What a great couple of days it’s been.
Three contract signings in a week? They’re just spoiling us at this point. First we had Kalvin Phillips’ deal on Monday, then yesterday we were given a double helping with the signings of Liam Cooper and Stuart Dallas. As the reaction of the fans told you, there weren’t many people complaining about it.
But what struck me most about the contracts isn’t who’s signing them, but rather how long the deals are.
I spoke in the summer about how the signing of young players like Rafa Mujica gave me the indication that Bielsa was going to be in this for a long time, and I get the same kind of feeling when I look at the length of these contracts, whether they be four or five years long. We’ve seen in the past that Leeds don’t exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to managers sticking around for long stretches, but with these deals it looks to me as if Bielsa wants this to be a long term project and wants to do it with the same group of players throughout his tenure rather than changing every year.
These contracts tell me that, despite the slight panic we had in the summer when it was reported that Bielsa could quit as Leeds boss, that the board are throwing their complete and giving him all the resources he wants to build the team that he thinks can compete, not just for this season but well into the future as well.
Now whilst it is always possible that Bielsa could leave the job in one way or another, perhaps because of an offer from a bigger or better club, then these contracts also mean that we have got a fine core of players to build around. So even if we do suddenly lose Bielsa, at least we’ll know that we’ve got a decent squad that the next manager can pick up and carry on with.
What do you think? Do these contracts indicate that Bielsa is here for the long haul? Or do you think this is merely so the foundations are in place regardless of who is in the dugout?