We only have 16/17 outfield players. No nod should be needed

16/17 outfield players and 4 or 5 of them are nowhere near good enough and a couple more are still very young to play 20+ games a season yet which says it all about how the board have handled this.
And how Kinnear keeps his place on the Board as I`m pretty certain he would have been involved in the contract negotiations that took place whilst Orta was there.
Seems Brighton were aware that they had until Wednesday to activate the clause in Rutters contract.
Does that mean his agent has been touting his services?
Makes the sale of Archie Gray even more bizarre imo.

and activated it at 11.59 pm.....

I agree no nod SHOULD be needed but it obviously has to

It says on Leeds Live that Rutter knew of the offer before he took the field last night but asked to be played.

That's what agents do.

I'm really down and frustrated by this sale, in particular, and all the optimism I had has all but gone. But I'm not as angry about the release clauses as most. They're a normal and very common part of football, and I doubt any player would agree to sign a contract with a team in a relegation battle, or a team outside the PL without one.

I just wish they'd get a move on and sign some players.

I'm with you. it's not the goings it's the lack of incomings, let alone quality ones

Same here mate. Im feeling very deflated about it all. I was looking forward to this season and looking forward to the games and now it’s gone. Good grief the board have some serious work to do now to bring back the feel good factor. A lot of the fan base are now utterly bemused.

The whole squad knew of the transfer apparently. I wonder if that was a factor you know. It will have damaged confidence and spirit

rutter had some magic moments but was also a liability at times. imo if, and it's a big if, the right player is signed then he is replaceable

Szmodics off to Ipswich by looks of it. Sky reporting they’re trying to finalise a deal

Not easy to do in 2 weeks. They can’t even replace Summerville in good time

that's my worry

Szmodics deal to Ipswich nearly done. Honestly what a joke. The owners need to front up here and bloody quickly. Elland rd crowd will go nuclear soon.

Probably just as well we are away from home this Saturday otherwise the atmosphere could be toxic.
Szmodics would have been ideal in the Rutter role but once again we sit on our hands like we did with Moore who is in a different class to Bamford and Piroe.
One theory about how we played last night could be down to the team knowing Rutter was leaving and it affected them on the pitch.
He is highly rated and thought of by the players so you never know.
Just a thought not an excuse.

Giving Rutter a £40m buyout clause when he cost £30 odd million made it a very risky deal for Leeds with not much upside.

Signed at Xmas but both Marsch and Sam would not play him in a team sinking into relegation. Came good last year but not much profit made.

Presume Gnonto has an exit clause as well, if Everton come back in we will really be in a mess.

We are now in a weak position yet again as everyone knows we desperately need players, have money and running out of time.

don't think gnonto has a clause or it would have been triggered by now.
rutter was around £25m plus add ons but apparently very few add ons have been met.
Ipswich can offer premier league football and higher wages. simple as that

It's been widely reported in last couple of days that Gnonto doesn't have any release clause. Penny for his thoughts though... his two best mates have just left. Plus Gray gone... he and the squad must wonder what the plan is.

Joe Donahue's article yesterday in YEP is very stinging of the current situation and the Owners silence. Says it's time for them to give a clear message and strategy to fans at very least. They're creating bad feeling. Also questioning their end of season and early transfer window messages to fans. Worth a read and it's spot on.

We'll get a message/interview from the owners after the window shuts, like we have done for the last few years. Personally, I don't mind the silence, I understand the anxiety, and I definitely want deals done, but there's no need for fans to know everything.

I will say though, a lot of the reasons fans are confused is because the YEP have been either putting out information that they haven't properly verified, or replying to people on twitter with their assumptions, which people then take as gospel. Frankly, the YEP and the local journalists, in general are no more reliable than any others, and have been becoming less and less reliable ever since we were promoted.

Graham Smyth said the credible source is at the club who gave them the information basically lied to them to try keep the clause details quite. He got told last year Summerville had a release clause but then this year the same club source denied it.

Fans don't need to know everything, that's not the point. But, we need to know what's going on following the sales of Gray, Summerville, Rutter. They need to calm the storm. Why didn't they tie Rutter down to a new contract with a release clause next year once Gray and Summerville went... they know he had a release clause and Brighton had bid twice for him a few weeks ago... they've let him go here... they've either seen the pound signs or its gross bad management. The red bull money was meant to keep our best players (bar 1 or 2 needing to be sold). They were Marathe's words.

This offseason was meant to be the settled one with a couple of key players sold and heavily invest, in Marathe's own words after the bomb shell of Gray being sold, to get us the best squad we can to get us automatically promoted.

We've now sold our best 3 players, with only 15 days left in the window and need to bring 4 or 5 quality players in. We are playing catch up yet again at the start of the season with 4 tough games coming up.....

We've only got 19 senior players currently. We've gone from promotion favourites to possible playoff contenders. Other clubs will know we are desperate now and takes away our negotiation power. They will have to pull 4 quality rabbits from the hat and very quickly..

I'm not convinced by Smyth's reasoning. This has happened several times now where he's said he was given the information from a club source, only for it to change fairly quickly. Either, he needs to get a new source, or he needs to stop printing unverified information. Also, I'm pretty sure contractual information is private and confidential, so it's illegal to disclose an individual's employment conditions, so anyone in the media who says a player has a clause or not should be taken with more than a pinch of salt.

At the end of the day, any club outside of European qualification is a potential selling club, this is especially true for clubs outside the top 5 leagues. There's simply no money in these leagues, and they're not very attractive propositions to the majority of players, especially a league as long and gruelling as the championship.

What more do fans expect, really? Yes, we're a big club, but we're subject to the same rules and challenges as any other club in our position. Our best players will all want to leave eventually, and most will have some clause in their contracts. It's just the reality of where we are. Do we really need an explanation about these transfers when it's pretty self explanatory?

I'd rather the club just shut up and get on with trying to sign some players, that is the only thing that will really calm the fans down.

Interesting that we are the second highest club in Europe for player transfers this window.
It`s understandable the fans want answers having been promised an investment in the squad by Paraag in order to get us promoted.
It shows either naivety or negligence not tying Rutter down to a better contract especially as we tried to match the offer he got from Brighton albeit too late.
I agree that we should not be privy to what is going on behind closed doors and the only way to appease the fans it to bring in at least 4 new quality signings hopefully before our next home game.
Failure to do it by the end of the transfer window will be a disaster.

To be fair regarding offering Rutter a new contract, contracts take months to negotiate, so even if they offered him a new deal at the end of last season, they probably wouldn't have agreed it by now. Anyway, I bet most fans wouldn't have expected anyone would pay 40m for him. A lot of fans (not me) wanted to sell him last year when Lyon and Dortmund were offering 25m.

Anyway, it's done and we have to move on. Lot's of hard lessons to learn for all involved, even us fans.

I would have been happy to see him go during his time at the club along with Gnonto.
If we could bring in players with experience for 10/15 million then the days of Rutter, Summerville, Gnonto will be a thing of the past.
My worry is we end up panic buying, spending 15/20 million and we are worse off then we were 2 years ago.
I would like Johnstone from Palace as our next keeper but Farke is too loyal to Meslier
The same goes for Bamford and Piroe who I thought at the time was a good signing but don`t think he fits the position Farke wants him to play.
Play him as an out and out 9 as he is too slow as the10.
Now if we beat the Baggies tomorrow all will be forgiven!

Yep spot on

Mike McGrath confining Leeds are looking at Jack Clarke closely and it’s one to watch

He'll go to the PL. Spending 25m on a player in the championship is probably the equivalent to spending 100m on a player in the PL. I just don't see it happening