Rogic – Elland Road bound?
If Celtic’s Tom Rogic is indeed fed up with coming first in a one-horse race, as the Bhoys continue to dominate their pitifully substandard league, then he could do a lot worse than throw in his lot with a massive, but massively underachieving club in the far more competitive environment of the English Championship. Swapping Celtic for Leeds United would make perfect sense for a dissatisfied player seeking legend status and an enormous challenge.
Rogic is a good player, there’s no doubt about that. With 35 caps for the Australian national team, his credentials are beyond doubt. But creditable performers from north of the border have trodden the path southwards to Elland Road many a time before, and it’s a sad fact that relatively few of these imports have flourished on Yorkshire soil. It’s a step up in terms of the ferocity of competition and also bearing in mind the pressure that comes with playing for a club like Leeds.
Rogic, though, is the type of player United should be looking to sign ahead of what will be a crucial season next time around. The campaign now fizzling out started in a veritable blaze of glory as Leeds stormed to the top of the table, and things looked extremely promising. But a combination of a lack of timely investment and a severe loss of form saw Yorkshire‘s top club plummet from that early high, and the sad fact is that we’ve witnessed another wasted season of crushing disappointment. The owners will know that it’s not been good enough, and a marker must now be put down ahead of the resumption of hostilities in August. The one undoubted high spot this term has been the fantastic support Leeds have enjoyed, if not exactly deserved. Crowds averaging well over 30,000 have been served up some dreadfully bleak fare, and the powers that be at Elland Road must surely be sharply aware that the fans’ patience, always thin, must be on the point of wearing out.
The club’s production line of young talent appears to be in solid working order again, with the likes of Tom Pearce and Bailey Peacock-Farrell staking their claims lately. More is to come from the youth levels of the club, with the likes of Jack Clarke likely to be pushing for recognition sooner rather than later. A few quality signings of the Rogic ilk, together with players like Yosuke Ideguchi and Tyler Roberts fit and raring to go – added to a few judiciously selected departures – would give the squad a leaner, hungrier look for what needs to be a determined tilt at promotion, via the play offs at the very least.
Of course, it’s all been said before, with disappointment ensuing as night follows day. But we have to maintain the hope that, next time, things just might be different. A statement of intent on the part of the club’s board will be required early in the summer transfer window. A player like Tom Rogic might just be the sort of signing that would make that positive intent amply clear.
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
As Celtic fan living in Leeds for many year’s I love to see Leeds winning. However, that means I also know the club well. “Step up” I don’t think so. 60,000 ferocious fans every other week, European football very year, history, trophies and adulation, thats Celtic. Now tell me again what Leeds can offer?
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A much better league. Celtic play in a Mickey Mouse league.
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The championship may be competitive but that’s only because the standard is uniformly average. By all means be proud of your team but do not delude yourself into thinking they represent a step up from Celtic. The last two exports from Celtic were Wanyama and Van Dijk who both went straight to Southampton and they haven’t done too badly have they?
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Morning Rob, I, like many Leeds United fans am struggling to muster any hope or enthusiasm for the coming season with the prospect of PH and Victor Orta remaining responsible for conducting our player recruitment and coaching. Instead of building on last season and turning Elland Road into a fortress, feared by our opponents, it has become a sand castle repeatedly flattened by every wave of attack by our opponents regardless of their current league standing or struggling form.
I wondered if your own “contacts” can confirm whether or not Mr Radrizzani has received a green light response to his letter to the football authorities exploring whether he would be breaching any rules by copying Wolves’ methods of quality player recruitment next season?
The Player of the Season, (POTY), should go to the ever faithful, long suffering and chief revenue stream THE 12th MAN!!! particularly the travelling army who have won the plaudits and admiration of football commentators and rival clubs up and down the country all season. If ever anyone deserved better from their team it is those amazing fans.
Rant over Rob. Hopefully, we WILL recruit players of Rogic’s experience, quality and character but I feel that something has got to change at the club for that to happen. We live in hope as always.
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Couldn’t agree more Rob, he’d be an excellent addition to the squad. It’s important that whoever we bring in is a level above what we have already suffered this season and signing someone like Rogic will make it far easier to attract better players if we finally show a decent level of ambition.
I remain hopeful that, after signing Adam Forshaw, AR is starting to realise that you get what you pay for and we need to be looking at proven performers in the £5m plus bracket. MOT
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The worrying thing is that we are at least six quality, high end championship players short of having a decent chance of promotion.
We need at least two centre backs, at least one quality, robust, ball playing midfielder, one high quality left sided player who is direct and strong defensively, one solid, attacking left back and one quality forward with 20 goals in him.
To finance this and to clear the decks Id sell (as we could get money for these) :-
Alioski (too lightweight and no end product)
Philips (not good enough)
Dallas (not creative enough and no end product)
O Kane (not good enough)
Saiz (too unpredictable to play with, half of the time players around him are waiting for a pass that never comes, i just dont rate him as a team player)
Ekuban (not good enough)
Others like Sacko etc Im not bothered where they end up…simply not good enough for this level.
Size matters in this league…we are tiny in comparison….get big, athletic, competitive championship players and coach them well..job done.
Lastly…dont let Mick McCarthy slip through our fingers….sorry if we keep Heckinbottom we have zero chance of going up.
Sorry to rant…just fed up…I want change but I want it to work as well…this season has been a write off since the Millwall game in September….all our issues evidenced in 90 sobering minutes.
Fingers crossed for next season. MOT
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Rob, love reading your pieces and strongly agree with this one . I have seen Rogic here in Australia and know he will be more resilient than the continental midfielders we have tried and who subsequently have failed to adapt to the Championship’s rigours.
An experienced top class centre back at the back end of his career like John Terry would be the secret ingredient to success.
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I agree with you a good mix of a few good quality signings, some of the youth players add to the mix players with personality and leadership then throw in (or should I say out) some selected departures. This could bring a fresh and hungry team together with a will to WIN at all costs.
I watched the Leeds v Villa match wondering but hopeful how the match would go and I must say those three lads from the U23 side did a sterling job but did the “1st team” regulars take any note and learn from them what determination and I want to win attitude can do to improve their own personal performance.
Those three lads on Friday night in their own individual ways played a damn good game and not one of them allowed the seasoned Villa players to bully them off the ball, they stood up to them and in one instance faced them off and that I was impressed with. They deserve all the applause that comes their way all three of them MOtM for me.
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Rob, the larger problem is the manager – not the players. Under TC, this season, we started well and were leading the League. Had he not achieved that early advantage, Hecky would be leading us back into League One along with sides like Barnsley and Burton. . We’re never going to be able to buy the talent that has led sides like Huddersfield, last year, and Wolves, this year, to the Premiership. We need managerial vision. When we have that, we can begin to dream again.
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It’s quite sweet how outraged Septic fans feel they can send abusive replies amounting to childish tantrums, and have them published. Deluded – but really quite sweet 😆
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Your assessment of Scottish Premier football is partially correct with regards to the competitiveness because Celtic are by far the strongest team, a similar situation to Man City in England. I’m sure the Championship is very competitive, but as Jock Stein observed many years ago, “a league of pensioners can be the most competitive in the world, but that doesn’t mean the quality is there. “
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Was he having a go at Chelsea? 🤔
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Rob, you may be right about Tom Rogic, I don’t know enough about him to form an opinion. That Scottish and Aussie players do well at Leeds has become a bit of a canard. Somehow I doubt that the addition of a single player will make much difference to Leeds’ fortunes. Currently, I’m of a ‘Revie’s Gypsy curse’ mind about performances. Instead of that sudden rush of excitement and expectation of success, whenever Leeds is in a goal scoring position, I have become resigned to the ball ‘hitting the bar’, ‘hitting the post’, ‘going wide’, ‘going into the stands’, ‘going down the goalie’s mouth’, being ruled off-side’…. My loss of belief in Leeds’ ability to win counts for nothing. However, if the team has the same loss of belief then that explains our, never to be recovered, drop in form during the Millwall away game in which Leeds’ delicate confection of continental talents and tactics was chewed up and spat out by the brute reality of Championship football.
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I doubt very much if Rogic would exchange champions league football and the chance to play against Barca, Madrid etc for Championship football and the chance to play against Hull,Birmingham etc. First off we need new owners as well as a new coach. How many more mistakes is AR going to be allowed to make?
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One method to put ourselves into a situation where the likes of Rogic et al will jump at the chance of playing for us would be the glaringly obvious step of re-instating the demonstrably successful English football modus operandi wherein the gaffer truly is the gaffer. Quality players want to play for managers with proven quality and real power within the club. Managers who decide which players are needed, and have the clout to attract the best. A structure which has no need of our ‘Director’ of Football, and which cries out for a Manager with more kudos than our current coach……….
So, I humbly propose a new hashtag for the LUFC faithful
#WOLO
Standing for “We oughta lose Orta”
What d’ya reckon?
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Personally, I’d love a team full of bastards for next season. Don’t care where they come from.
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At least that’d be a recognisably Leeds United team, something we could all get behind.
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