Leeds Banter 2

03 May 2026 20:55:00
Makes the Arsenal game at West Ham next Sunday interesting to say the least. Did not enjoy watching Villa show so little interest tonight. Will be a real fight Monday week. 🤞

03 May 2026 21:43:07
Hope Forest beat Vile in Euro Cup ..

03 May 2026 21:45:13
Arsenal beat Spam, we're definitely safe. Even a draw, the goal difference is massive. Still think we will do it comfortably ourselves.

Hope we smash (beat) my brother supporting Spuds.

03 May 2026 22:15:35
I have no concerns for us anymore, but I'll be very curious how the game will turn out against Spurs.
I think we'll put in a better effort than Villa did, with their thoughts clearly focused on another match.

I'm not sure how I'd feel as a Spurs fan, elated that they might have a chance of avoiding relegation, or cheated that their players have only just started to play with passion in the last few games of the season.


I still think they are an emotional basket case, ready to implode.
If that Villa goal had been ten minutes before the whistle went, I think the panic from them would have gone into overdrive.

I'm pretty certain it's going to be a very entertaining game.

04 May 2026 00:20:37
Spuds are no longer a struggling side.
7 points out of 9 with De Zerbi.
And showing a lot of fight and talent.

04 May 2026 00:46:05
Luckily for us, we also have 3 wins in 4 games and unbeaten in 6 in the league.

04 May 2026 05:44:56
I don't think you can say Spurs are not struggling anymore when they are only one point out of the relegation zone. Anything can happen in these last few games.
The big pendulum of fate will swing not only for who will go down, but also for the title between Arsenal and Man City.

04 May 2026 06:02:31
I don't care which one of the two goes down, as long as one of them takes ownership of the last trap door spot, and quick.
To me Spuds have got a bit of momentum. Saw the highlight of spam game, and their defending was atrocious. Eenie meanie minie mow.

04 May 2026 06:06:51
OP, Spurs are doing under De Zerbi what one thought they definitely had the potential to do.. namely go on a crucial run of winning games.

Imo, Spurs are not going down.. regrettably so from our perspective!

Some peeps were far too naively dismissive of their chances of staying up!

04 May 2026 06:31:57
Like Aus, I couldn't care less who stays up or goes down, but one thing for sure is, I really want us to beat Spurs at their ground, where they have only won twice this season in the league, and one of those games was against Burnley.


Let's see how they do against a team who will put up a proper fight against them.
Then we can watch how the great De Zerbi deals with it.

04 May 2026 06:34:46
We'll counter Spuds to death, I reckon. They're going to have to come at us, so I think Farke will defo be working the boys on fast, direct break aways. Yes, the Spuds will be buoyed by their performance and the result, but their confidence will be brittle AF, and, as we've seen with our own team, a few misplaced passes / a sloppy bit of defending, etc., can undermine a lot of good work.

Gotta doff yer cap at De Zebri, tho.

04 May 2026 09:08:16
Villa gifted Spurs the 3 points last night by making 7 changes.

04 May 2026 10:26:41
Let's not get carried aaay with De Zerbi and Spurs, so called excellent form. They struggled to beat Wolves, who actually were the better team, and then they do Villa reserves. They play a proper team next.

04 May 2026 14:28:54
Corkey, the Villa team last night included Martinez, Mings, Tielemans, Sancho, Rogers and Abraham, and Watkins, Buendia and Bailey came on off the bench - not a bad lineup for "reserves".

04 May 2026 15:12:59
I see your point, JR, but they still made seven changes.

03 May 2026 20:38:25
Just a thought.

Let's say the worst happens and we lose to Spurs next week. The Hammers have got Arsenal - in all seriousness, I cannot see them getting even a point against the Gunners, which would mean we are safe.

Seven points ahead with two games to go.

Still rather see Spurs go down though!

03 May 2026 21:43:53
If West Ham beat Gooners, we are back in doodoo.

03 May 2026 21:51:37
Hammers won't beat Arsenal, Baz. We'll be fine.

04 May 2026 01:12:23
Agree every word, Cleggy, I can't see Wet Sham beating Arsenal either. Interestingly, that game is the day before we visit Spuds, so, by the time they kick off, the lads will be certain that we're mathematically safe (or not) . So, how might that affect how they play? Will they play with more freedom, or will they be mentally "on the beach"? Spuds will still want to win, as they'll only have a one point gap with two games to go.

Our final match away at Wet Sham might still decide who stays and who goes.

03 May 2026 20:00:18
Looks like it’s all still to play for. Who said Spurs would not win?

03 May 2026 20:43:31
Villa rested 7 first team players. Hope Florists stuff them!

03 May 2026 21:27:50
I'd be pretty upset if I supported West Ham. Teams and managers should respect the integrity of the league no matter what stage of the season. Villa already had a 24 longer break than Forest so already had an advantage.

Hopefully we'll be safe by the time we play again, if Arsenal do their job against West Ham next week.

03 May 2026 21:46:07
Quire a few on here Whitey said Spuds were as good as down

I did say Spuds would win 3 or 4 matches and stay up.

04 May 2026 00:41:31
Well done Baz, proud of you. Great effort.

04 May 2026 06:41:41
All about the predictions still innit? I said this, I said that. Maybe just think it, and pat yourself on the back.
Spuds are still heavily in the mix, and our own team, more importantly than any prediction, has a pivotal role to play in who goes down, and "quite a few on here" might just be hoping, more than expecting, that it's Spuds.

04 May 2026 08:52:36
That's so uncanny. I completely predicted Baz would default to his being-right predictions, which are of far greater importance than anything Leeds United-related on the site.

Oh, it's always the hope that things could have improved during his enforced sabbatical, but sadly normal service has quickly been resumed.

03 May 2026 19:59:12
How the bloody hell are Villa losing at home to Spurs?

You can't rely on them to do anything correctly!

03 May 2026 21:47:36
Time to dust off my "Farke Out" banners, Cleggy.

04 May 2026 09:26:55
Why? What's that got to do with Villa vs Spuds?

03 May 2026 15:44:26
Apparently Isak is out with a very small groin.

Shame.

Sorry, very small groin problem.

Me and my typing skills 😁.

03 May 2026 17:16:41
Lol, Bri!

03 May 2026 17:59:38
A small groin has never stopped me bringing.
Anyway, it's what you do with it!

03 May 2026 12:25:09.
Just put another couple of humble pies in to bake.

Remember at the start of the season and particularly in January how our chairman and recruiting team (in particular Mr Underwood) had a storm of abuse directed their way with the exception of OP and a couple of others.

I know I was certainly one of those complaining.

There’s now an argument to be made that Leeds United has had possibly the best, certainly the best value, transfer dealings in the whole league.

Mm, custard or ice cream, humble pie is always a little bitter, but necessary in this regard.

03 May 2026 12:37:09
Yep it's turned out better than expected.. Not sure about Perri, Borneau and Buonanotte though.

03 May 2026 12:52:21
It certainly is applaudable what the recruitment personnel have achieved Class.
Again, it will be a huge task for them to do the same again this summer, especially with the new SCR (Squad Cost Ratio rules) , where we will have bigger wages to make with current players and new recruits.
Due to these new rules, it's being mentioned already that we will have slightly less to spend this summer than the last, which will mean a very shrewd recruitment, with, I imagine, one or two free transfer players to balance the possible higher wages.
We need more hard workers, with hopefully a bit more quality, to advance next season.

Over the next two or three seasons, they have to get the recruitment absolutely bang on to ensure our status in the Premiership.

03 May 2026 13:06:08
Last paragraph, Opti, is key. This team scrapped up. Prob would next season. Recruitment was 60-40, but needs to be nailed on 90-10 next summer.

03 May 2026 15:26:12
I disliked all the crap aimed at our recruitment team in last summer's transfer window, and refrained from doing so myself since, like all of us, I have little knowledge of the financial and other constraints they were working under. At the end of the window, my assessment was that in defence and midfield we'd done OK, bringing in Stach, Bijol, Longstaff, Gudmundsson, Justin and Bornauw, plus Perri in goal, most of whom have turned out to be good buys. In attack, we added Okafor, who has come good after a slow start, DCL, who has way exceeded expectations, and Nmecha, who's been OK as a second string.


So, in general, we did well, but this time round we need to target the positions we didn't manage to fill last time, and back up where we're still a bit light. For me, that's a good striker to mix and match with DCL, a backup left wing-back, a goalie, and a right-side attacking player like Harry Wilson, who we tried to get and failed - plus, of course, retaining all the good ones we've got now.

04 May 2026 06:46:50
Spot on JR, particularly the line referencing "all the crap" that was spouted! I understood some of the concerns, given that some players were unknown quantities, and opinions were formed on that and limited stats, but some of the OTT abuse toward Underwood and co was almost comical!

03 May 2026 09:25:56
Dominic Calvert-Lewin has outscored:

- Hugo Ekitike
- Benjamin Sesko
- Ollie Watkins
- Mo Salah
- Bryan Mbeumo
- Cole Palmer
- Bukayo Saka
- Anthony Gordon
- Jarrod Bowen
- Raul Jimenez

In the Premier League this season.

03 May 2026 11:37:25
Interesting, very interesting!
Or to misquote Michael Caine, "Not a lotta people know that."
The first two on that list cost north of £70M, so we done good there!

03 May 2026 12:11:50
Add in Mattheus Cunha, couldn't resist.

03 May 2026 12:19:46
Good stuff, Alf.
I think "Topman DCL" is also above other renowned goalscorers such as Mateta and Sesko.

And big shout out to the increasingly impressive, crucial quality of Noah Okafor.

He has a very important 8 goals so far in his first season at Leeds United.



Even my joint favourite Leeds United player of recent times, the great Raphinha, scored fewer in his first LUFC season in 20/21.

03 May 2026 14:49:18
Another interesting stat on MOTD: Leeds United has covered the greatest distance of any team in the EPL to date. They may not be the greatest technically, but you cannot doubt this team's work rate and togetherness.

02 May 2026 20:10:02
The win at Old Trafford was The Game, possibly the game that saved us.
Fair play to DF and the lads, as getting three wins out of four at this stage of the season is some achievement.


I was hoping for 50 points at the start of the season probably because I have high aspirations for our club and am an optimistic sod, believe it or not. Two wins and a draw and we’ve got there.
MOT.

02 May 2026 20:47:22
Yep 100. 💯 Corkey, those 3 points at OT were huge in us keeping ahead of those below us.

. In addition, I am a firm believer that the 4 game winning FA Cup run gave the Leeds United squad much added and needed confidence (especially the euphoria of winning the epic FA Cup QF match at West Ham) .



Without the Cup run, I don't think we beat Man U at Old Trafford in the EPL.

02 May 2026 20:54:02
Also, Leeds' late, late escape and equaliser at Bournemouth were also significant. That extra point was very helpful.

12000 stadium capacity Bournemouth, imo, will finish 6th this season. Does this mean they replace 60,000 capacity Spuds as a top 6 club? 😆 Stadium capacity seems less relevant to success these days in EPL.

Top 6 big club Spuds. The misnomer of all misnomers.

02 May 2026 20:56:15
I never thought of that, Baz, and that's a fair point. The way the team played in that first half at Old Trafford showed a team full of confidence. So, yes, I agree with your summary.

02 May 2026 21:25:26
Imagine how good Bournemouth would be if run as now, but with Spurs income!

03 May 2026 05:49:49
I guess you could point to several key matches, the 3-1 against Chelsea, 4-1 against Palace, two draws against Pool, all pivotal at the time, as was the win at OT. But, again, it is the sum of all that is important, and losing just 4 matches after the City match in December is impressive stuff.

03 May 2026 07:51:49
I think, if you want to look at a so called season defining game that saved us, then that would surely be a game that we actually lost, which Vid correctly points out.

Farke's change of formation mid-game against Man City was literally a game changer for us, and undoubtedly the reason we are not already relegated.

03 May 2026 08:48:58
I don't believe that a cup run helped us to beat Man U. We turned up to play. If that is the case, why didn't we beat Chelsea on the day we weren't at our game? If we can play like we did every game, we would be well up the table. And I know I am a bit biased on the cup run anyway, but my view.
Another player was sent off for hair pulling, and we had Rooney and Robinson saying it should be part of the game as he's pulling shirts really.

You can tell these two don't have hair and aren't playing anymore. It's like spitting, that should be banned too. There's absolutely no reason for it. If you wanna spit, go off, spit into a spit bag, and then wait for the referee to allow you to come back on. Let's see if spitting is really necessary, because, believe me, they won't do it. It's even in the Women's game now, that is disgusting.

03 May 2026 09:26:33
I agree Baz, the win at West Ham was massive for the team's confidence. If West Ham lose to Arsenal next Sunday, we will be safe before we play Tottenham.

03 May 2026 10:55:01
Absolutely Feath, great position to be in. Don't particularly like the Gooners, but will be watching that match and backing them. We can play our part on which one, Spuds or Spam, goes down.

03 May 2026 12:38:27
* Overawed (not overrated) .

03 May 2026 12:33:59
Whitey pal imo 2 of the big reasons why the Leeds United players did not play so well vs Chelsea in FA Cup are :

1) they were somewhat overrated by the magnitude of the occasion.80000 plus fans huge stadium much media attention etc

And the other big reason
2) the huge blow 7 days previous to Cup semi of ALL of Forest, West Ham and Spuds winning in the EPL thereby considerably cranking up the Relegation pressure on Leeds United

I certainly know from my perspective that after those EPL results I could not focus on at all the FA Cup Semi

a game I had initially been greatly looking forward to.and as a result I wasn't even that disappointed to lose in Cup semi.normally I would have been totally gutted!

AIMO of course

03 May 2026 14:35:43
Baz, mate, understand your point, but we really should have won that game, but as I said I wasn't in the FA Cup fan club. Will not complain. Maybe next season we will win it. 😂

02 May 2026 16:09:42
Well, the only questions remaining are how high can we go and who are we going to relegate. Magnificent season from the boys. Trust in the recruitment people, they proved themselves this season, Stach, Okafor, JJ, Gabby, DCL, Bijol, 6 big hits out of 10 recruited. I am sure they will do us proud this market. Off to the beach 😆😅🤣.

02 May 2026 16:47:16
Yep, Davey, those 6 players have been great. 👍 Okafor, especially 2nd half of season.

Loving the Brentford 3 vs West Ham scoreline.

02 May 2026 18:07:27
Gabby - player of the season, hopefully he's not pulled away from us next season.

02 May 2026 20:14:23
Hope Forest go down! Their owner seems like a proper tit. In saying that, I don't really care, because we are staying up!

02 May 2026 20:26:27
Forest will stay up. They've too much quality, and Wood is back, which makes them even better. We need a 20-goal-a-season striker like him next season. Re Gabby. He's on a long contract, so if he does go, it will be for big bucks.

I'd rather he stays, but eventually it will be down to the player. If his head is turned, then it's difficult to keep him, but he won't come cheap.

02 May 2026 20:55:39
Seems a lot of peeps on here think Gabby is player of the season..

Not sure why. Defensively, he is suspect.

02 May 2026 23:49:28
100 % agree. Not even a goal or an assist in the league all season, a few great runs, but no end product. Don't get me wrong, he has been good, but not player of the season for me either.

03 May 2026 00:14:25
Absolutely, Dec.. not even in my top 5 LUFC players of the season.

03 May 2026 05:45:11
Stach for me, closely followed by DCL.

03 May 2026 06:52:09
Good shout, Davey. 👏 Stach's stats are impressive.

For me it's DCL 1st.

Closely followed by Rodon, Stach and Amps in 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Then Okafor and Darlow 5th and 6th in my top six.

03 May 2026 08:02:50
For me, there hasn’t really been one very clear outstanding player of our season.
I would give all our players Player of the Season, as they have all done extremely well, and, more importantly, played as a complete and unified team.


They have all played for each other. We don’t have a team of individual superstars, just hard-working, non-egotistical players who believe in their individual qualities, and, most of all, as a team.

03 May 2026 10:33:07
Absolutely, agree, OP. What we recruited were not expensive superstars, but solid, honest players that had to be the right fit to ensure our biggest weapon, unity. The spirit that DF has cultivated is paramount to what we have achieved. Doubtless there will be speculation about other clubs poaching players, but why would any of them leave? More dosh, I guess, but I would hope some things are more than that, such as an environment you love and enjoy and have an opportunity to grow and achieve with teammates you have a bond with.

Maybe not though. 😆😅