The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Monday 10th June) Does retained list show lack of ambition
Good Morning. It's Monday 10th June, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Does retained list show lack of ambition
There were moans and groans all over social media on Friday when Leeds Utd released their retained list for the season ahead. The big surprise came in the form of Jamie Shackleton and Liam Cooper, whose contracts expire this month. The Whites have given them a stay of execution, and are willing to negotiate new deals for the duo.
Both were used sparingly last season, and in truth, offered very little. Excluding injury time, they only featured from the bench four times between themselves, and one of those (Cooper) was for the last seven minutes of the play off Semi-Final when Leeds were already 4-0. It doesn't exactly show that Farke has faith from certain players on the bench. Perhaps if he did, than the likes of Rodon, Ampadu and Gray would not have been so jaded towards the end of their campaign.
Youngsters Charlie Allen, Lewis Bate, Keenan Carole, Cuba Diboe, Scott Godden, Morten Spencer, Harvey Sutcliffe and Dani van den Heuvel join Luke Ayling and Ian Povada out of Elland Road whilst Sam Byram earned himself a new 12 month deal, activated by a clause in his contract after completing a certain amount of games. Although out of contract, Leeds have offered new terms to Cody Drameh as by doing so, they'll earn compensation (due to his young age) when he joins a new club!
Clubs line-up for Cresswell
Forgotten man Charlie Cresswell may not be wanted at Elland Road, but away from Leeds, its a completely different story! Toulouse, Hannover, Hertha Berlin and Millwall have all made enquiries about the England U21 defender after being frozen out of Daniel Farke's plans last season. Leeds rejected a £5m offer from AC Milan on the last day of the Winter transfer market, but having barely kicked a ball since then, his valuation has considerably dropped!
According to the tabloids, the 21yo is available for £3m-£3.5m. Does the move make sense? Leeds would prefer to keep a guy who'll be 33 by the time the new season kicks-off (Cooper), who'll be that much slower than last time round, not to mention his £100,000 per month wage packet!
It's a bit more difficult (getting rid of Bamford)
Elland Road journalist Phil Hay has indicated that it won't be plain sailing trying to offload Patrick Bamford this Summer, should Leeds want shot of the 30 year old. The one-time England marksman has netted 56 times in 175 appearances, since joining from Middlesbrough in 2018. He has suffered a variety of injury problems over the past two or three years which have hampered both his mobility and fitness levels, but remains the highest salaried player (along with Rutter) at Elland Road.
Various salary websites including 'Capology' and 'Spotrac' insist the duo both earn £70,000 per week, or just over £300,000 a month. According to Phil Hay, even if Leeds granted him a free transfer, no other Championship club could afford his astronomical wages, and debatable whether a top flight outfit would go for him either!
For Bamford it’s a little bit more difficult, partly because his wage will be high so it’s not like it’s a salary that Championship clubs can easily pick up. There was some talk last season January about Forest being semi-keen on Bamford, but I don’t know how much interest there would be in the Premier League as a whole at the moment. Of the teams who have gone up he doesn’t seem to be someone who would particularly fit Leicester or Southampton or Ipswich, and that seems to me to be one of the positions where they [Leeds United] need to think about what they are going to do.