Mighty Leeds Weblog

Jayden Bogle speaks to LeedsLive in Germany during Leeds United's pre-season training camp and opens up on the reunion with Ethan Ampadu as well as his memory of that Derby County play-off semi-final. Being faced with a fine was not quite the first impression Jayden Bogle wanted to make at Leeds United, but he enjoyed this first week with the club nonetheless. There was a brief chance to meet his new team-mates last Saturday, but as they flew to Germany, he was at Elland Road finalising his transfer from Sheffield United. Once he eventually arrived, later on Sunday, he was reunited with Ethan Ampadu, a former Sheffield United colleague, who promptly asked fines master Sam Byram what the charge was for a late arrival. The Wales international finalised his loan to Bramall Lane in 2020 on the same day Bogle arrived from Derby County. “Eth’s a good guy,” Bogle tells LeedsLive. “A big character in the group. It’s nice to know him coming into the group. He's made it made it a b

By Joe Donnohue Leeds United saw a £3.3 million bid for Austria and Koln midfielder Dejan Ljubicic rebuffed as the German club seek to maximise the player's market value with less than 12 months of his contract remaining at the RheinEnergieStadion. Watch a four-minute highlight reel of Ljubicic during his time at SK Rapid Wien and one might assume the 6ft 2in Austrian international is the perfect, all-round, box-to-box, play-creating central midfielder Leeds have been pining after for years. He can hit it long, switch play with diagonals, thread through-balls into the path of attackers, complete recovery runs with a cleanly-timed tackle, score goals and celebrate as though he's won the World Cup. Sign him. Of course, 'YouTube scouting' is not advised, for any player, as clips are designed to demonstrate a player's strengths in the most positive light with their shortcomings quite literally not making the cut. Leeds' monitoring of the 26-year-old is sai

By Graham Smyth Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford was put through his paces with an intensive fitness session while his team-mates worked on recovery after Wednesday's friendly game. Bamford and Daniel James were joined by rehab and fitness coach Ruben Crespo out on the pitch during the morning session on Thursday at Leeds' training camp. The day began with a team meeting, before the squad were split into groups for various recovery and regeneration activities. But Bamford and James were given much more strenuous work, with neither showing any signs of ill effects from their respective issues that kept them out of the 4-1 win over Hannover. James missed the game as a precautionary measure due to a slight adductor strain, but was twisting and turning fine and receiving passes from Bamford to take on and beat Crespo, after some running and light passing work. Bamford, whose workload has been carefully managed since a minor knee operation on a season-ending injury, stayed

Don't tell anyone Written by: Rob Conlon Such is Leeds United’s commitment to keeping our pre-season tour of Germany a covert operation, they orchestrated an advertising campaign and kit release that meant on the morning of our surprise friendly against Hannover, fans were queuing up outside the club shop at Elland Road rather than the runway of Leeds-Bradford Airport. It was probably for the best. The internet can only cope with so much hype for one day. So whisper it quietly, Leeds weren’t just good in beating Hannover 4-1, they might even have been proper good. After experimenting with an exotic 3-4-3 at Harrogate last week, Leeds reverted to the familiar 4-2-3-1 of last season. New club captain Ethan Ampadu returned to central midfield next to Ilia Gruev, two players thought to be too similar to play alongside each other. The formation was irrelevant for the first thirty minutes, however, as the Peacocks were trialling total football. One minute Ampadu was pressing high u

By Nancy Froston The code #ffd600 meant little to Leeds United fans until, suddenly, it started popping up with greater frequency. An X account with only a handful of followers under the username @smileyffd600 started posting photos of various splashes of yellow around Leeds city centre in mid-June. Pictured were a yellow shop front, a yellow bus stop sign outside the club’s Elland Road stadium and a plain yellow billboard. All the yellow, conveniently, was the exact shade match for the code in that account’s bio. That string of letters and numbers — ffd600 — is also the hex colour code for the specific yellow used in Leeds’ new away kit. As The Athletic revealed in mid-June, there was an expectation the Championship club’s famous ‘smiley’ badge, a stylised version of their L.U. initials, would be used on the 2024-25 season’s away strip. And this mysterious X account seemed to confirm it. In one of the more tantalising kit rollouts for years, a billboard in the centre of the Yo

By Graham Smyth Leeds United are off and running in Germany after a comprehensive win over Hannover 96 that saw a young player stake further claim to a position he covets. Mateo Joseph was on target twice in the 4-1 victory and helped cause further problems for the Bundesliga 2 side, in an impressive second half display. Joseph as one of a number of Leeds players catching the eye, along with newboy Jayde Bogle and midfielder Ilia Gruev, who grabbed himself the opening goal. Here’s the YEP take and some off-camera moments. Good day: Mateo Joseph. Didn't get the start but that rarely matters in pre-season friendlies when so many changes are made at half-time. He was one of those and it took him next to no time to make his mark. His first goal was all about the run in behind the last man and composure to finish. His confidence is clearly sky high at the minute, he looks in great shape and his manager is pleased with what feels like a step up since last season. The second goal wa