This week we check in at Elland Road to see how things are shaping up for Leeds United in their preparations for the Championship and we speak to Dylan Oakley from Derby World about how the Rams preparations for the new season.
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00:00 Hello and welcome back to Everything But The Prem, the show that is less Jack Greenish
00:10 and more Jack Tucker. I'm Chris Holt and this week we check in again at Elm Road to
00:14 see how things are. We're going to start off on Leeds United because it's always busy
00:17 there no matter what's been going on. I think the last time we checked in there we
00:23 were about to have a takeover of that. It's obviously since been ratified by the EFL. Joe
00:30 just take us through a little bit on what's been happening since, maybe a little bit of
00:34 a kind of background into who the new owners are. Well I say new, they're kind of, for
00:43 Leeds United fans they're going to be well known because they've been around the club
00:47 but maybe not so much elsewhere. Yeah, it's the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers,
00:55 49ers Enterprises, headed up by Parag Marath who has been involved with the 49ers for around
01:04 20 odd years, has been sort of their president and he's now the chairman of Leeds United.
01:11 He's the guy that has been seen in the promotional material shall we say from the takeover that
01:19 was confirmed on I think it was last Monday. It's now inclusive of a few star names, they're
01:32 minority shareholders. You've got the likes of Michael Phelps, you've got the likes of
01:37 Russell Westbrook, an NBA star and then a couple of golfers as well, Jordan Spieth and
01:42 Justin Thomas are involved with the ownership group at Leeds now. They don't have a say
01:49 on sort of the day to day running of the club or board matters but they have put their money
01:55 where their mouth is so to speak and yeah they've got on board with Leeds. Yeah I mean
02:04 the takeover is through and Daniel Farker at the weekend after the friendly defeat to
02:10 Monaco he was saying thank God that's been done because now we can really push on and
02:15 move forward with our transfer business because so far it's been a lot of outgoings, predominantly
02:22 on loan as well. I think Rodrigo, at the time of recording, Rodrigo is the only player that
02:27 has left for a fee and that was only three million to El Rayyan in Qatar and a real throng
02:36 of first team players have left on loan which is, I don't know, it's been interesting to
02:43 see the rationale behind that. I think there are some contract clauses which following
02:49 relegation do allow the likes of Mark Rocca, Rasmus Christensen, Robin Cock all to leave
02:57 on loan for the season. But yeah, they need to get on with acquiring some new players
03:06 essentially because the season is fast approaching, it's the first game of the season, I think
03:13 it's going to be a busy August.
03:15 Another team in a different division who have a lot expected of them this season is Derby
03:20 County in League One. They just fell short last season but they are one of a number of
03:30 teams this year who are expected to be up there challenging for promotion again. Dylan,
03:35 I'm going to bring you in, how have things been going this summer so far with Derby County?
03:42 I think there's mixed results. Pre-season has been steady, I think to say the least.
03:48 There's not been anything that has discouraged Derby fans of the fact that we can push for
03:56 promotion this season but there is still a lot of work to do and I think the coaching
04:00 staff have been quite vocal on that. We still need to bring in more players. We've made
04:06 a few good signings, I think the likes of Joe Ward from Peterborough, he'll fit into
04:13 Paul Warren's system very well because he tends to like wing-backs. In the few pre-season
04:20 games that he's played so far, I think he already has two, three assists just from crosses
04:26 into the box. That's something that we can really capitalize on. And then I think Sonny
04:32 Bradley, the centre-back from Luton, I think was a fantastic signing. In my opinion, I
04:39 think he should really be playing in the Championship. To see him come down to Derby, I think really
04:45 shows the sort of draw that they've got as a club in terms of bringing in new players.
04:49 But there are still a lot of holes to fill. I think strike is the big one. We've brought
04:55 in Connor Washington but the issue is the team already had James Collins from last season.
05:03 [Music]