I can hear Simon Grayson now - "Jonny - a captain's gotta do what a captain's gotta do. Make a run into the box, you don't need to score, that's not the aim. What you need to do is this - take on Sonko and 4 words - get a yellow card."

I'm not saying that Grayson will tell Dirty Leeds to hurt him.....But Dirty Grayson will tell Dirty Leeds to hurt him.

Another BIG reason for Leeds to go out there and crush Ipswich. Simon Grayson should just show this to the players.

And yes it is genuine and even 'better' with the sound turned on:
http://ibrahimasonko.com/flash.html

Problem is Gryff is that football owners look at football clubs as businesses and players as assets.

If someone comes in with an offer of £5m for Gradel, then it's a tough call. Completely agree that without Max, we won't get promoted, but if you turn an offer down and Gradel gets injured (a la Somma), then he's out for the season, you can't play Gradel for the season and you've lost £5m and you're paying him wages while he recuperates.

If I was wearing a Ken Bates hat (i don't want to) I could argue that we had a similar debate over Fabian Delph. We got good money, he went to Villa, got injured straight away and was out for a season. Now he's playing again, but is he the same player that he was when we sold him? It was a sound business decision, and the team didn't fall apart and it gave Howson an opportunity to shine.

It's a difficult one - for me, I think he's staying at Leeds this season - it's his best option - he stands out in a team where he's either equal or better than the other LUFC gems - Howson, Snodgrass (and coming up fast Clayton). If Leeds get promoted, then Gradel gets his big PL payday with Leeds. If Leeds don't get promoted, then he'll get his big pay day and get a job in the PL anyway (a la Beckford).

Signing for West Ham, does not guarantee him a PL place next season. Staying with Leeds this season, does guarantee him a PL place next season, either with Leeds or on a free to a PL club.

"A game Leeds did well to walk away from before John Carew started eating people." :D

Like Dickens, but but better.

LUTV.

He didn't say that Mike. If someone wants to pay £7.5m - £12.5m for Gradel then I'll drive him there myself. He was saying F' Off politely to West Ham and the impression I got is that Grayson was suggesting that West ham were chancing their arm and just trying to annoy Leeds.

He built up West Ham and said that Leeds were the underdogs. It was all a ruse by the press to try and catch Grayson in a trap - they asked him about when he plays and does well against West Ham, then he's got a point to prove. Grayson was quite clever. He said "if he plays."

He was surprisingly calm. I think he's going to send Leeds out in all attack - not necessarily 4-4-2 but almost certainly DIRTY LEEDS. Expect cards. He's already had a go at a referee and I know why, because he wants a bit of leniency from the ref, because he's going to send Leeds hard into West Ham.

Craig, to be fair to the facts, Grayson never "told West Ham United to multiply their rejected £2.5m offer for Max Gradel by three or four times and he’ll consider parting with Leeds United’s 2010-11 player of the season."

Now this has angered a number of posters against Grayson, who haven't seen the Press Conference. I did (LUTV) and Grayson never said what TSS mentioned above. What has it come to when I have to come out and actually defend Grayson!!

Honestly, did you watch the press conference or did you read The Mirror article which got it wrong and said 3 or 4 times?

The Press Conference was completely harmless and as dull as every Grayson press conference.

As for Max - there are 2 price estimates of Gradel's worth - the Leeds price and the price of other clubs. Leeds are planning on signing the player up on a new contract and probably put him at £7.5m. And that's about right for how much you would pay for a Max Gradel replacement on a 3 year contract.

The other clubs see Max Gradel as a quality player that has less than a year's contract, so about £2.5m. But for Leeds to sell, they have to get the figure of a Max Gradel on a 3 year contract and £7.5m is about right and very similar to the £8m price tag that Leeds put on Snodgrass.

Inflated? Yes. But you can dictate prices like that when you don't have to sell and Leeds don't have to sell.

Spot on Mark. The quote is wrong. In addition, Grayson was talking about 'players' in response to this topic at the Press Conference. It wasn't a direct question about Max Gradel.

If someone offers you 3 or 5 x £2.5m (the original offer), then yes, every team is going to take £7.5 - £12.5m for a player on an expiring contract. It was just a standard drab response from Grayson to an obvious question. There was nothing 'come and get me' about it.

There's another possible option as well - Paul Jewell might be talking out of his behind.

It wouldn't be the first time.