Earlier this week it was confirmed that Leeds United had seemingly accepted an offer during the summer transfer window for centre-half Pontus Jansson.
📢 Jansson wanted to stay
🇸🇪 Leeds United defender Pontus Jansson talks to Sweden's TV 4 @A_Sundberg about cutting out the beers & turning down an offer from Russia. #lufc
👂⏩ https://t.co/GU7AI6LeQW pic.twitter.com/jHhEgwX6QZ
— Adam Pope (@apopey) September 4, 2018
The 27-year-old Swedish international confirmed the interest in him himself in a recent interview with TV4 journalist Andreas Sundberg and the reporter spoke about the conversation with BBC Radio Leeds on Tuesday.
“I asked him about Krasnodar and he said, ‘It was an interesting offer and it was a lot of money but after he thought a lot about it, he wanted to stay at Leeds’.”
Why would he move to career suicide Russia when he can play for Marcelo Bielsa and 32000 at ER every other week…?
— Neil (@OooahhBerardi) September 4, 2018
I’m absolutely stunned that we would accept an offer for him!
— Josh Hobbs (@JoshAHobbs) September 5, 2018
It wasn't a shock that him and Ronnie were banded at 25m the pair. His attitude wasn't what Leeds wanted. Maybe a change of mind now. Let's see
— GARFORTH WHITE 1970 (@1970Garforth) September 4, 2018
Where’s the proof leeds accepted a bid,I am sure Popey would of heard of this offer was accepted?
— bielsa’s lucky blue bucket (@delwright21) September 5, 2018
No.
— Beeston Steve (@Cappy_Steve) September 5, 2018
No where in that interview did it say the club were willing to sell. Yes there was an offer and in football agents are given offers for their client before bids are even accepted. He may have known how much they were willing to offer.
— Parma (@Parma__D) September 5, 2018
I think the club have the approach of “we only want people playing for us who want to be here”
— ???? (@cdog194) September 4, 2018
There was a fair bit of speculation about Jansson over the summer of course, but confirmation that Leeds possibly accepted the undisclosed offer simply caused confusion for many as he has gone on to play a key role in manager Marcelo Bielsa’s start to life in the Championship campaign of 2018/19. It must be said the assumption an offer was accepted could be wide of the mark, all players know of speculated interest in them through agents surely, it doesn’t mean it became concrete.
The key comment in the reactions above for me is the belief that the club did decide to let Jansson choose himself on the basis of finding it completely believable that Bielsa is a man who wants 100% focus and dedication. He’s already shown he can be cut-throat when needed in terms of our best interests of getting a result, but equally, he doesn’t hold a grudge based on a single performance.
So it’s no great leap for me to think he’d take that approach to transfer offers and if a player thinks the grass is greener that’s not the commitment he wants. Whether an approach was made or not, if Bielsa’s thinking is anything like that, he’d have been pleased with Jansson’s choice.