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KEBE ON LOAN
The Malian international, Jimmy Kebe, has been placed on loan to Leeds United. He will remain at Elland Road for the next 5 months.
The experienced winger who is 29 years of age at the moment hasn’t played regularly for his parent club Crystal Palace in the ongoing season. He has just made 6 appearances for them till now.
But, at Leeds, he can expect to be given playing chances quite often simply because he has a great tuning with the Whites boss Bryan McDermott. The duo had worked together at Reading FC.
According to the reports, if Kebe performs well during his loan spell at Elland Road, he might be signed on a permanent basis next summer.
Kebe has been playing in England since a long time. He had been signed by Reading FC in 2008 and he played for them for 5 years. Last summer, he made an away move from there and joined Crystal Palace, but, his debut season at Palace didn’t go as well as he would have expected it to. He played very few matches and whenever he was sent on the pitch, he looked struggling.
He would be hoping that change in club brings change in fortunes for him and he manages to put up some good performances at Leeds United.
McDermott was ecstatic while confirming the loan signing of Kebe yesterday. The Leeds manager said, “I know Jimmy for a long time and I am a great admirer of him. He is one of those guys who always put the team ahead of themselves.”
“It’s great news for us that he is arriving. His experience is certainly going to help us.”
The Whites are currently at no. 8 in the Championship table with 35 points in 24 games.
Lucas Radebe confirms his interest for Leeds United
Lucas Radebe, the former captain of Leeds, has confirmed that he is one of those who are looking to purchase he club. Earlier on Saturday, the owner of the club GFH Capital denied an offer from a group believed to include Lucas Radebe.
According to reports, on his website, the forty four year old stated that he is a part of a consortium that has submitted a preliminary indication of interest regarding the acquisition of a stake in Leeds. They expect carry on their recent discussions confidentially.
Radebe, the former South Africa international, has played in two hundred and one league matches for Elland Road club from 1994 to 2005. He was a part of the Whites team which reached the semi finals of the 2001 Champions League.
There were reports that his consortium also had the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire Gary Verity that helped attract the first stages of Tour de France 2014 to the county. Radebe told that they would like the scope to explain both the substance of their proposal, and their plan for working with GFH Capital to carry on the rebuilding program at the club.
In the mean time, Scott Wootton has been winnowed out of Leeds’ match against Middlesbrough. He is suffering from an ankle injury that could keep the player on sidelines for many weeks. This means that Marius Zaliukas, the Lithuania footballer, would make his full debut for Leeds United on Saturday.
LEEDS FACE READING
Leeds United manager Brian McDermott will be taking his team to face former club Reading during the weekend, and it is a visit that he is very much looking forward to this weekend. McDermott was responsible for getting Reading into the top flight in 2012, but he was unable to prevent the club from facing relegation. Even though he had been in the top flight for only a few months, the club decided to relieve him of his duties by sacking him close to the end of the campaign. They were unable to prevent the club from going down anyway even after the appointment of a new manager.
It did not take long for McDermott to find new job as the manager of Leeds United, who are regarded as one of the promotion challengers this season. Leeds also have one of the biggest budgets in the Championship, but they will be coming up against a Reading team that has the benefit of parachute payments. Leeds have started the season in disappointing fashion and they are currently well below the play-offs position. Reading, meanwhile, are on the edge of making it into the top six.
Despite the contrasting nature of the two teams when it comes to form, it is expected to be a closely fought encounter.
“It would be wrong of me to say that this game does not mean a lot to me of course it does. I spent such a large part of my football career at this football club and the supporters were really good to me. The people around the club were really good to me and I did the best I could at the football club day in and day out every day so my conscience is clear as far as that is concerned and I think I made them a lot of money,” said McDermott.
IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED
Leeds United manager Brian McDermott has said that his players need to improve substantially in order to the first-team regular when the season eventually begins in two weeks time. Leeds United have been experiencing mediocre form in the pre-season. As a result, the club recently suffered a defeat against Walsall in a friendly match. Leeds will be opening the new Championship season with the match against Brighton. Even though the club will be without Gus Poyet as their manager, Brighton are still expected to carry on the form from last season.
McDermott has revealed that he is yet to decide on his first 11 because none of the players have impressed him in the pre-season matches. According to him, the first team places are still up for grabs and the players still have sufficient time to impress him. Leeds United appointed Brian McDermott as a replacement for Neil Warnock. McDermott has been given the task of getting the club back into the Premier league. One of the main problems in the pre-season so far has been a lack of workrate and energy according to McDermott, but he reckons that this will improve as the season progresses.
He wants the players to show that they want to be in the first team.
“It’s up for grabs (for the Brighton game), and we need to nail that down and take it for the first game of the season. There will be different players playing on Tuesday. I think what we have got now is that every player has played a certain amount of game time, but obviously come the Nurnberg game things will change again. I know these guys can pass it and are good players, but without the ball we have to be much better,” said the former Reading manager who was back in the job shortly after his sacking from Reading.
PROMOTION CHALLENGE
Leeds United manager Brian McDermott has said that he is looking to prepare for the promotion challenge next season from now itself. The safety of the club in the Championship was recently confirmed after the recent round of results in the division. Even though he was defeated in his first match as the Leeds United manager, McDermott has overseen a campaign in which Leeds United will be guaranteed Championship football next season due to results from other grounds going their way. The club was expected to challenge for promotion under Neil Warnock, but it never really materialised.
The former Reading manager said that he is extremely delighted with the fact that the club’s position in the championship has been secured for another season. Since their safety secured, he can concentrate on looking at players to sign for next season. The club are expected to strengthen over the summer with some of the current players being sold in order to generate the transfer funds. McDermott already has the experience of getting promoted into the Premier league to the automatic play-offs position as he did the same with Reading.
However, he was sacked by the club a few months ago after a poor run of results left them bottom of the table.
“We’re definitely safe in this league now and I’m delighted with that. The players have given us everything. That was job number one, two and three. I put myself on the line to come in at that stage of the season so that was the job. It was A, B and C – one, two and three and we’ve done that now and we’re all delighted that we’re now mathematically safe and can move forward. There’s no point talking about us playing ok and still lost the game, you don’t win championships by just playing okay,” said McDermott.
WARNOCK STUTTERS
The former QPR manager Neil Warnock took over as the manager of Leeds United last year and he was given the task of getting the team promoted into the Premier league. So far, he has failed to achieve the targets because Leeds United are several points behind the automatic promotion spot, while they are a few places below the play-off position as well. This has led to the intense criticism of the manager from the Leeds fans in recent weeks, while there has also been turbulence surrounding the future of many star players like Luciano Becchio.
Yet, the manager has said that he does not have any regrets about coming to Leeds United. The future of Warnock has also been thrown into doubt following the arrival of new owners. Despite this current position, the manager has said that he expects the signings made in the January transfer window to come good in the next few months. He has also said that he is extremely delighted with the club and its history. However, there will be always a few fans who cannot be pleased. Warnock hopes to even win them over the coming months. Leeds United managed to win three matches on the bounce, which overcame the poor form in December.
“Over the years I’ve had one or two interesting jobs that haven’t been easy. I’d put this in that category. I’ve had more takeovers than just about any other manager, three out of the last three clubs I’ve been at, and to keep the ship here sailing as it is isn’t an easy job. There’s a lot more involved than people realise and that’s why I always say that all you can do is your best. All managers are expected to deliver. It goes with the territory,” said the Leeds United manager.