Eddie Nketiah - Arsenal to Leeds on Loan - A review and my thoughts on the transfer window - and Kalvin is staying!!

As the Transfer window slams shut for Premiership and Championship teams today, Leeds managed to bring in a further two loan players to bolster a slightly depleted squad after a huge number of exits this close season.

Marcelo Bielsa said upon his arrival at Leeds that he liked to work with a small dedicated squad and liked two players in each position, or with similar skills. He saw problems with motivation for teams with larger squads where players third in line for a spot became disenchanted and thus understandably, had issues maintaining their motivation.

So today, due to the sale of Bailey Peacock-Farrell to Burnley two weeks ago and of Attacking midfielder, Kemar Roofe to Anderlecht this week, we brought in a young goalkeeper from France's Ligue 2 and an extremely promising 20-year-old striker from Arsenal, Eddie Nketiah. But first....

Kemar Roofe left because ?..........

Fill in your own blank here! This one came as a huge surprise to me and after a lot of thought, I can only think that Kemar wanted a change of scenery and Leeds wanted to cash-in on a sometimes injury-prone player with only a year left on his contract.

My personal opinion is that its a good bit of business for all concerned. Kemar gets a chance to play in the Jupiter League with a club steeped in history and a legacy of being one of Europe's top clubs and Leeds make a £3 million profit and get a high earner off the books.

Thanks for wearing the white shirt and best wishes with Anderlecht, Kemar

I think Kemar will thrive in Belgium, although I am not sure if he will become a 'forgotten man' out there in regards to any possible future England call-up which I am sure is at the back of his mind. He is now 26 and at his peak.
In his 3 seasons with us, he made 120 appearances and scored 32 goals which if I'm being honest, isn't all that impressive. I think our view of him is slewed slightly after his heroic 2 goals in injury time against Villa last season to give us a win where defeat seemed nailed on!

Kemar comes over as a thoroughly decent bloke and I wish him nothing but best wishes and success in his future endeavours and will watch his career with interest.

We will always have Villa!

My first impressions of Eddie Nketiah

Earlier this week, it looked certain that Eddie would join Bristol City. Leeds were chasing down Liverpool striker Ryan Kent and although Eddie's name was mentioned, I certainly didn't expect to see him putting pen to paper today, but that is exactly what he did and he is now a Leeds player for the season.

Bristol City fans are understandably doubly unhappy! After last Sunday's drubbing, they have been out in force today moaning on Twitter. It's safe to say that Leeds are not their favourite team right now but seriously, what would you do?

Option A - Play in front of 40,000 passionate Leeds fans under the guidance of the world's best coach, Marcelo Bielsa
or
Option B - Play in front of 20,000 Bristol City fans under the 'guidance' of Lee Johnson

It's a no-brainer, Bristol Fans need to be realistic as to their clubs' status compared to Leeds. Its just football!!

But can he play?

After spending the last hour reading up and watching clips, the answer to that is an emphatic 'yes'. He is just 20 yet has 3 starts and 18 sub appearances for Arsenal under his belt along with nine goals in 10 appearances for their development squad. I would say that this is a match made in heaven, he can play wide, as an attacking midfielder or as an out and out striker which is the kind of flexibility our tight-knit squad needs.

Last season, Leeds with their high-intensity aggressive possession style of football had the biggest average possession figures and the most shots in the league with an impressive tally of 735

He also dribbles well and will thrive on the possession Leeds have and the goal-scoring opportunities that will present themselves to him!

First video interview with new signing Eddie Nketiah

Working with Marcelo will also have been a huge draw! This is one great signing for everyone I think and the Arsenal fans on Twitter are agreeing that it's the best move for him!

So in Conclusion?

I'm actually really impressed with the work done and the player ins and outs this window. We have got rid of a lot of deadwood and allowed development squad players who were struggling to make the first team fringes to leave and further their careers elsewhere. This has got to be mutually beneficial to both Leeds and the likes of Sam Dalby and Tyler Denton.

We also finally got shot of Samual Saiz off the books, Jay Roy-Grot is back on loan in his homeland and despite losing fan favourites Kemar Roofe and Pontus Janssen, our incomings seem to have us in a very strong position, especially after last Sundays 3-1 demolition of Bristol.

Other brilliant news. Kalvin is staying. After all the rumour and gossip and big-money bids, our local hero is staying. Top man. Just shows there are some players left with integrity!

I am now feeling extremely confident. This is not something I am used to feeling as a Leeds fan for many years!

One game down, forty-five to go!

It just shows how far Leeds have come under Bielsa when suddenly we are attracting the likes of Helder Costa, Jack Harrison and now, Eddie Nketiah to our club, even if only on loan but from top Premiership teams like Man City and Arsenal. Leeds are the talk of the town but next season when we are back in the Premiership, I'm not sure such assistance will be quite so forthcoming!

Marching On Together

nathen007 #lufc #mot

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