back on track and move ourselves into a shot of Europe.

I think there's been definite improvement in the transfer window. Moving on exodus players for decent fees, like Bamford and Douglas - who were evidently not up to standard in the Premier League. If you have plans in place like you do to improve on your league position, those players needed to be moved on to make way for higher quality players to join the club. You definitely have the same problem as me when it comes to signing young centre-backs, as I am the exact same at Koln. You seem to find so many cheap, class central defenders and it's difficult to resist bringing them in, purely because they have a lot of potential. But the incomings made in this area look good, especially Markovic who I know from signing in my own save. Improvement has certainly been made with the signing of Firpo, too. I'm excited for the impact Ryan Sessegnon and Patrick Roberts will have on the wings, both in-which also comply with the need for homegrown talent. Willock's return is welcome, despite it not being entirely planned to begin with - while his original replacement also looks to be a good piece of business. A lot of change in the forward line, so I'm intrigued to see how things go there, especially to begin with. A high-emphasis on the future with some of these signings, which is nothing to be sniffed at. You're setting the foundations for the future, as well as for the present, to allow yourself the best chance of achieving your aims at Leeds.

Now, enough waffling about transfers...

The league position is quite misleading given the calibre of teams you've had to face early on. The convincing victory over West Ham certainly shows positive signs and whilst you were unable to back that up with a victory against Southampton, a point is still a decent result at this early stage when players are still developing and getting to build a relationship. A strong win against Swansea is welcome and hopefully you can enjoy a good run in the Carabao Cup once again.

Ditto Scotts reply.

In all seriousness, it has seemingly been a big summer in terms of deals incoming and outgoing. I am intrigued to see how Kroken turns out as he looks a very promising talent. The league table is interesting, you are certainly in no position to worry especially with the new players still needing time to gel and with three of the top six already played it should improve over the coming months.

First few seasons in the PL will always see a foray of hit/miss transfers occurring. Your squad is beginning to take shape and I fancy the next few transfer windows to be more quiet, but more decisive. Results aren't too concerning. You lost against three of the big dogs and got 4 points in the other two. Cup progression was a (minor) positive to add. I'd fancy that PL competition can't get much tougher than the previous three games, so an improvement in form is to be anticipated.

On the field

It feels like an eternity since my last update but i have managed to get through September and October. After a tough start to the season we needed to pick up points to get ourselves back in the hunt for the european spots i am craving.

September was a very good month as we won all 3 of our league games as well as progressing in the 3rd Round of the Carabao Cup. It was a scrappy 2-0 win over Bournemouth (Begovic O.g, Willock) and an even scrappier one against Watford (Chicco) but the 3rd league game against Liverpool saw us take the game to the scousers as we won 3-2 (Chicco, Grealish and Joveljic). Nestled in the middle a much changed side beat Brighton 1-0 with Grealish also finding the net late on.

October on the other hand was a little bit more up and down. We lost to Palace poorly 2-1 but scraped another 1-0 win over Norwich before losing 1-0 to Wolves and drawing 0-0 with a much improved Newcastle side. Our Carabao cup run was also bought to a shuddering halt as Man City smashed us 4-0


We are still not playing great football as i am really struggling to find my best side. I am perhaps tinkering a little too much which isnt helping the players to settle and i do need to settle down a little. There have been some highlights though! Junior Firpo at left back has been excellent whilst Jack Clarke is finally showing the hallmarks of being a wonderkid. Eric Chicco is the best of the strikers but they all seem to be able to have one good game before doing nothing for 3 or 4.

However, at least we are only 3 points off the European spots and so once we do settle we should be able to move up the table and get ourselves into the right positions for the new year.

Real contrasting months there. Hopefully October proves to be a one-off and you can recover in November. You're not too far off the pace for Europe, so there's no need to panic just yet.

A tough start to the season currently in mid-table. But it's still early days and being just three points off the European spots, nothing is over yet. Hopefully you can start finding some form and become a stronger force in the league.

On the field

There are two consistent things this season. The first is that we are consistently inconsistent as we struggle to string a run of wins together but also never threatening to go into a car crash level of form. The second has been the form of Alessandro Murgia who has been exceptional scoring 5 goals across November and December.


As you can see a right mixed bag of results with the highlight being the 5-2 win over Leicester but the 4-0 spanking from Arsenal hurt as did the 2-1 defeat to Aston VIlla who we were all over them and didnt deserve to lose. So we sit mid table going into 2021


A top 6 finish is now probably out of the question so we have to be the best of the rest and get ourselves into that 7th spot and hope one of the big uns wins the FA Cup. The good news is that after 19 games we were 5 points better off than this time last year so there has been some improvement but it is marginal. The problems remain the same as this time last year.

We are lacking a goalscorer to take the bull by the horns. Chicco leading the way with just 7. Our central midfield has been a highlight as it was last year with Murgia being the pick of the bunch. Our defence is not really firing and we need an injection of life.

What will i do? Well the squad needs a bit of a trim. I am thinking of moving on Dunk and Amuzu permanently where i should be able to raise around £30-£35m for the two. Morutan will probably go on loan to get some more game time meaning i will promote young Kroken to the 1st team squad. Jordan Lukaku could be shipped out if we get an offer as he is complaining about game time. In terms of new faces, i am not sure right now where we go but knowing me ill probably end up buying another young centre back for no apparent reason!