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Business at the front, disaster at the back: How well did Leeds do in the window? – Opinion

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Have we all calmed down now?

The summer window is finished and we can all get on with our lives, for a few months anyway before we do the whole thing again in January.

Until then, let’s dissect what went on in the past couple of months, because boy there was a lot of it, but I’ll try to keep it short.

The best bit of business: This will vary depending on personal preference, but personally for me I think it was the re-signing of Jack Harrison on loan from Manchester City. I said that the key changes were going to come from Marcelo Bielsa’s approach to the season and the changes he made from last campaign was going to dictate success rather than new signings, so to keep some level of continuity in the side was going to be crucial. Having made a good impact last season, he’s already made a good start to this one with his goal at Ashton Gate on the weekend, so let’s hope for more of the same moving forward.

The worst bit of business: I think this one is pretty obvious. Whilst the loss of Pontus Jansson was baffling, I think the sale, and to an extent, the replacement of Kemar Roofe could be one of the riskiest moves the club has made in some time. Letting a striker go is common, selling your top scorer might be a little bit riskier, but failing to replace him with someone proven at this level is dangerous and ‘lacked ambition’ as I put it. Over to you Patrick Bamford, our entire goal threat rests on your shoulders.

Overall: It’s going be a little bit touch and go. I’ve been very vocal in the past that I think the squad is a little bit too thin, particularly at centre-back, but Marcelo Bielsa has himself said that he prefers to keep a thin squad. So I suppose we won’t be sure if this window has worked out until the end of the season. If everyone stays injury-free and Leeds get promoted, then I’ll concede defeat. However if we get a repeat of last year’s plague of bumps and bruises, then we could be in for a very long season.

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