leedsunited.com 31/8/10
NUNEZ SIGNING
Leeds began transfer deadline day by agreeing a deal with Honduran international Ramon Nunez.
The 24-year-old, who can play in midfield or attack, signed-on for United after impressing manager Simon Grayson and his staff sufficiently during a month-long trial.
Nunez, who has made regular appearances at international level for Honduras played in this summer's World Cup finals.
United have received a work permit for the player who first joined United on a trial basis at the start of August. He scored in a friendly match against Bradford Park Avenue.
LUBO OUT ON LOAN
Central defender Lubomir Michalik today joined League One side Carlisle United on a loan deal until January 3.
The 27-year-old Slovakian international was a regular choice at centre back for Leeds during the first half of the 2008-2009 season but struggled to retain his place in the side once Richard Naylor joined from Ipswich Town.
Michalik first came to Leeds on loan from Bolton Wanderers in 2007 and in 2008 he signed a permanent deal with United.
SHEEHAN LEAVES LEEDS
Another departure from Elland Road today was defender Alan Sheehan, whose contract with United was cancelled by mutual consent to allow him the chance to join League One side Swindon Town.
Alan had limited opportunities at Leeds last season and spent the majority of it out on loan - first with Oldham Athletic and then Swindon, where he reached the play-off final with the Robins.
He began his career with Leicester City and played on loan at Mansfield Town before joining Leeds in January 2008.
UNITED SIGN CLAYTON
Leeds today agreed a deal with Manchester City to sign England Under-20 international midfielder Adam Clayton on a permanent basis for an undisclosed fee.
The 21-year-old Manchester-born player initially signed on loan for United on Friday, August 6, and made his debut for the club 24 hours later against Derby County at Elland Road on the opening day of the season.
Now United have made the deal a permanent one, manager Simon Grayson saying: "He has only had a couple of brief appearances and he is desperate to try to break into the first team here.
"He is a young developing player and we haven't got too many players in the 19, 20 and 21 age group who we think we can work with and make them better. With Adam we feel we have got someone we can work with," added the boss.
Clayton, who has six England Under-20 caps to his name, joined Manchester City as a youngster and earned his first professional contract at the beginning of the 2008-2009 season.
At the end of that season he signed a two-year extension to his contract and though a promising young player he found his route to first team football at mega-rich City blocked by big-money signings.
Although he earned a place on City's subs bench on a couple of occasions he was not called into action. He went out on loan to Carlisle United last season where he made 36 appearances and scored three goals during his time at Brunton Park.He was among the Carlisle goalscorers when we lost out to the Cumbrians in last season's JPT Area Final.
Yorkshire Evening Post 30/8/10
Let's keep our cool, says Grayson
By Phil Hay
BOSS Simon Grayson insisted talk of a promotion push at Elland Road was premature after a 1-0 victory over Watford sent Leeds United into the Championship's play-off positions.
Grayson played down the significance of United's early-season form, describing a return of seven points from the opening month as a "positive start" but refusing to give any credence to a league table which is four games old. A Richard Naylor goal earned Leeds a second successive league win at Vicarage Road and brought United to the first international break of the season with only one defeat sustained from their Championship fixtures to date.
United hold sixth position, three points short of the top of the division, but Grayson said: "The only importance of that is being sixth after 46 games.
"We want to be somewhere near there at the end of the season and I've set my players the target of getting promotion, like every other manager in the division will have done. But what I wanted was for us to make a positive start and we have."
Grayson said United's haul of seven points had not exceeded his expectations of the club's squad but admitted a passage of positive results, including a draw at Nottingham Forest and a victory at home to Millwall, had left his players in no doubt about their ability to compete with the vast majority of the teams in the Championship. Leeds and Watford produced a forgettable spectacle at Vicarage Road, but United succeeded in defending Naylor's sixth-minute strike and left the field to jubilant acknowledgement from the 2,199 supporters who filled the away stand in Watford.
"There's always a high expectancy level at this club," Grayson said. "The players have to handle that. All you can ask of them is to work hard and to perform.
"Our fans have big levels of expectancy and they'll be happy to have seen us make a decent start but by no stretch of the imagination have we achieved anything.
"We'll try to play things down, and we came to Watford as underdogs. We're new to the division and they've been in it for a few years. It's new territory for us and we'll achieve whatever we can.
"We've only had four games and many teams have been in our position before and then fallen away. But what I didn't want was for us to be in or around the bottom three and the players can believe now that they're able to compete in this division."
United's squad were due to be given time off this week with the current break for international fixtures delaying the resumption of the club's term until September 11.
The interlude should allow Robert Snodgrass and Billy Paynter to edge closer to a full recovery from injury, increasing the depth of a squad which is growing stronger by the week.
Grayson said: "I'll work the players hard when they're in training but they'll also get a chance to have a breather and a few days off. The games will come thick and fast when the season starts again."
Yorkshire Evening Post 30/8/10
Leeds avenge Watford woes
By Phil Hay
WATFORD'S idea of setting the tone on Saturday was showing footage of Leeds United's humiliation in the 2006 Championship play-off final. Never let it be said by anyone at Vicarage Road that Leeds are guilty of clinging to old glories.
Wistful reflection was rife for many years at Elland Road but obsessing with bygone eras is no longer United's style. Six games into the season, they are not even dining out on promotion from League One, the most recent peak in their 90-year history. The club seem content with their present circumstances and, for now, unhindered by a more illustrious past.
Promotion gave Simon Grayson protection against an inhospitable welcome to the Championship, a means of keeping himself in credit and favour in the event that the transition between divisions found him wanting. Over the short distance of four league matches, he has not gone so far as thinking about that defence, let alone using it.
He and his players entered the season's first international break on Saturday with seven points accrued, a total increased by a match in Watford which will fall into the category of forgettable fixtures. It was nothing like a forgettable result.
Grayson professes to ignore league tables while so few games have been won and lost, and he was underwhelmed by Leeds' ascension to a play-off position over the weekend. An under-developed division can always deceive, he said. But the statistics do not lie.
No amount of self-deprecation will lead United's manager away from the telling fact: that only four squads in the Championship have had a better month than his. One belongs to a London club seemingly laden with cash; another consists of the flesh of a team who participated in last season's play-off final. As for Millwall, the comparison drawn with Leeds last weekend was deeply unflattering for them.
The concerted brilliance of United's victory over Millwall on August 21 ran the risk of setting exacting standards for Grayson's squad. A consensus of voices talked afterwards about the most complete exhibition of football witnessed in the whole of his tenure. In failing to break the club's stride, Watford were still able to send Leeds away from Vicarage Road with a more sober mind.
Richard Naylor's sixth-minute goal, the defining moment on Saturday, gave rise to an impromptu rendition of 'Leeds are going up' among an away crowd in excess of 2,000. To what extent that stemmed from the euphoria of Naylor's finish or from genuine conviction about the 42 games ahead is unclear, but the sound of Grayson discussing a defensive masterclass after full-time was a warning to anyone counting their chickens.
United's manager might delight in and rail against rash talk of promotion on the terraces: it is confirmation that the club's most searching critics – their own supporters – are warming to the season, but a failure also to see August in context.
Grayson will address the play-offs at a carefully-chosen time, most likely around Easter if his club hold a good enough league position to allow him to do so.
At Vicarage Road, he discovered that Watford – one of the few Championship clubs unbeaten after three games – are another side with whom Leeds can expect to compare favourably. He witnessed also the true aptitude of a defence who essentially settled a game of dubious quality and no panache. Naylor's goal was only as important as his tenacity inside his own box. United's captain cast his influence over the entire contest, as precise with his positioning and tidy with his defending as he has been for many months. He and Neill Collins defended a goalkeeper in Kasper Schmeichel who showed the handling skills of a circus juggler and the dominance of a lion tamer. He more than either of Leeds' centre-backs was the pain in Malky Mackay's neck.
Ten days ago, Millwall manager Kenny Jackett was impressed enough by Schmeichel's distribution to single him out for positive comment. Mackay witnessed a different area of expertise, helpless on the touchline as United's bargain signing of the summer swallowed cross after cross. Watford's attempts to rattle Grayson's players and test the surety of their single-goal lead were belittled by an impervious keeper.
Schmeichel's afternoon was busier that it seemed likely to be when Naylor scored after six minutes. His goal was the profit gained from United's first spate of attacks, culminating in efforts from Luciano Becchio, Bradley Johnson and Jonathan Howson.
Scott Loach stopped the first with his fingertips and was protected by a mass of bodies when Johnson and Howson tried to attack him, but he was in no position to rescue Watford when Lloyd Doyley glanced a header towards his own goal.
Becchio nodded the loose ball at Loach, whose parry dropped apologetically to Naylor's feet. The defender – a striker in his younger years – had drifted far from his usual stamping ground and was only too happy to strain an open net.
Eight minutes later, Sanchez Watt missed the cue for a second goal when his header from Lloyd Sam's cross bounced across Loach and wide of a post. Grayson could not have know then that Watt's header would be United's last clear opportunity beyond the spate of half-chances that arose after the interval.
He had taken the decision to turn back to the line-up he used against Millwall, a choice afforded to him by Sam's recovery from an ankle injury. But the most telling decision related to Watford's team and the inclusion or otherwise of Danny Graham.
The striker sustained a groin strain in a Carling Cup fixture last week, and Mackay was unable to recall him against Leeds.Without Graham, an equaliser eluded Watford throughout their flourish at the end of the first half and their passages of dominance in the second.
Marvin Sordell dipped a header over United's crossbar and John Eustace, playing against the club he nearly joined in May, scuffed a shot into the advertising hoardings after striking the ball with his shin.Schmeichel earned his win bonus by gathering another Sordell effort and punching Eustace's header off his goalline, but pleased though Grayson must have been to reach half-time with the tide threatening to turn, his team's resistance was not a re-enactment of the Alamo.
The second half promised little and offered less. Schmeichel dealt with Jordan Mutch's shot along the ground but earned more appreciation for the improvised, shoulder-height volley with which cleared Paul Connolly's backpass from his six-yard box.
Grayson ensured that Watford would not be allowed to chase the game unhindered by calling up Max Gradel and Ross McCormack, United's new signing, from the bench, and Loach kept his team in touch by blocking Bradley Johnson's volley and diving at the feet of McCormack as the forward chased Johnson's bouncing header 17 minutes from the end.
Leeds braced themselves for Watford's final throw of the dice but, in keeping with their day, it stuttered to a halt after four minutes of injury-time. "We huffed and puffed," Mackay said, "but on another day we come out of that with a draw."
Grayson avoided hyperbole, willing only to acknowledge the mileposts of a second league win and a first clean sheet in a league game away from Elland Road since December of last year. In the programme printed before United's Carling Cup tie against Leicester City, he and his chairman suggested that the start of October was the best time to start worrying about results and tables, but both men will like what they see with August ticking away.
NUNEZ SIGNING
Leeds began transfer deadline day by agreeing a deal with Honduran international Ramon Nunez.
The 24-year-old, who can play in midfield or attack, signed-on for United after impressing manager Simon Grayson and his staff sufficiently during a month-long trial.
Nunez, who has made regular appearances at international level for Honduras played in this summer's World Cup finals.
United have received a work permit for the player who first joined United on a trial basis at the start of August. He scored in a friendly match against Bradford Park Avenue.
LUBO OUT ON LOAN
Central defender Lubomir Michalik today joined League One side Carlisle United on a loan deal until January 3.
The 27-year-old Slovakian international was a regular choice at centre back for Leeds during the first half of the 2008-2009 season but struggled to retain his place in the side once Richard Naylor joined from Ipswich Town.
Michalik first came to Leeds on loan from Bolton Wanderers in 2007 and in 2008 he signed a permanent deal with United.
SHEEHAN LEAVES LEEDS
Another departure from Elland Road today was defender Alan Sheehan, whose contract with United was cancelled by mutual consent to allow him the chance to join League One side Swindon Town.
Alan had limited opportunities at Leeds last season and spent the majority of it out on loan - first with Oldham Athletic and then Swindon, where he reached the play-off final with the Robins.
He began his career with Leicester City and played on loan at Mansfield Town before joining Leeds in January 2008.
UNITED SIGN CLAYTON
Leeds today agreed a deal with Manchester City to sign England Under-20 international midfielder Adam Clayton on a permanent basis for an undisclosed fee.
The 21-year-old Manchester-born player initially signed on loan for United on Friday, August 6, and made his debut for the club 24 hours later against Derby County at Elland Road on the opening day of the season.
Now United have made the deal a permanent one, manager Simon Grayson saying: "He has only had a couple of brief appearances and he is desperate to try to break into the first team here.
"He is a young developing player and we haven't got too many players in the 19, 20 and 21 age group who we think we can work with and make them better. With Adam we feel we have got someone we can work with," added the boss.
Clayton, who has six England Under-20 caps to his name, joined Manchester City as a youngster and earned his first professional contract at the beginning of the 2008-2009 season.
At the end of that season he signed a two-year extension to his contract and though a promising young player he found his route to first team football at mega-rich City blocked by big-money signings.
Although he earned a place on City's subs bench on a couple of occasions he was not called into action. He went out on loan to Carlisle United last season where he made 36 appearances and scored three goals during his time at Brunton Park.He was among the Carlisle goalscorers when we lost out to the Cumbrians in last season's JPT Area Final.
Yorkshire Evening Post 30/8/10
Let's keep our cool, says Grayson
By Phil Hay
BOSS Simon Grayson insisted talk of a promotion push at Elland Road was premature after a 1-0 victory over Watford sent Leeds United into the Championship's play-off positions.
Grayson played down the significance of United's early-season form, describing a return of seven points from the opening month as a "positive start" but refusing to give any credence to a league table which is four games old. A Richard Naylor goal earned Leeds a second successive league win at Vicarage Road and brought United to the first international break of the season with only one defeat sustained from their Championship fixtures to date.
United hold sixth position, three points short of the top of the division, but Grayson said: "The only importance of that is being sixth after 46 games.
"We want to be somewhere near there at the end of the season and I've set my players the target of getting promotion, like every other manager in the division will have done. But what I wanted was for us to make a positive start and we have."
Grayson said United's haul of seven points had not exceeded his expectations of the club's squad but admitted a passage of positive results, including a draw at Nottingham Forest and a victory at home to Millwall, had left his players in no doubt about their ability to compete with the vast majority of the teams in the Championship. Leeds and Watford produced a forgettable spectacle at Vicarage Road, but United succeeded in defending Naylor's sixth-minute strike and left the field to jubilant acknowledgement from the 2,199 supporters who filled the away stand in Watford.
"There's always a high expectancy level at this club," Grayson said. "The players have to handle that. All you can ask of them is to work hard and to perform.
"Our fans have big levels of expectancy and they'll be happy to have seen us make a decent start but by no stretch of the imagination have we achieved anything.
"We'll try to play things down, and we came to Watford as underdogs. We're new to the division and they've been in it for a few years. It's new territory for us and we'll achieve whatever we can.
"We've only had four games and many teams have been in our position before and then fallen away. But what I didn't want was for us to be in or around the bottom three and the players can believe now that they're able to compete in this division."
United's squad were due to be given time off this week with the current break for international fixtures delaying the resumption of the club's term until September 11.
The interlude should allow Robert Snodgrass and Billy Paynter to edge closer to a full recovery from injury, increasing the depth of a squad which is growing stronger by the week.
Grayson said: "I'll work the players hard when they're in training but they'll also get a chance to have a breather and a few days off. The games will come thick and fast when the season starts again."
Yorkshire Evening Post 30/8/10
Leeds avenge Watford woes
By Phil Hay
WATFORD'S idea of setting the tone on Saturday was showing footage of Leeds United's humiliation in the 2006 Championship play-off final. Never let it be said by anyone at Vicarage Road that Leeds are guilty of clinging to old glories.
Wistful reflection was rife for many years at Elland Road but obsessing with bygone eras is no longer United's style. Six games into the season, they are not even dining out on promotion from League One, the most recent peak in their 90-year history. The club seem content with their present circumstances and, for now, unhindered by a more illustrious past.
Promotion gave Simon Grayson protection against an inhospitable welcome to the Championship, a means of keeping himself in credit and favour in the event that the transition between divisions found him wanting. Over the short distance of four league matches, he has not gone so far as thinking about that defence, let alone using it.
He and his players entered the season's first international break on Saturday with seven points accrued, a total increased by a match in Watford which will fall into the category of forgettable fixtures. It was nothing like a forgettable result.
Grayson professes to ignore league tables while so few games have been won and lost, and he was underwhelmed by Leeds' ascension to a play-off position over the weekend. An under-developed division can always deceive, he said. But the statistics do not lie.
No amount of self-deprecation will lead United's manager away from the telling fact: that only four squads in the Championship have had a better month than his. One belongs to a London club seemingly laden with cash; another consists of the flesh of a team who participated in last season's play-off final. As for Millwall, the comparison drawn with Leeds last weekend was deeply unflattering for them.
The concerted brilliance of United's victory over Millwall on August 21 ran the risk of setting exacting standards for Grayson's squad. A consensus of voices talked afterwards about the most complete exhibition of football witnessed in the whole of his tenure. In failing to break the club's stride, Watford were still able to send Leeds away from Vicarage Road with a more sober mind.
Richard Naylor's sixth-minute goal, the defining moment on Saturday, gave rise to an impromptu rendition of 'Leeds are going up' among an away crowd in excess of 2,000. To what extent that stemmed from the euphoria of Naylor's finish or from genuine conviction about the 42 games ahead is unclear, but the sound of Grayson discussing a defensive masterclass after full-time was a warning to anyone counting their chickens.
United's manager might delight in and rail against rash talk of promotion on the terraces: it is confirmation that the club's most searching critics – their own supporters – are warming to the season, but a failure also to see August in context.
Grayson will address the play-offs at a carefully-chosen time, most likely around Easter if his club hold a good enough league position to allow him to do so.
At Vicarage Road, he discovered that Watford – one of the few Championship clubs unbeaten after three games – are another side with whom Leeds can expect to compare favourably. He witnessed also the true aptitude of a defence who essentially settled a game of dubious quality and no panache. Naylor's goal was only as important as his tenacity inside his own box. United's captain cast his influence over the entire contest, as precise with his positioning and tidy with his defending as he has been for many months. He and Neill Collins defended a goalkeeper in Kasper Schmeichel who showed the handling skills of a circus juggler and the dominance of a lion tamer. He more than either of Leeds' centre-backs was the pain in Malky Mackay's neck.
Ten days ago, Millwall manager Kenny Jackett was impressed enough by Schmeichel's distribution to single him out for positive comment. Mackay witnessed a different area of expertise, helpless on the touchline as United's bargain signing of the summer swallowed cross after cross. Watford's attempts to rattle Grayson's players and test the surety of their single-goal lead were belittled by an impervious keeper.
Schmeichel's afternoon was busier that it seemed likely to be when Naylor scored after six minutes. His goal was the profit gained from United's first spate of attacks, culminating in efforts from Luciano Becchio, Bradley Johnson and Jonathan Howson.
Scott Loach stopped the first with his fingertips and was protected by a mass of bodies when Johnson and Howson tried to attack him, but he was in no position to rescue Watford when Lloyd Doyley glanced a header towards his own goal.
Becchio nodded the loose ball at Loach, whose parry dropped apologetically to Naylor's feet. The defender – a striker in his younger years – had drifted far from his usual stamping ground and was only too happy to strain an open net.
Eight minutes later, Sanchez Watt missed the cue for a second goal when his header from Lloyd Sam's cross bounced across Loach and wide of a post. Grayson could not have know then that Watt's header would be United's last clear opportunity beyond the spate of half-chances that arose after the interval.
He had taken the decision to turn back to the line-up he used against Millwall, a choice afforded to him by Sam's recovery from an ankle injury. But the most telling decision related to Watford's team and the inclusion or otherwise of Danny Graham.
The striker sustained a groin strain in a Carling Cup fixture last week, and Mackay was unable to recall him against Leeds.Without Graham, an equaliser eluded Watford throughout their flourish at the end of the first half and their passages of dominance in the second.
Marvin Sordell dipped a header over United's crossbar and John Eustace, playing against the club he nearly joined in May, scuffed a shot into the advertising hoardings after striking the ball with his shin.Schmeichel earned his win bonus by gathering another Sordell effort and punching Eustace's header off his goalline, but pleased though Grayson must have been to reach half-time with the tide threatening to turn, his team's resistance was not a re-enactment of the Alamo.
The second half promised little and offered less. Schmeichel dealt with Jordan Mutch's shot along the ground but earned more appreciation for the improvised, shoulder-height volley with which cleared Paul Connolly's backpass from his six-yard box.
Grayson ensured that Watford would not be allowed to chase the game unhindered by calling up Max Gradel and Ross McCormack, United's new signing, from the bench, and Loach kept his team in touch by blocking Bradley Johnson's volley and diving at the feet of McCormack as the forward chased Johnson's bouncing header 17 minutes from the end.
Leeds braced themselves for Watford's final throw of the dice but, in keeping with their day, it stuttered to a halt after four minutes of injury-time. "We huffed and puffed," Mackay said, "but on another day we come out of that with a draw."
Grayson avoided hyperbole, willing only to acknowledge the mileposts of a second league win and a first clean sheet in a league game away from Elland Road since December of last year. In the programme printed before United's Carling Cup tie against Leicester City, he and his chairman suggested that the start of October was the best time to start worrying about results and tables, but both men will like what they see with August ticking away.
