The summer is turning into chaos for Leeds United and they have 15 days of the transfer window left to save the situation.
The impending sale of Georginio Rutter to Brighton follows Crysencio Summerville’s departure to West Ham and Archie Gray’s move to Tottenham Hotspur, meaning United will lose three valuable players. It’s a blow to Daniel Farke’s hopes of building a team capable of challenging for promotion, but the slow arrival of replacements is making his task increasingly difficult.
Compared to the squad restructure following last year’s relegation, this summer should have been a lot more calm and methodical for Leeds, but that hasn’t been the case. While there have been new arrivals in the form of Joe Rodon from Spurs (£10m), Jayden Bogle from Sheffield United (£5m), Alex Cairns from Salford (unknown but small fee) and Joe Rothwell from Bournemouth (loan), more new signings are needed for this not to be seen as a poorly managed transfer window.
Farke has long wanted more depth in the form of a central midfielder and a full-back. He also wanted another winger to compensate for Summerville’s departure. An attacking midfielder or No. 10 will join that growing list as the deadline day approaches.
Gray and Summerville have left the club, while Rutter is close to a move to Brighton (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Leeds’ situation looks pretty desperate given their strong position ahead of the transfer window. Those three high-profile departures have cost the club around £105m – Brighton will pay £40m for Rutter – but that doesn’t put them in the best negotiating position with takeover targets. Everyone knows they need to find new players and should have the money to pay a reasonable fee.
After a near-perfect pre-season, Leeds now have a weaker squad, failing to win their first two games and conceding six goals. Defensive weaknesses cannot be attributed solely to player departures, with Summerville and Rutter filling attacking roles, but the change in mood in the stands at Elland Road is hard to ignore.
“When I signed the contract (as manager) a year ago, I wasn’t aware that this could happen, but when you look at the contract details, you obviously become aware of it,” Farke said of Rutter’s likely exit. “To be fair, 12 months ago you couldn’t predict that someone would activate the release clause. I won’t mention the amount, but make sure it’s a reasonable amount. It’s just because of the work Georgi has done over the last 12 months and the work we’ve done with him as a club to create value with him.”
“We all hoped that we wouldn’t have to talk about this clause because we hoped it wouldn’t be activated. We are not motivated to have the biggest bank account in this league. We want to have the best team and we wanted to have Georgi Rutter, we tried everything to achieve that. But a contract is a contract and you have to stick to what you signed in the past.”
Losing last year’s Championship player Summerville was to be expected. It was the preferred method of solving profit and sustainability (PSR) issues. Leeds needed to make a decent sale before the June 30 deadline, but no one came forward for him by then. Gray – who of the three big departures would have been the easiest to convince to stay at the club – was instead sold for a fee of between £30m and £40m.
It was an unpopular but necessary sale, prompted by Spurs as it triggered a release clause in Gray’s contract. In theory, however, this should have meant United could keep their best players. But those release clauses have cropped up twice more as both Summerville and – soon – Rutter have been promoted to League One.
Leeds will have to atone for their old mistakes to some extent this transfer window. Farke has spoken publicly about the way Leeds structured contracts during their time in the Premier League. The release clauses meant there was always a risk of buying players now and paying for them later. After relegation and a failed first attempt to win promotion, this looks like paying for it later.
Farke has hinted that Leeds need reinforcements (George Wood/Getty Images)
But United is also unlikely to spend all of its revenue at once, given the cautious approach taken by 49ers Enterprises’ owners. This strategy will not sit well with everyone, particularly given the number of departures and the unpopular decision to sign Red Bull as a shirt sponsor this summer. But it risks proving damaging unless there is a lot more revenue to offset these setbacks.
Leeds still have time to get what they need, but the closer the deadline gets, the harder it will be for them to get the players they want. Plus, clubs become dependent on players when the pressure to sign increases, as Leeds discovered when trying to stay in the Premier League. The inclusion of Rutter’s release clause is said to have been important in securing his signing from Hoffenheim for a club-record fee in January 2023. Fee.
Leeds’ total revenue this transfer window is around £140 million. The rest of the Championship’s spending combined is around the same, according to data from Transfermarkt. United knew they had talented players worth a lot of money who would attract interest this transfer window. They knew they would have to make sales and they knew that losing the play-off final at Wembley would come at a price, but they did not expect to face the second day of the season without their three best players on the pitch – and still looking for replacements.
The price of that Wembley defeat is more painful and alarming for a team with promotion ambitions than most fans could have imagined. Leeds have 15 days left to fill the gaps in the squad or risk this season being defined by this summer’s disastrous talent drain.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
