Fabrizio Romano: Leeds still waiting on Barcelona

Fabrizio Romano has reported via Twitter, that Leeds United are still waiting on an official proposal from Barcelona.  The verbal bid improved on Sunday night to €72m including add-ons. It is now down to the final, but key step. Raphinha has stayed in England to push the deal whilst The Whites have left for a tour of Australia.

Leeds fans, and everybody else involved in this saga has become increasingly frustrated by the whole thing, and the blame must not lay entirely at the players feet.  He has stated from the beginning that he only wanted to go to Barcelona.  It is the Spanish giants and their money problems that have left this to drag on for weeks.  Rumours that the Catalan club owe money to former players, clubs and wages to employees amount to hundreds of millions.  They are nowhere near the giants in the transfer market that they used to be and have no muscle left to flex in bartering with Premier League clubs for their elite players.

So, we must give credit to the Leeds board, standing firm in their valuation and ensuring they wouldn’t be bullied into losing out on one of their prize assets for a low fee. Leeds had set a deadline of Thursday last week for Barcelona to make their final offer, which has been and passed, but finally now, it looks like it could all be completed, once and for all.

Raphinha was bought from Rennes for £17m, and within 2 years, Leeds look to have made a nice profit on the Brazilian winger.  All that remains to be seen, is the deal being finalised, and Leeds using the funds from the sale to bring in more additions to Jesse Marsch’s squad.

Are Leeds fans happy to see the end of this saga? Who would you like to see the money being used on?

Up Next: Castellanos, right time to move.