en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3453240 Comments by _dje http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-the-newcastle-united-of-the-championship/#IDComment188545800 Too many images; not good images. lol Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:07:59 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-the-newcastle-united-of-the-championship/#IDComment188545800 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-the-newcastle-united-of-the-championship/#IDComment188540590 Utterly bizarre regarding Bessone. I'd put a lot of money on him becoming a Premiership star for Swansea whilst Gradel becomes a forgotten nobody at St Etienne. My logic? Footballs weird f****** ways. _______ Anyone know if Paynter went in the end? Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:39:49 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-the-newcastle-united-of-the-championship/#IDComment188540590 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/max-gradel-set-for-st-etienne/#IDComment188232430 Well said, Colin. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:18:27 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/max-gradel-set-for-st-etienne/#IDComment188232430 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/max-gradel-set-for-st-etienne/#IDComment188231998 Different players, different positions: square pegs, round holes. We need to stop the 'make do and mend' attitude and start planning for the future, one in a higher league, or else we will literally be going around in circles in this league for years to come. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:17:12 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/max-gradel-set-for-st-etienne/#IDComment188231998 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/max-gradel-set-for-st-etienne/#IDComment188230824 Chesterfield have already snapped him up. They've got their heads screwed on right... Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:13:46 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/max-gradel-set-for-st-etienne/#IDComment188230824 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188152794 Always had a soft spot for their version of Only Love Can Break Your Heart. Never a Neil Young Fan. I blame Sarah Cracknell; we'll probably sign her up as Gradel's replacement. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:38:36 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188152794 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188064692 And if Gradel is Newcastle's back-up if they don't get Maiga from Sochaux? Rock <------- us Hard place Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:28:21 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188064692 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188034638 Sanchez Watt would be a terrible step backwards and an admittance of it. If he couldn't force his way into the starting XI with two decent opportunities he shouldn't be offered a third. Unless we are desperate; we shouldn't be desperate. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:13:40 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188034638 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188034110 If White is so good on the wing then why aren't we already playing him there? Nunez isn't a winger. That leaves Sam and his injury record and Snodgrass who can blow hot and cold. As has already been said above, where's the competition for places, and why didn't we take on Mendy as a possible replacement/ utility man. It depresses me to say it, but I think Grayson will go back to playing Howson on the left hand side of midfield and use Brown/Clayton as midfield and Nunez in the centre when he plays 4-5-1 - which is only a matter of time. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:10:58 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188034110 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188025487 Hmm, does the loan window close on Wednesday too? There's the answer regarding replacements. Let us just hope that we at least get Ken a million or two as at least someone will prosper from it. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:30:02 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/sochaux-chairman-gradel-move-at-advanced-stage/#IDComment188025487 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/lucky-ipswich-beat-10-men-leeds/#IDComment187461047 ^ What he says, x2 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:08:57 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/lucky-ipswich-beat-10-men-leeds/#IDComment187461047 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/lucky-ipswich-beat-10-men-leeds/#IDComment187429312 As to red cards, once it was given as a foul then White had to go off. With hindsight he would have been better to have stayed on his feet and not challenged Emmanuel-Thomas. Even if they had scored I still reckon with 11 on the field we'd have won or drawn at worse. Can't fault White for any regrets though and all teams will pick up red cards in those ways. Less justifiable are the ones we picked up against Middlesborough for two yellow cards. Bad refereeing or not, you just don't put yourself in that position once you already have a yellow card, especially if you've already had a player sent off! Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:42:38 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/lucky-ipswich-beat-10-men-leeds/#IDComment187429312 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/lucky-ipswich-beat-10-men-leeds/#IDComment187428520 I think we called it wrong when we went to ten men. Bringing on wobbly O'Brien and moving the excellent O'Dea to left back was asking for trouble. Why oh why didn't we have Connolly on the bench? It'd have made more sense to either bring him on and shift Lees to centre back with Kisnorbo and O'Dea as left back, OR be brave and go three at the back (Kisnorbo, Lees and O'Dea are all centre backs in their own right) and sit Snodgrass deeper on the right, and bring on Sam for Gradel as a left wingback type player. that way we could have stuck with our dominant midfield of Howson and Clayton and kept them pegged back with Keogh and McCormack still upfront. It would have asked for a lot of running from Sam and Snodgrass, good cover work from Claton with Lees and Howson with O'Dea but nothing beyond them. Once we set up to defend the last forty minutes by bringing on O'Brien for McCormack we were incredibly unlikely to come away with a clean sheet (christ we can't even do it with 11 on the pitch!). As it was we were unlucky not to come away with a point, which would have been a good enough result at 3pm. Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:39:08 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/lucky-ipswich-beat-10-men-leeds/#IDComment187428520 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-draw-man-utd-in-carling-cup/#IDComment187235608 For what it is worth I voted against your above comment - as I entirely disagree(d) with your fears of relegation and for saying that you couldn't care if we go up this season. I think we need to go up this season to hold on to players such as Nunez, Snodgrass, Howson, Gradel and Becchio - as anything else and most will be off and we have a very, very average squad beyond them. We might not get promoted, true, but say you don't care is flippant to say the least. As for relegation. Of course it is a possibility, but I think we have picked up our performances in the last three games and are beginning to play like a good solid team with an attractive attacking kind of play. The lads' heads wont be too down after today as they will know they we were unlucky and if we hadn't gone down to ten men we would most likely have won. We wont go down to ten men in many more games than any other team from here on it, IMHO. As to voting and comments, I'd forget about it and not take it so personally: with Bates in charge we have enough reasons already for conspiracy theories! Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:22:27 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-draw-man-utd-in-carling-cup/#IDComment187235608 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-draw-man-utd-in-carling-cup/#IDComment187117855 Sorry, no romanticism in me on this one. Needless distraction - got to keep our eyes on the league and aim to be playing the scum twice a season every season, not just once in a while in a cup and getting giddy about cup upsets. Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:49:57 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/leeds-draw-man-utd-in-carling-cup/#IDComment187117855 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/ken-bates-west-ham-united-cant-afford-max-gradel/#IDComment186170484 Sounds like Bates is disappointed that West Ham couldn't pay £2.5m upfront and that's why they were knocked back, sort of "Offer us £2.5m upfront Fulham, and the lad is yours". Not helpful. Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:49:43 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/ken-bates-west-ham-united-cant-afford-max-gradel/#IDComment186170484 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186160448 Cheer up mate, can't be all that bad!! Gradel might go, if the money is right, and we can't get him down to a new contract, but I can't see Snodgrass leaving until the Winter transfer period at the earliest (when our best players will once more come under transfer scrutiny). Besides, Grayson aint that much of a walkover for Bates. Sam and Nunez on the flanks aren't and easy replacement for Gradel and Snodgrass, and neither would have competition for their places. Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:12:22 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186160448 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186135357 Stats aren't with you on Nunez being a 'highly effective' substitute. In the three games he has started with Leeds this season he has scored in all of them, and coincidentally we won them all. Of the games he has come on as a sub, he failed to score and we lost all bar West Ham were we got a point. Somma was a super-sub but has yet to prove he can do it from the off; Gradel started as a super sub when he first arrived and has proved that he can play excellently from the kickoff and only rarely have a nothing match; why not use Nunez's talent from the off until he fails to flatter? Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:35:26 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186135357 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186131431 Fair point about Nunez not being a winger, but then neither is Gradel in the traditional sense of a winger hogging the touchline and snapping in a cross (I can't remember a cross that Gradel has put in with his left foot from which we've scored?!). Both are only effective on the left hand side in a 4-3-3 with Becchio as the kingpin in the middle; but that's another headache to consider when Becchio is fit once more. I'd drop Howson (although I prefer the term 'rotate') but I'd need convincing that Nunez is any better at his defensive central midfield duties than Howson is, and any less prone to 'disappearing' in that role. At which point I think we'd be looking at dropping McCormack and playing Nunez alongside and just a tad deeper and behind Keogh. Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:21:05 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186131431 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186103563 I'd start with Nunez in place of Gradel at home and Gradel starts in his place away. Nunez seems to be excelling at 15-20 yard pot shots, the type that'll get us a goal in games when the opposition have come to shut up shop at Elland Road. Likewise, when away and we are a bit more defensive minded, Gradel's running will give us a better chance of a goal on the break than Nunez offers. Besides, I think Gradel has more to offer us from coming off the bench than Nunez does. What you really don't want as a tiring defender with 20 minutes of a match left is Gradel coming on to run at you with the ball. Nice dilemma to have aye?! Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:28:10 +0000 http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/the-ramon-nunez-predicament/#IDComment186103563