WALMOT

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/12/17/how-marcelo-bielsa-in-one-of-his-greatest-challenges-is-guiding-leeds-away-from-a-decade-of-disappointment/

From the YEP:- Samuel Saiz thanked Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa and director of football Victor Orta for sanctioning his rapid exit from Elland Road after securing a loan move to Spanish club Getafe. In a statement issued by Saiz’s agent, the midfielder confirmed that a “personal problem” had driven his shock move to Madrid and said he hoped to see the squad he had left behind in Yorkshire promoted to the Premier League at the end of this season. Samuel Saiz has thanked Leeds United for allowing him to leave the club following a "personal problem." Leeds finalised Saiz’s switch to La Liga side Getafe after he passed a medical yesterday. His six-month loan will officially start on January 1 and Getafe have an option to sign him permanently for £6m next summer. Saiz, who missed Leeds’ win at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday to travel back to Spain, will remain in Madrid with United’s permission until his loan with Getafe begins. His partner is pregnant and due to give birth in the coming weeks. Leeds agreed to allow Saiz to depart just 18 months into his spell at Elland Road after the Spaniard told the club that he was unhappy in England and keen to go back to his homeland. The development came as a major surprise last week, depriving Bielsa of a player he recently called “the most skilled in our team”, but Leeds opted to accept Getafe’s offer rather than force an unsettled Saiz to remain at Thorp Arch. A statement released to the YEP by Saiz’s agent, Juan Moreno, said: “Samuel was delighted by Leeds, he loves the people and the city, but a personal problem made him come back to Madrid. “He hopes Leeds will still go to the Premier League in the summer and he is very grateful to Marcelo and Victor Orta for understanding his problem.” Speaking after Leeds’ win at Bolton, Bielsa said: “He has a personal situation to solve and the club allowed him to talk (to Getafe). I can't tell you what will happen. What I can tell you is that he has the permission of the club to be absent. “I don’t know the reasons for his absence. This is a decision between the club and Samuel Saiz.”

His partner was expecting twins but has lost one of them and I think it has affected him. I think they both want to be back in spain nearer their families hence the move. https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/samu-saizs-partner-sends-emotional-15565856

https://twitter.com/i/status/1073540495572434944 Some of his great goals are on the link above

Happy Birthday to Leeds and Scotland Legend Peter Lorimer who is 72 today.

From the BBC Football website:- Eleven Sports is trying to renegotiate its TV sports rights in the UK to online-only streaming deals. Having won the rights to show La Liga and Serie A games earlier this year, the company was hoping to sub-licence the rights to broadcasting companies such as Sky, BT Sport and Virgin Media. But a failure to strike a deal has led to the streaming platform to look again at its rights deals. "We are in discussion with our rights partners," a spokesperson confirmed. "Without carriage agreements with the existing platforms, alongside the challenges posed by rampant piracy, the market dynamics in the UK & Ireland are very hostile for new entrants," they added. Meanwhile, mixed martial arts series UFC has pulled out of a deal with Eleven Sports, which was supposed to start in January, after the latter did not agree a contract to redistribute its events. It is understood Eleven Sports is not in financial difficulties and the problems in the UK are in isolation rather than impacting on other markets in which it operates. The company is owned by Leeds United chairman Andrea Radrizzani and the issues are not expected to affect the Championship club. Sky held the La Liga rights, and BT Sport those for Serie A, before Eleven Sports signed three-year deals in May to show top-flight matches from Spain and Italy.

https://www.leedsunited.com/video/101850/eddie-and-frank-gray-part-one https://www.leedsunited.com/video/101848/eddie-and-frank-gray-part-two https://www.leedsunited.com/video/101849/eddie-and-frank-gray-part-three Three great interviews with the Gray brothers.

New Leeds third kit back to being yellow:-

The FA Cup first-round tie between Haringey Borough and AFC Wimbledon will be televised live on BBC Two. Non-league Haringey will welcome League One side Wimbledon to Coles Park Stadium on Friday, 9 November, with kick-off at 19:55 GMT. Haringey, who play in the Isthmian League Premier Division, beat Poole Town 2-1 to reach the first round for the first time in their history. Wimbledon have reached the third round in the past two season. Three other first-round fixtures - Maidenhead United v Portsmouth, Port Vale v Sunderland and Hampton and Richmond Borough v Oldham - will be broadcast on BT Sport across the weekend. Portsmouth travel to Maidenhead on Saturday, 10 November (12:30 GMT), while Port Vale welcome Sunderland the following day (14:30 GMT). League Two's Oldham are away to Hampton and Richmond Borough on the Monday night (19:45 GMT). A game from every stage of the 2018-19 FA Cup will be broadcast on the BBC as well as live-streamed across BBC Sport's digital platforms. Audiences will be able to watch the game live on PC, mobile or Connected TV. Matches will also be available live and on-demand on BBC iPlayer.

Another big saturday this weekend:- Middlesbrough12:30Derby County Birmingham City15:00Sheffield Wednesday Bolton Wanderers15:00Hull City Bristol City15:00Stoke City Millwall15:00Ipswich Town Norwich City15:00Brentford Preston North End15:00Rotherham United Sheffield United15:00Wigan Athletic Swansea City15:00Reading West Bromwich Albion15:00Blackburn Rovers Leeds United17:30Nottingham Forest

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/eleven-sports-andrea-radrizzani-leeds-15296380 'Unfit for the modern digital era' Eleven Sports issue statement concerning Saturday 3pm blackout rule

Thats cheap for Hillsborough, presume that is for the home end as the away end is usually over £40.

Pablo Hernandez voted PFA player of the month in the Championship.

8 out our next 11 games are on sky one way or another due to midweek games being on sky red button Leeds United by November 10th, the final action before the third international break of the season, will have seen nine of their opening 17 Championship games chosen for exclusive broadcast making a mockery of the initial fixture release for fans.

Here we go again:- Leeds United v Brentford Fixture date: Saturday 6th October 2018 New kick-off time: 12:30pm, live on Sky Sports Venue: Elland Road Leeds United v Nottingham Forest Fixture date: Saturday 27th October New kick-off time: 5:30pm, live on Sky Sports Venue: Elland Road Wigan Athletic v Leeds United New fixture date: Sunday 4th November New kick-off time: 1:30pm, live on Sky Sports Venue: DW Stadium West Bromwich Albion v Leeds United Fixture date: Saturday 10th November New kick-off time: 5:30pm, live on Sky Sports Venue: The Hawthorns

As 0-0 goes I have been at plenty that were worse then last nights. Football against anti football ended up with no one winning. Pulis set his team up for the draw by going 5-4-1 and it worked with the back 5 all from the land of the giants. Our passing game was just that bit out which meant we didnt break them down and create any clear chances. Thought we might get a goal in the last 15-20 mins as Boro wilted badly and we really pushed hard but to no avail. Still would have taken being top of the league going into the first international break at the start of the season as no one knew what to expect from MB. Two weeks on the training pitch to sort things out.

Brentford not moving to new stadium till 2020:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45333562

In true Leeds fashion.

Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United: a myth being assembled in real time Paul MacInnes Argentinian manager has taken Yorkshire side to the top of the Championship with thrilling football and eccentric methods There is no greater story in English football right now than Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United. You could argue there’s nothing better in British sport full stop. Other teams, other individuals – Jimmy Anderson, Dina Asher-Smith, Harry the Hornet – may be pushing the limits of their performance, creating headlines, drawing the eye, but the Argentinian has gone further. In West Yorkshire, there is the live sense of a myth being assembled in real time, of a period that will linger in collective memory. The myth is made of more than just good football, but could not exist without it. Leeds United sit top of the Championship table, leading by goal difference from Middlesbrough, their opponents this Friday night. The 14 goals Leeds have scored in five league games have, almost without exception, been corkers: from Kemar Roofe’s dribble and finish against Derby; to Pablo Hernández’s late equaliser on the break against Swansea; and even the scrambled opener against Rotherham, finished with a diving header by Luke Ayling. Leeds made rather light work of Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday. Brave on the ball, always looking to progress up the pitch and playing with their head coach’s trademark intensity, Bielsa’s Whites beat the Canaries 3-0. Ezgjan Alioski scored the pick of the goals, advancing on to a cute flick from Roofe to fire low inside the near post. Afterwards, the Macedonian winger revealed some of the gruelling work Bielsa had put the squad through in pre-season. He spoke of 12-hour shifts and players being prevented from returning home at night. Such demands can make a difference on the field (though they also raise the prospect of burnout at a later stage in the season) and Bielsa is not alone in making them. The extent to which his players comply with his demands is what’s unusual. Alioski went on to illustrate another aspect of his manager’s character that might help explain why this was the case. Before the match Norwich were revealed to have painted their away dressing room ‘deep pink’, a colour the club understood to lower testosterone levels. After the Canaries’ cunning plan became public everyone ventured an opinion on it, including Bielsa, whose response was to ruminate on the nature of desire (“Men can’t say that women are not a source of stimulation”), before dismissing the whole wheeze out of hand (“you don’t have any colour that has the capacity to weaken the desire for competition”). Saturday’s result bore Bielsa out but, according to Alioski, that was not the end of the matter. After the game the Leeds manager insisted his squad clean the pink dressing room from top to toe. “He wants to change this mentality – that we are clean,” Alioski said. “After the game you can see how clean it is inside the dressing room. And the coach helps also. It’s really a respect he wants. It’s not only football, it’s also how the person is outside. None of the players have ever worked like this before.” Mateusz Klich, left, celebrates with Kemar Roofe after giving Leeds the lead at Norwich. Not just a mark of respect but a sophisticated rebuke to sneaky hosts, this is the stuff of which myths are made. Bielsa’s eccentricity may never have been hidden. In his first job as manager of Newell’s Old Boys he signed a young Mauricio Pochettino after visiting his home to inspect his legs as he slept. But such moments seem to be coming thick and fast since Bielsa moved to Leeds. In his first remarks on joining, Bielsa declared them a better club than he deserved. Since then there has been the demands for cleanliness, the eight-minute digressions about the one time he disappointed Hernán Crespo, the selfies with fans at petrol stations and street corners; something new almost every day. And that’s without even mentioning the bucket. Bielsa has taken to sitting on a plastic tub during home matches. He claims it gives him a better vantage point, because the dugouts at Elland Road are below pitch level. Nobody quite believes him, though, and whenever Bielsa holds a press conference he is peppered with questions about the bucket. It has acquired such a totemic status that, before the last home match against Rotherham, fans crowded to get pictures of the bucket. The Millers’ manager, Paul Warne, even confessed it had got inside his head, leaving him uncertain as to whether to stand or sit himself. It’s almost like Bielsa is doing all this on purpose. That his idiosyncrasies are not accidental but part of a process that intrigues others, from players to fans, and slowly binds them towards him. Without the football this would not be very effective. But with the football, with Leeds playing better than they have for years, it all acquires a magical lustre. Some Leeds supporters are already tired of it – they feel the patronising gaze of the football hipster (and the media) descending on their team once more after a decade in the wilderness. But most are just happy and, yes, intrigued (and even the grumpiness has a wry quality to it). Bielsa is an eccentric and his methods rarely bring much in the way of silverware. But he knows how to build a myth. The ride won’t last forever, and it may fail to deliver on its promise, but Leeds fans seem unlikely to forget their time in the company of El Loco.

MB post match press conference:- First question on how emphatic the win was We needed the individual performance of Alioski, Phillips and Douglas. The performance of Jansson was very positive. We should be satisfied about how we dominated the game. We suffered a little bit on the set-pieces against us. We could have conceded a goal that would have complicated the game, but generally speaking the development of the game was a satisfaction. Our team played always with the same style. We never conceded moments to the opponent. What the opponent got was not because we made concessions. Impressed with late desire to keep a clean sheet? To extend the way you play during the longest time possible is the goal of any team, is a goal for any team. How will he manage expectations? We’ll manage the expectations in the same way we did before. We only played 10 per cent of the Championship and it is not convenient to draw any conclusion. Response of Kalvin Phillips after early change on Tuesday It’s the first thing I said. The performances of Phillips and Alioski were among the best ones. Douglas is a necessary help for us. The performance of Jansson was good too. The other players could keep the level they already had. Could he enjoy the quality of the goals? Of course I’m happy about the results, but usually I don’t celebrate the goals. Delighted with the progress the team's making? It’s not about humility, it’s about respect for my colleague, the head coach, who is just 10 metres away from me. At the same time, if a head coach celebrates a goal it’s not a mistake either, I don’t think that. Is he seeing game-by-game improvement? Against Swansea the team didn’t have the same performance. The performance against Swansea decreased, but today it increased. Severity of Hernandez's injury? I couldn’t tell you. It’s obvious that Hernandez has been very important for our team. He is the player who has the best regularity and he’s the player with the biggest influence in the control of the games. He’s a very intelligent player. Importance of Hernandez's maturity It’s an expression of his experience. He’s a complete player from every point of view. There is a difference between experience and decisions. You have players with a lot of experience, but a lack of lucidity when it comes to making decisions. Pablo reads the needs of the team and he gives solutions to all the problems of the team and in each sector of the field. Can Hernandez improve under Bielsa? I think he can make me a better head coach because I see solutions in the decisions he is taking. That I only saw a very few times during my career. I maybe saw this in players who play in different positions, in the middle of the pitch, but to have such an influence when you play on the side and having an influence in the front, in the middle and in the back. His style is not something that wakens in the rival the desire to neutralise him because he always intervenes making the actions more fluid because he has an influence, he intervenes in very small spaces and he makes the action, the play of his team-mates a lot more easier. It’s really a player that improves his team-mates. He makes his team-mates better and he gives solutions to actions very complicated and he puts his team-mates in better situations. He is a real silent leader. He always takes the responsibility for the difficult things and he makes it easier for his team-mates to play. He does all of this without speaking. Pleased the goals are making the most of dominant play? It’s not necessary I give my point of view. I’d rather the fans, the analysts give their point of view. The content of the actions are accessible for anyone. Transfer window? I wouldn’t’ tell you because I’m not sure of anything in this moment.

Pontus back today and has been outstanding. Leeds 2-0 up at half time with goals from Klich and Alioski.

Irish Leeds United fan praises player's 'lily' gesture A Leeds United player has laid flowers at the statue of Elland Road hero Billy Bremner in memory of a fan who died recently: Charlie Costelloe/Barry Douglas Defender Barry Douglas was contacted on social media by Charlie Costelloe, a Dublin-based Leeds fan whose dad, Cormac, had died a short time ago. Mr Costelloe had recently bought an engraved stone by the statue for his dad, and he asked Douglas if anyone from the club would lay a lily on the stone to remember him. Douglas told Mr Costelloe he would "see to it personally" and later in the day he kept to his word. Writing on Twitter, Mr Costelloe said the player was "an absolute credit to the club": https://twitter.com/1Charlie14/status/1 ... s-45208508

The only game on Sky after the Boro game is away at Sheffield Wednesday on Friday the 28th September.