afar

It's one of those that will feature heavily on one of the many football goof up videos, voiced over by some unfunny cockney so called comedian.

Tonight he faced some decent opposition (and pretty mediocre by Premier League standards) and was absolutely raped out there. If we get him it doesn't bode well for next season if we go up. We have to get up first though. For me he's good enough to play as a right back in this division. We need a right back, where are we going to find better, who is going to be willing to come here and for the price we are willing to pay in terms of both fee and wages. We have to think short term for now and short term he's fine, if we can get a bargain somewhere else, then great, but I just don't see that happening, do you ?

in what way are we overperforming? player for player the team that played tonight is better than any other in the championship by a long way. it was clear that individually we had by far the better players. hughton is not a tactician however, so we are always going to be limited in that department. Play like that against any team other than west brom and we'd have bummed them, and we were still very unfortunate with a few decisions and they were fouling bastards. Couldn't agree more, we are not overperforming at all, in fact quite the opposite, we've been getting results all season despite underperformances.

That Thomas guy looked pretty good for them in fairness to Simpson, right footer playing on the left, kept cutting in and was causing Simpson problems all night. I'm torn on Simpson, he's obviously got some things he needs to work on, but he's tried hard for us and overall been pretty solid, not sure where, in our current predicament, we are going to find anything better than him and we need a right back for sure.

I agree they were very cynical, a stronger ref would have helped us no end.

I agree with the ref. He seemed to lose his bottle and lost the game, some key decisions went against us. I think someone else said West Brom were the best team we've played this year. Could not agree more with that, they were much more impressive than Forest were when they beat us. I think their problems are clear though and it's the same ld thing for them, great going forward but dodgy at the back. We could have and should have won that one at the end, if it weren't for the ref and linesman we probably would have. At the end of the day though a point is much better for us than them, we are still in the driving seat and another tough fixture out of the way.

That's not a bad result.

Should have been a pen, clear foul by olsson

A draw will be a much better result for us than them.

They are looking so much better than us, we've got zero quality, it's amazing we are still top of the table, I don't think we'll stay there too long. Playoffs for us, unless we buy some quality, Ashley surely has to see that after tonight.

Do you know anything about real life? It's threads like this and idiots like you, that are the reason I've been trying to stay away from this forum . Fucking hell your team is top of the table with a big fight on their hands in what loks like a very tight 3 horse race and you are already talking about who we should get rid of, when we don't even know which division we'll be playing in. Wait till the end of the season for shit like this.

Bruce doing his usual thing as he's done at other clubs, starts off well then goes all to pot around Christmas time. I would have a sneaky fiver on them dropping down, if it weren't for Darren Bent, whom I think was a great signing for them and will probably get them enough goals to stay up. Forest are on fire atm, got to hand it to them, on paper it's the weakest of the 3 squads at the top of them table, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they leave us and WBA fighting over the 2nd spot. Billy Davies sure knows how to get out of this division, shame he's crap when it comes to the big boy's game.

Shit I hope none of our players can afford the internet and have spare time on their hands to surf the net and read this crap as it would motivate them really well to not get promoted. FFS, be thankful for the effort they've all put in this year to have us to leading the dvision by a big margin right now, they've all earned themselves a chance to stay IF and it's still a big IF we make it back up. Time for this kind of thread really is at the end of the season when we can evaluate the full body of work.

I agree completrely with this. This is why the Beckford deal is so important to us, think we need to push through now with it, even if that means going up to 1.75m for him, pretty certain Leeds would take that right now, they may still take the 1.5mill but that won't be until the very last minute and assumes no one else comes in for him. If they reject 1.75mill, take it off the table and focus all our efforts elsewhere and if Leeds come back cap in hand, then offer them 1.5mill assuming or tell them to piss off.

I have more of an issue with people representing nations that they have not been in anyway associated with such as Carroll and scotland than someone that has taken residency in a country for a number of years and calls it his home. For example in cricket I have no problem whatsover in Peitersen, Strauss, Trott or Prior representing England even though none were born here, because they have made the country their home and commited to it. On the flip side, Carroll's never lived in scotland, might never have even visited it, I don't know, clearly he has not taken the country to his heart. Ireland did this all the time during the Charlton years, how many of those players back then who wore the green shirts, spoke with an irish accent, when you hear the like of Andy Townsend, John Aldridge and Tony Cascarino speak, it's clear that theirs was a choice made out of convience and had they been good enough to play for England they would have done.

That'll stir things up, cards are on the table now.

I read somewhere on here that Beckfords agent has said that Beckford doesn't feel he needs to move anymore and wants to help Leeds into the Championship, though he'd consider a move if it was financially important to the club. Possibly trying to keep the fans happy if it turns out we can't meet the asking price and no one else comes in for him. If he truely felt that way then he would sign a new contract with them. That would raise his value and priove that he wants to stay with the club and is not looking to maximise his earnings by becoming a free agent at the end of the season. As you say, he's just probably saying all that crap to keep the Leeds fans sweet. If I were them I'd be asking him to prove it by signing a new contract.

The last line or two in the article may be the telling thing. They probably honestly believe that more offers will come in for him from other clubs. I'm not too sure there will be that many clubs this transfer window with the money to buy. For all his impressive stats, the thing that has to be taking into consideration with Beckford is he's never played at a higher level than league 1, he's already 26 so not exactly a youngster and of course only has 6 months left on his contract. They could be trying to bluff us into paying above the odds here, but they could also be thinking that if they hung on to him and they will in all likelihood get promotion back to the Championship, then Beckford will resign with them. They'll know him better than us of course, the big question will be does he want to be playing in the PL next season or is he prepared to wait a year in the Championship to get there. I can see Leeds doing back to back promotions tbh. I also think Beckford himself will be happy to wait until the summer, his profile is high enough for a lower tier PL club to take a chance on him for a free transfer. The more I think about this transfer the more I can't see it coming off, the only party that has real desire to make it happen is Newcastle, I'm afraid that won't be enough. So with the Kilgallon deal dead and this one unlikely it's back to square one, we've been down this road before

For me the only aim in this window should be to secure promotion, no point at this stage to think long term. To achieve that we need to find someone that offer a different threat up front, we need as the OP said a fast poacher type of CF. Obviously Beckford fits the bill here but I've got the feeling for one reason or another this one won't come off. Hopefully we've got a back up plan. I'm not really bothered about the killgallon deal, if it goes through, which seems likely then great, if not I don't think we need to worry too much as from what I've seen Kadar looks just as good a prospect and provides cover at CB. What I think we do need to address quickly is right back,we can't afford to let Simpson's loan end without extending it or signing him up for a fee. In terms of the creative midfielder, I don't really agree that that is essential for us to get out of the division, we are very strong at the back and don't concede too many as long as we continue to do that, we'll make enough chances with the players we have to win enough points to secure promotion. The key for us is to remain solid at the back, our defensive record is fantastic, mostly down to having a prem quality back 5, if we can keep that up and get that poacher, I think we'll cruise to promotion.

I'm not sure it's as far fetched as people make out. England have a real problem at the GK position, Green I think should be number 1, he's a good solid keeper, but I still can't imagine how James has managed to stick around the squad for so long. Hart is a young keeper in good form atm, too young though to be the person you want in an old head's position for the biggest tournament in the world. Harper is a good solid and dependable keeper who has the experience to not let anyone down, if called upon in the World Cup. I still can't understand the constant abuse he gets from some of you, he's never let us down, we picked him up for nothing and he's given us years of loyal service, he's also been one of of best performers this season. In an ideal world for England, Harper probably wouldn't get close to a call, but because of the lack of real quality at that position in the country, he would not be a bad call to make the squad IMO.

Throwing this lead away, can't afford not to beat the likes of Sheff Wed and Derby.

unlucky

We'll get one last chance, got to make it count.

Derby have played well, defended brilliantly, we've been poor, don't deserve anything from the game tbh, draw a fair result.

I saw that replay too, but I think the ball changed direction so it may have been misleading a little and it would have been extremely harsh to penalise nolan for the challenge it seemed hard but fair, in keeping with the game in general. Though some of the man handling Sheef Utd players were doing to our guys in the box for set pieces should have been blown up for. I certainly don't agree with Blackwell commesnts, that is was definately a foul and that they deserved to win because they were miles better than us. Sounds a bit like a manager feeling a bit of heat, and rightly so, they should be higher than they are with their squad.