Zebbys Leeds United General discussion

[Hampshirewhites]

Anyone got a subscription with the Athletic?
If so, can you post up Phil Hays piece on Rutter please ?

Click on the 2 AA’s and show reader. Can read it without a subscription then

Thanks.

[Hampshirewhites]

Leeds’ strategy of buying for the future won’t work in unforgiving Premier League

Phil Hay

If nothing else, Leeds United’s regression towards the end of Simon Grayson’s stint as manager allowed someone to do a decent trade in T-shirts. “Keep calm and pass to Snodgrass” was the slogan on the front of them and for as long as Robert Snodgrass was willing to stick it out, the slogan was not far wrong.

Good teams tend not to be excessively reliant on one player but poor or mediocre teams, of which Leeds were one throughout the 2011-12 season, depend more on isolated inspiration. Promotion in 2020, for example, was a sum of many parts, individual quality wrapped up in collective class, stretching across the pitch and into the dugout. But the club are back to needing a Snodgrass, someone untouched by the general malaise.

Money alone says Georginio Rutter should possess an ounce of that talismanic dust. Rutter is young, admittedly, and visibly raw but he is Leeds’ most costly signing and 25 benign minutes on the pitch against Liverpool on Monday were, in microcosm, a partial example of why their season has reached crisis mode for a second time. Here is where vision crosses the line into luxury.

As a club and a business, Leeds like to build or to tell themselves they are building: hefty academy recruitment, a squad intended to peak at a later date and stadium redevelopment ideas that might get off the ground some day.

In future years, the theory is supposed to speak for itself because the decisions taken now, the gambles on longer-term growth, will be justified in time. Except to the naked eye, the short term is on fire and what comes next is wholly linked to it. Put another way, the blueprint of growth cannot have included the process of Leeds going down.


Rutter trudges off after Leeds’ abject display against Liverpool (Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
The club have factored in the possibility that they might because, according to their latest accounts, they think they have adequate resources to recover quickly if they do. Maybe and if recent promotions are a good gauge, relegated clubs have rarely found the Championship easier to navigate.

But it is not the point and the purpose of recruitment in the Premier League, the expenditure of renewing a squad, to make a team competitive in the EFL. Leeds might be well placed to bounce back if the worst happens but not without reputational damage or consequences in the meantime.



Rutter, to return to him, is a well-regarded prospect. There were plenty of recruitment departments in Europe watching him while Leeds were scouting him and plenty who saw him as a potentially worthwhile investment.

There are clubs out there who could have signed him without the need for immediate impact on the basis that impact was already coming from existing players in their camp.

But Leeds? Leeds needed Rutter to make his presence felt in some form, to influence this season and nudge them forward. Peak Rutter wasn’t going to materialise at the age of 20 but at £30million ($37.3m) or thereabouts had to make an impact on results that were nowhere near under control when he signed in January.

In three months, Rutter has completed 234 minutes in the Premier League and started once. He has registered no goals, no assists, no shots on target and three shots in total.

The scenario is one where Leeds’ record signing, the priciest player in their squad and their history, is not far off a bystander: sent on from the bench at 3-1 down to Arsenal, 5-1 down to Crystal Palace and 4-1 down to Liverpool.

He played up front against Chelsea because neither Rodrigo nor Patrick Bamford were fit enough to fill that position but Javi Gracia said himself that using Rutter as a lone centre-forward was asking him to step out of his comfort zone.

The result is a footballer in the midst of a culture shock, trying to explain himself in a season that is beating the equilibrium out of everyone.



More often than not since promotion three years ago, Leeds’ transfer policy has been one of signings for tomorrow; potential preferred to hardened experience, with no outfield players aged 30 or over included in the agenda. The rules are not entirely hard and fast — last summer seemed to put more emphasis on targets who had been around the block to a certain extent — but Leeds don’t deal in finished articles.

Sometimes it has to be that way. Prime signings are too expensive or too expensive for the bracket of the market they are in. Younger players can appreciate in quality and price which enhances the team or allows for reinvestment.

Raphinha was the model signing in that respect, although it is hard to know what possessed Rennes to sell him for £17million. But while the Brazilian had the sauce to turn it on in all weathers, the way in which transfers like his develop is generally linked to a club’s ability to stay stable in the interim. Emerging talent needs the freedom not to be rushed. There is, after all, a reason why Pep Guardiola took his time with Phil Foden.

Rutter fits into the overall theory of how Leeds see things: that somewhere in the future, people will be grateful that they took this route.

Further down the line, when it works and goes to plan, people will understand the thought process, appreciate the wisdom and ask why other clubs failed to think like they thought. One day you’ll be pleased that this was the strategy. But back in the real world, the Premier League does not afford the luxury of time.

Ultimately, the Premier League does not afford a club like Leeds the luxury of having a record signing who hardly plays.

The harsh reality is that while you think about tomorrow, the Premier League will find you today and as unfashionable as it might be, the here and now is not dispensable, which is why Snodgrass in the midst of broader struggles was worth his weight in gold. Three coaches struggling across two brutal seasons draws the very obvious conclusion that it cannot be all about them.

(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Many thanks for posting.

[Fev]

Got tickets for Saturday, top fucking row, do my heart world of good

[Hampshirewhites]

Got tickets for Saturday, top fucking row, do my heart world of good

Could be worse, Newcastle for example

[Titman]

Tweet just (re) surfaced quoting Gazetta dello Sport claiming Juve trying to offload McKennie.
“ Juve are not happy with McKennie’s behaviour. Juve feel he isn’t following the standards set by the club. His diet is also an issue for the Juventus management, allowing himself too many 'snacks’, hence the clubs decision to listen to offers of over €30M”

From 2 years ago.

And still Orta plunges head on in.

Where’s my Picard face palm pic when I need it…

[Fev]

Is something happening at ER, Sky sports saying there's an important news conference at one about our manager

[Titman]

Pre match presser due at 1?

[Titman]

Barnes, Vardy & Maddison all available for Leicester

[Fev]

Pre match presser due at 1?

Just sky bigging it up

[Titman]

Pre match presser due at 1?

Just sky bigging it up

Slow news for them probably. Have they asked Chunkz for his opinion yet?