I agree 100%. Have seen Leeds a few times and there is a little bit of the Emperor's new clothes about Bielsa. He has a mystique about him that seems to have hypnotised pundits and commentators alike. Leeds defence is very poor and when I see them play they always look like they could concede 3 or 4. They probably won't go down but it is not impossible.

So half the season gone. What would be an acceptable return for the second half of the season. Given everyone was pointing out that we had all the tough games away from home early in the season I would have thought 35 points would be okay plus winning the Europa Cup to go into the CL.

Winning the Europa League, as long as we also don’t go down, would make it better than acceptable. A mid-table finish and winning the FA Cup would be acceptable in my view. Winning the Europa League would make it very good, outstanding or excellent.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jan/20/mesut-ozil-the-galactico-who-became-symbolic-of-arsenals-decline

Worth a read.

I think the problem Leeds have is that Bielsa's game-plan has always been to demand an ultra-high energy contribution from everyone. That seems to be why his teams tend to excel early on but then have trouble maintaining such an high tempo effort over the course of a full season. There's even a term for it - 'Bielsa burn-out'. Theory is that's why they blew up in a couple of recent promotion charges. Carney recently copped for plenty when she suggested that the only reason they did well last year was down to the forced suspension of the league which gave them a chance to recover and re-group. This season, the games will come thick and fast from here to the end. Leeds don't have a massive or indeed particularly high-quality squad. They could well be vulnerable.

Lots of reports we've agreed to terminate Sokratis contract and he will leave the club today. No word on where he is going.

I don't think he was a disaster, in fact I'm struggling to think of any really bad errors he made of games he cost us but we clearly need to move forward without him and his big wages so it seems like the best for all parties.

Sokratis, Özil and Kolasinac all gone - 1 space left in the squad for a non-home grown player and £550k per week shifted in wages, £14.3m for the next 6 months saved assuming there were no 'pay off' agreements.

I only know the actor, not the player. But I can see how he got his tough guy reputation by watching him play football.

I like Sokratis. Solid if not good. He squeezed all of his ability out of himself for us. Good luck to him.

No.5 shirt and No.10 shirt available.
Partey likes number 5 so I wonder if he might change to that.

We've only seen small bits of Partey but it feels like we have a player who can become one of the top 5 midfielders in the league. I cant think of many box-to-box central mids who I'd rather have from everyone in the prem. There are not many (if any) players we can say that about in our squad

Lukas Podolski..remember him? He's come out to say he's glad to see his compatriot, Özil, back in action in Turkey to play football again. Makes sense as Podolski is playing for Antalyaspoor in Turkey.

Beautifully written. Pretty much a final word on the Özil story really. Misguided but talented player but we let him down a little by not building round him

All the best on a good future for Papa Sokatris to Real Betis or wherever he chooses to play.

Sounds like we've paid up the remainder of his contract. We paid £17.6m plus salary for 44 games since July 2018. We're now paying him off, so no return on the transfer fee. Not great business, is it?

Actually, I never minded Sokratis. Wasn't his fault he wasn't a better player. Wasn't his fault he never played more games. Wasn't his fault we bought him. Wrong club, wrong time. Best of luck mate.

Leno is the only one left in the squad from the summer signings post Wenger, Leno, Sokratis, Lichsteiner, Guendouzi, Torreira.
Lichsteiner was a stop gap so not too many problems there. Sokratis money probably should have been put to a younger CB but we went down the route of chasing immediate re-entry to the champions league. Guendouzi may still have a future with us. I suppose Torreira is the most disappointing. Just seems ill suited to the pace and physicality of this league and was quite often never played in his best position. Hasn't started a game for Atletico since October. He needs to be sold back to Italy in the summer although I'm not sure how much of our £25m we'll get back. If we can get close to £20m then take it and run.

Interesting viewing. Vinnie Jones may have been primarily a thug 'enforcer' but he wasn't a bad player. Popular inspirational captain for Leeds when they were promoted to the (then) first div. I think the second division was more his level.

I'd forgotten Laurie Cunningham was in the Wimbledon team. Archway lad who never made it with us as a lad but turned into a real talent later for WBA and Real Madrid. Sadly never got to the absolute top but most who saw him believed that he could have.

Good old Daily Tottenham (Mirror) putting a spin on the interview
I read it as their usual spin to make it negative on our club, by taking the words out of context with the question and the tone in which they would said.
My view from seeing the video is he answered a direct question on AMN and saying he is the same as every other squad member and has to fight for a place in the team and we will rotate our squad as needed.

What’s your take on why AMN isn’t actually being played much Hodd ?

On the face of it he has more natural talent than Joe Willock or El Nenny or someone like that. Attitude ? His mum ?

Not mum as she is no longer involved in his career directly
It's not like he hasn't been in the squad - at least until Monday, so I actually think its down to form and the fact that he is seen as more of a wing-back than a holding midfielder; that's due IMHO to the unbalanced squad we have.

Saw this online. Come this summer and in the past 3 years Arsenal have let go Sanchez, Ramsey, Özil, Cazorla, Wilshere, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mkhitaryan and Welbeck all for a total income of £0. We spent £190m on those players.

It is a toss up whether this or the extremely poor purchases is the biggest reason we are where we are right now.

Okay, thanks, so Vinnie Jones was known as a thug-ish type player? Archway story is interesting. I have some reading and videos now to look at.