Mighty Leeds Weblog

By Kyle Newbould All of Leeds United’s goals came in a much-improved second-half performance in Chicago. Leeds United rounded off their pre-season tour of the US with a brilliant 4-2 comeback victory over Liverpool on Sunday night. The Whites were two goals down at half-time but a brace from Dominic Calvert-Lewin plus goals from Brenden Aaronson and Sean Longstaff turned the tide. Daniel Farke made four changes from the team that started against Sunderland on Thursday night, with James Justin, Ethan Ampadu, Anton Stach and Daniel James. coming in. Sebastiaan Bornauw, Longstaff, Harry Wilson and Callum Mills dropped to a bench that also included Calvert-Lewin and Aaronson. There was some cause for early concern when Gabriel Gudmundsson took a clattering from Florian Wirtz as the pair challenged for a ball. The Swede fell awkwardly and was badly winded but after receiving some on-pitch treatment, he was okay to continue much to Farke’s relief. Liverpool took the lead inside sev...

Leeds' chairman is making a big career decision James Smailes Head of All Out Rugby League and Yorkshire sport at Reach plc Leeds United chairman Paraag Marathe is set to step down from his role at San Francisco 49ers to concentrate fully on football operations, including as the lead figure at Leeds United. The Leeds chairman is in his 25th year with the NFL franchise and serves as both President of 49ers Enterprises, who own Leeds United, and as Executive Vice President of Football Operations at the American Football team. That second role sees Marathe very hands on with building the large NFL squad each year for head coach Kyle Shanahan, while overseeing all playing matters at the club. He also sits on the NFL's Future of Football Committee. Marathe has juggled those roles alongside his growing responsibilities at 49ers Enterprises, most notably at Leeds United and in a now smaller capacity, Rangers north of the border. However we will mainly just focus on football (t...

By Graham Smyth The Verdict on Leeds United’s 1-0 pre-season win over Sunderland. Leeds United and Sunderland bucked the Premier League trend last season thanks in no small part to their respective success in the 2025 summer transfer window. The newly-promoted pair spent significantly and wisely in order to create teams capable of competing physically and technically in the top flight and they both stayed up. And as they set about recording that difficult second album and taking their squads to the next level, both will hope that they are not trend setters. The ideal scenario is that teams coming up from the Championship struggle as badly as Burnley did last season so that the competition for the three relegation spots is plentiful. Leeds' aim in the 2026 window is to improve the starting XI and in doing so create a squad capable of taking the next step to consolidate top flight status. To that end Tarik Muharemovic and Harry Wilson have been added and both started the friend...

By Kyle Newbould Leeds United enjoyed a first win of their pre-season overnight after beating Sunderland 1-0 in New Jersey overnight. Lukas Nmecha scored the game’s only goal early in the first-half as debutant Tarik Muharemovic impressed. Farke edged towards a stronger line-up compared to that which started last weekend’s 3-2 against Wrexham. Harry Wilson was handed a first start while Muharemovic made his unofficial debut, with Callum Mills the only academy prospect in the XI. Leeds went ahead in rather strange circumstances after nine minutes through Nmecha’s long-range effort. The striker took advantage of Sunderland goalkeeper Melker Ellborg’s poor positioning to find the bottom corner from all of 40 yards, after Ao Tanaka had dispossessed Enzo Le Fee. New signing Muharemovic impressed early doors, showing recovery pace to snuff out a threatening ball in behind and punching passes through the lines. Sunderland had their first big chance midway through the first-half when R...

Leeds United are set to dish out a club record fee for James Trafford, who will bring something they have not had for decades Isaac Johnson Leeds United reporter If you think £40million is a lot for James Trafford, you haven’t been paying attention. Of course, there are risks with Leeds United paying a club record fee. Pressure of price tag, the unbeknownst occurrence of long-term injury, mere underwhelming form. What’s new? It is true Trafford was a second choice and played just 17 games last season - which, by the way, is only three fewer than Perri. But that is total ignorance of the context. The 23-year-old was at a European heavyweight in Manchester City and playing behind a European Championship winner in Gianluigi Donnarumma. Trafford was the man in goal when Man City lifted their two pieces of silverware last season. And then there is his time at Burnley. Yes, second tier, but Trafford kept 29 clean sheets and conceded just 16 goals in 46 Championship games and beat...

Feeling Orny Written by: Calum Archibald The days of Ceefax are long gone, but the number ‘338’ still lingers in my mind, a piece of nostalgia from simpler times. 338 was, of course, the page you’d head to for all of your football rumours and gossip, long before the BBC daily rumours page, 24/7 Sky Sports News and certainly before Fabrizio Romano first fired up his Twitter account. I’ve been obsessed with the machinations of football transfers, and by extension the rumour mill, for as long as I can remember. If you think that sounds like a sad, misspent youth, well, you’re probably right. From the age of six I could tell you precise transfer fees spent on players, who they’d previously played for and whether or not they were the next best thing. Front and centre to that obsession is the humble internet forum, which in Leeds United’s case is the irreverent and deranged WACCOE dot com. It’s a throwback to a different time on the world wide web, when message boards were the inte...