The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Friday 6th September) - Cooper off to Bulgaria?
Good Morning. It's Friday 6th September, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Cooper off to Bulgaria
Liam Cooper is in talks with Bulgarian outfit CSKA Bulgaria, after failing to find a club closer to home.
The 33yo left Leeds in the Summer, dissatisfied with the twelve month contract on offer to him. His quest for longer term security saw him linked with Blackburn, Sheffield Wednesday, and more recently Hull City. A move back to the MKM Stadium, (where it all began 22 years ago) looked to be on the cards, but in the end, it never materialised.
He is a free agent; this allows him the freedom to choose a move at his leisure. No doubt he would have preferred to stay in Yorkshire, but his desire to play first team football as long as he can. could take him 1700km out of his comfort zone.
Was Hamer bid just a smokescreen?
Listening to Joe Wainman's live broadcast last, a number of issues regarding our Summer transfer window were bought up, especially that of Gustavo Hamer
Leeds ended up losing 20 first team players this Summer, raking in just short of £130m, plus a substantial investment from Red Bull. This including that of Summerville, Rutter and Gray; the very foundation, and first names on Daniel Farke's team sheet. Replacing such stars was never an option; outside the confounds of the Premier League, clubs must cut their cloth accordingly, but in Leeds case, that's only half the battle!
Mismanagement, terrible decision making and blatant disregard from our previous regime (for which the 49ers must take their fair share of responsibility having had a 44% share in the club since 2021) continue to haunt us. We've seen Roca and Llorente depart for next to nothing, Harrison continue to wind down his contract whilst spending another season on loan (payment free) at Everton and ridiculously low buy out clauses on our two best players.
As Joe pointed out, the club had two weeks to come up with a replacement for Rutter. Hamer's signature would have gone some way to repairing the damage, but if Leeds had been serious about the Dutchman, why would they have tabled a bid for £13m, £2m less than what they had bought him for last year? He's by far their best player, and as such were never going to accept it.
It has been suggested that Leeds had no intentions to splash the cash this Summer, and it was just a smoke screen so they could be looked upon as being busy. Many fans suggested Leeds would leave it late to splash the cash, and although we're thankful for Smidt and Tanaka, they are not the marquee signings any of us were wanting to see!