The agony of Sam Byram
Will Byram stay fit is one question, and will Leeds United break him is the other.
Will Byram stay fit is one question, and will Leeds United break him is the other.
When Leeds United were finishing 9th in the Premier League, I mocked Brighton for only winning nine games per season every season for four seasons. Now I can see what that stability was leading up to.
CEOs aren’t fun: they’re the boring looking guys, tense and sweaty, who are there to be screamed at when things go wrong, and to stay firmly out of the way when the team does cool things that have nothing to do with them.
Brace yourself, because the three weeks left in the transfer window are likely to be tougher to take even than the summer so far.
If there's a bright side to relegation, it's the chance of lining up on opening day with a spine of Meslier, Cresswell, Gray and Gelhardt — Roy of the Rovers stuff, sure, but people bloody loved Roy of the Rovers, didn't they?
The challenge for Farke goes deeper than working out who is in and who is out, to making sure that the players who are in, whether by choice or circumstance come September 1st, feel like they’re in a good place.
Paraag Marathe doesn't have the disadvantage of starting from scratch with Leeds, but that means he doesn't have it as an excuse, either.
Players are leaving but not arriving. The ones left behind are being taught to play wi' ball but not wi'out ball. The defending and stuff, hopefully, is coming next week. But in the meantime we had to play Manchester United.
Farke’s first Championship champions scored 93 goals with a goal difference of +36. His second scored 75 with +39. I’ll take either. Thanks in advance, Daniel.
Football could do with working out where its next generation of coaching talent is coming from. If it's between Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Steve Bruce the next time the England job comes up, it'll be a moment of national despair.