Daniel James | Leeds player

elmo

Can never have too many Eevees
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
13,402
Location
AKA: Slapanut Goat Smuggla
Shrewsbury Town did not rate Daniel James. Shrewsbury Town. So he went to a League One club on loan, they cast their eye over him in training, watched him run down blind alleys, fall over and generally be useless in a Daniel James kind of way, and then after requesting his footballing services for the season, took the wise decision to entrust him only with the Shrews' drinks bottles, cones, and bibs.

Fast forward five years and he has played for Manchester United and something like 40 million has changed hands over the course of two transfers between Manchester United and Leeds. And now he's going to the fecking World Cup.

It gives you a weird admiration for the coaching staff at Shrewsbury Town.
That tells you why they're in League 1 :lol:
 

Marwood

Full Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2021
Messages
4,345
IIRC, our record with James on the field was excellent. Our decline last season coincided with selling him. He used to shut down the right side attacks with his pressing, and coupled with AWB it means people didn’t come down our right side. We had plenty of other players who could score.

I expect ETH to come up with new solutions, but I think we badly missed him when he was gone. We had just enough to press teams a bit when he was here, when he left it fell apart.
There's a whole list of things our decline coincided with.

It doesn't necessarily mean any of those things caused the decline.
 

11101

Full Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2014
Messages
21,320
Shrewsbury Town did not rate Daniel James. Shrewsbury Town. So he went to a League One club on loan, they cast their eye over him in training, watched him run down blind alleys, fall over and generally be useless in a Daniel James kind of way, and then after requesting his footballing services for the season, took the wise decision to entrust him only with the Shrews' drinks bottles, cones, and bibs.

Fast forward five years and he has played for Manchester United and something like 40 million has changed hands over the course of two transfers between Manchester United and Leeds. And now he's going to the fecking World Cup.

It gives you a weird admiration for the coaching staff at Shrewsbury Town.
Yeah, shows why they're in League One when they have a PL talent come through their ranks and they bench him. James would absolutely tear that league apart.
 

Beans

Full Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
3,515
Location
Midwest, USA
Supports
Neutral
There's a whole list of things our decline coincided with.

It doesn't necessarily mean any of those things caused the decline.
Yes, that would be the logical fallacy "post hoc ergo propter hoc".
 

Gandalf

Full Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Messages
4,811
Location
Alabama but always Wales in my heart
Comments that he is just championship level are pretty unfair, he is better than a number of established PL players and this can be true whilst also admitting he was not anywhere near good enough to be a regular for United. I never get the desire of some to dump on the lad when for the price we paid he was worth a flyer, did have some good games for us and moved on happily with no fuss for a tidy profit after a couple of seasons. We could do with a few more deals this bad.

With regards to how he plays and functions in a team, I watched almost every minute he played for Leeds and also naturally all of his games for Wales and the most obvious conclusion to draw is that he needs a target man up front to get the best out of him. With Wales he has Kieffer Moore to play off and he understands his role and is very effective within his limitations. I do think he would have had a far better season with Leeds if Bamford had not been injured so much. Leeds lack of a back up striker meant that Dan was played as the striker in a ridiculous number of their games and that is not his game at all so it is harsh to judge his performances there when he was played so far out of position. For next season, if Bamford is fit and if either Gelhardt or another emerges as a reliable back up then I think Dan will have a much better year.
 

GlasgowCeltic

Full Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
Messages
5,347
if they blow the Raphina money on more Dan James’ they’ll be down and won’t be coming back
 

sugar_kane

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
3,508
It's been pointed out a few times but James started every big game for us under Ole, including the 3 times we beat City in one season (in front of fans, before anyone says it doesn't count...)

His departure and Ronaldo's arrival was the moment Ole sold out on what he had been working towards on the pitch - which might not have been what many people here wanted, but it was a significant moment all the same.

That he started the weekend he was sold said it all - and some sources have suggested this contributed to many players starting to seriously doubt Ole had a clue what he was doing.

None of the above is intended to suggest James is top quality, but teams don't need to be made up entirely of superstars. They need workers and James is that.
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Messages
22,936
Location
Somewhere out there
Shrewsbury Town did not rate Daniel James. Shrewsbury Town. So he went to a League One club on loan, they cast their eye over him in training, watched him run down blind alleys, fall over and generally be useless in a Daniel James kind of way, and then after requesting his footballing services for the season, took the wise decision to entrust him only with the Shrews' drinks bottles, cones, and bibs.

Fast forward five years and he has played for Manchester United and something like 40 million has changed hands over the course of two transfers between Manchester United and Leeds. And now he's going to the fecking World Cup.

It gives you a weird admiration for the coaching staff at Shrewsbury Town.
It’s a weird twist to claim Shrewsbury were right to reject a guy who’s later done very well in the Championship, played for Manchester United, Leeds & is going to a World Cup with Wales.

I mean, 99.9% would say Shrewsbury were morons, but I appreciate your attempt at crow-barring it in their favour.
 

Trex

Full Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2019
Messages
3,043
Location
Nigeria
It's been pointed out a few times but James started every big game for us under Ole, including the 3 times we beat City in one season (in front of fans, before anyone says it doesn't count...)

His departure and Ronaldo's arrival was the moment Ole sold out on what he had been working towards on the pitch - which might not have been what many people here wanted, but it was a significant moment all the same.

That he started the weekend he was sold said it all - and some sources have suggested this contributed to many players starting to seriously doubt Ole had a clue what he was doing.

None of the above is intended to suggest James is top quality, but teams don't need to be made up entirely of superstars. They need workers and James is that.
One thing is having workers another thing is Dan James, for example Valverde fit that box at Madrid but he isn't lacking in quality at all, we're suppose to rival teams like that but we'll never do with a player like James playing regularly or semi regularly.
He looked bang average for a side that barely escaped relegation.
 

OmarUnited4ever

Full Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2021
Messages
3,444

Very strange, I thought he was an important player for Leeds, what happened there?
 

Ali Dia

Full Member
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
14,346
Location
Souness's Super Sub/George Weahs Talented Cousin

Very strange, I thought he was an important player for Leeds, what happened there?
Bielsa signing. New manager probably doesn’t want to press as much or they made a singing in his position and don’t want James to lose value being a rotation player. Doesn't look great for him but he’s still quite young
 

DWelbz19

Correctly predicted Portugal to win Euro 2016
Joined
Oct 31, 2012
Messages
34,061
Interesting to loan a player out to one of your direct competitors to stay up. Both clubs have started well but it’s a long old season
 

11101

Full Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2014
Messages
21,320

Very strange, I thought he was an important player for Leeds, what happened there?
From the way the BBC live feed was talking yesterday, there were a few clubs after him and it was a case of clubs wanting him rather than Leeds wanting rid.
 

DannyCAFC

Full Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2014
Messages
2,426
Supports
Charlton Athletic
DanGerman. :lol:

Terrible pun, terrible player, terrible club.
 

WeePat

Full Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Messages
17,421
Supports
Chelsea
Championship player being passed around between PL clubs.
 

The Corinthian

I will not take Mad Winger's name in vain
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
Messages
11,888
Supports
A Free Palestine
Dan German is like Pauldy Son.
 

redshaw

Full Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2015
Messages
9,714
Great bit of business for once.

Still I think he can be become quite an effective player in a counter attack system. He even looked promising in general in his first 5-8 games for us on the left and produced some good shots on goal that seem to vanish afterwards like he forgot how to play.
 

RedDevilCanuck

Quite dreamy - blue eyes, blond hair, tanned skin
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
8,432
Location
The GTA
Leeds played him up top at times when Bamford was out. He can't play there.

He's actually very good for wales on the left.
 

SAFMUTD

New Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
Messages
11,787
I mean the treble was good, but selling the "dangerman" for 30M that was pure Bliss.