Marked for Jacob Render
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crystal Palace have kept their man, and Leeds United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Leeds United will try again when the window opens; Monterrey may not be selling by then.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 9 in, 5 out at Leeds United
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Anton Stach falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jean-Mattéo Bahoya and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
International break empties Leeds United
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Ao Tanaka
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Leeds United asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$3.6M settles it between the clubs for Ben Nelson
Leicester City have accepted the money. What Leeds United do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Manchester City for Anton Stach was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to New England Revolution this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Rivaldo Mothiba comes from SuperSport United for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jaka Bijol and Leeds United agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jaka Bijol in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leeds United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ao Tanaka wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leeds United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market10 Aug 2026
Wigan Athletic pay $440.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Leeds United asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Leeds United have gone to SuperSport United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Anton Stach wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leeds United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Harry Wilson and Leeds United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Anton Stach and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaka Bijol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Leeds United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leeds United, another week without a signature from Jacob Render.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Leeds United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.