Leeds must put everything into summer recruitment
For the first time in decades Leeds United have owners with deep pockets and a competent board and management team who can match pragmatism with ambition.And they will need all that nous to navigate this summer's transfer market.No one can say who will make the step up to the Premier League within the squad. But there is a core group of players who I imagine would and that includes Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon, Pascal Struijk, Jayden Bogle, Ao Tanaka and Dan James.I would imagine the club are working on a deal to bring Manor Solomon back, as well as considering the merits of a new contract for Junior Firpo. The two linked up on Leeds' left side to great success last season.Chairman Paraag Marathe confirmed sales will have to be made to ensure the club's position against financial fair play rules. This means any sales would have to represent a profit on the balance sheet.So it would not surprise me should Illan Meslier be sold. The Frenchman fell out of favour towards the end of the season and could attract a price tag that would surpass what Leeds paid for him.One player fans might expect Leeds to sell is Brenden Aaronson. But I do not see him attracting an offer that would secure a profit, and despite his deficiencies in possession, he has excelled without the ball in disrupting opposition teams' passing play.Leeds will be defending far more in the Premier League than in the Championship and will need to adjust their strategy to survive, and that includes recruitment and retention.United are back where the club and city deserve to be but they must put everything they have into this summer's transfer window if they want to stay up.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metro
42 minutes ago
- Metro
Man Utd beat Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea to sign Southampton prospect
Manchester United have reached an agreement to sign teenager Harley Emsden-James from Southampton, beating a string of Premier League rivals to his signature. The Red Devils have done a deal worth £1m for the 16-year-old talent, although they will go on to pay add-ons and Southampton have negotiated a 20 per cent sell on clause. The centre-back has played up to Under-18 level for the Saints, despite only turning 16 in March this year. There was plenty of competition for the England youth international, with Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham all tracking the youngster. Manchester United have won the race, though, continuing their recent ploy to snap up the most promising young talent in the country. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link so we can send you football news tailored to you. The Red Devils have not only been able to do this from much smaller clubs, but also poaching talent from those of rival stature. Chido Obi and Ayden Heaven both arrived from Arsenal in the last year and have made their debuts in the Manchester United first team. It is very unlikely Emsden James will follow them into the first team in the near future, instead heading into the Under-18 team at Manchester United when he arrives. 18-year-old defender Heaven signed from Arsenal on February 1 and has already made six first team appearances for the Red Devils. It would have been more than that if it were not for a season-disrupting injury and he is likely to be regularly involved next season. Speaking out on why he left the Gunners for a move to Old Trafford, he said: 'The opportunities that the young players have got here in the past. 'I think United had the most minutes given to teenagers last season [2023/24]. That convinced me to come here. More Trending 'And the people and the fans here are quite loving, and I felt that when I was playing. They're so supportive.' Director of football Jason Wilcox has been credited for bringing in a number of talented prospects and Ruben Amorim thanked him for Heaven's arrival. 'I think once again Jason Wilcox is doing a great job bringing Ayden,' Amorim told MUTV in May. 'I think these types of players are what we need. He showed a lot of quality and character after the big injury. We want these types of players.' MORE: Liverpool eyeing move for £100m PSG forward after record Florian Wirtz deal MORE: Tottenham, Aston Villa and Newcastle in race to sign £25m Manchester United star on loan MORE: Newcastle in transfer talks for Brighton, Nottingham Forest and Burnley stars
Spectator
44 minutes ago
- Spectator
The titans who shaped Test cricket
Cricket histories are a dangerous genre both for writers and readers. They can be incredibly boring, the dullest of all probably being John Major's weighty tome, which said everything you knew it would say as drearily as you feared. So Tim Wigmore, a young shaver who writes on cricket for the Daily Telegraph, has entered hazardous territory. Speaking as a proud cricket badger, who even has a book by Merv Hughes on his shelf (Dear Merv, 2001), I will admit that I have read rather too many cricket histories, and I swore that it would be a cold day in hell (or possibly at the county ground in Derby) before I would willingly start another. But Wigmore has written a splendid, comprehensive book full of good stories and droll asides. It dips a little in the middle when Shoaib Mohammad starts batting, and keeps on batting, but what book of 578 pages does not? (Shoaib, who retired in 1995, is still batting in his dreams and my nightmares, and has just played an immaculate forward defensive down to silly mid-off.) In fact Test Cricket is as sparkling and entertaining as any book this long has a right to be. Wigmore has taken as his subject the pinnacle of the game, possibly the pinnacle of any game in the world, the Test match – played over (once) three and (now) five days between no more than a dozen nations (or collections of nations) whose first-class structures justify their hallowed status. So there are no Test matches between Brazil and Argentina – nor are there likely to be until there are first-class stadiums in both countries where regional teams play two-innings matches in whites, with lunch at 1 p.m. and tea at 3.40 p.m. Pork pies would need to be sold locally and everyone would run indoors at the merest sniff of rain or bad light. No, this book starts off with the old rivalry between England and Australia in the 1870s; adds South Africa a quarter of a century later; and then the West Indies and New Zealand on the same day in the 1930s. England fielded two separate XIs against these two teams for their first Tests – an experiment they have never been strong enough to repeat. (Australia often put out two teams in one-day internationals in the 1980s and 1990s, both of which would then beat England, which wasn't that hard at the time.) Wigmore supplies a clean and focused narrative structure. 'Within the space constraints,' he writes, 'I have been led by a sense of Test cricket's overarching story, paying particular attention to players who helped shape the game.' This means a lot of pages are devoted to people such as Abdul Kardar and Tiger Pataudi, while 'titans in less successful or declining sides', like Graham Gooch and Shivarine Chanderpaul, get far fewer. I have no trouble with any of this, although the lack of mention of my own favourite cricketer, Derek Randall, who scored an epic 174 in the centenary Test match in 1977, is obviously shameful. Wigmore has an eye for the telling detail. In a passage on the Australian batsman Victor Trumper, inspired by the photograph of him leaping out of his crease to drill a half-volley back over the bowler's head, we hear that in 1902 Trumper became the first batsman to score a century before lunch on the first morning of a Test match. This was something only five batsmen from any country have done since. I also didn't know that Trumper was the first man to popularise wearing the same national cap at every Test. 'The lore of the baggy green cap, then, is also the lore of Trumper.' Between 1895 and 1904, Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji scored 21,576 first-class runs at an average of 60.94. Then he became the Maharajah Jam Sahib of Nawanagar and had to stop batting for Sussex and England. In 1929, Ranji's nephew Duleepsinhji took part in one Test against South Africa, the only occasion in that country's first 172 Tests, until their readmittance to Test cricket in 1992, that they played against someone who didn't have white skin. South Africa, and their supporters in the MCC, don't come out too well from this book. When an Australian Services XI played the first of five matches against an England XI at Lord's in 1945 tickets cost a flat one shilling (five new pence) anywhere in the ground. That's as opposed to the £160 a friend of mine paid recently for one of this summer's Tests. At less than a fifth of the cost, this book represents a serious bargain. It's not quite as good as seeing Joe Root score 100 in the flesh, but it's not far off.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Fears Trump could sink US-UK nuclear subs deal after President ordered review into pact intended to secure the Pacific against Chinese aggression
Royal Navy chiefs voiced concerns last night after Donald Trump ordered a review of the nuclear submarine pact between the UK, the US and Australia. Aukus, as the joint project is known, is intended to secure the Pacific against Chinese aggression and involves multi-billion-pound commitments to build new nuclear-powered submarines. The Ministry of Defence announced its intention to build up to 12 submarines for Aukus and other operations as part of last week's Strategic Defence Review. But these plans have been thrown into doubt after the US defence department announced a review to ensure Aukus meets the President's 'America First' agenda. Relations between the US and Australia have soured over tariffs. America has also demanded Australia increase defence spending and wants to sell older submarines to Australia on favourable terms. Another cause for concern is the review is being led by Aukus sceptic Elbridge Colby, who is close to President Trump. Last night former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West said: 'Aukus is extremely important for the strategic situation in the Pacific and very important for Britain as a way of us moving into our next generation of submarines. 'The US had had concerns about selling its submarines to Australia, so it is not entirely unexpected that President Trump would want to look at this. Hopefully this can be resolved and we all move on together as part of the alliance.' The deal is regarded as a pillar of security co-operation. But concerns have been raised in the US over the rate of submarine production and Australia's reluctance to commit to a 'no holds barred' response to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. The US is committed to selling up to five boats to Australia, vessels which many in the US believe should be retained by the US Navy.
