Is it too early to start looking ahead to the January transfer window?
Of course it isn’t, it’s never too early.
Players could get injured, or results might not go too well and you need a fresh intake. However, in Leeds’ case, it looks as if they may be stuck with what they’ve got for the rest of the season.
According to Phil Hay of The Athletic, it looks as if the deal to bring in Eddie Nketiah blew the budget somewhat when it came to the summer transfers. As a result, Leeds are unlikely to make a move for Liverpool winger Ryan Kent.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think Leeds needed to go in for another winger in the last few days of the window, and even though I’m still not totally convinced by the signing of Eddie Nketiah, I’m happy they went down that path rather than pursuing Kent. Although I think it would have been even better if they’d have gone after a centre-back, but you can’t win them all.
Taking it away from Kent though and looking at things on a larger scale, should this be a worrying sign for Leeds? If they don’t have the money to go in and try to sign Kent, does that mean they don’t have the money to and make any signings in January?
Leeds fans were very angry with owner Andrea Radrizzani over not spending money during the last winter window, so are we going to find ourselves in a similar position this time around?
Whilst this doesn’t rule them out of signing any and all players, the fact that they were only willing to pay £5m in instalments for Kent, minus the reported £4m that Eddie Nketiah, means that there’s not a lot of wiggle room if Leeds do find themselves needing to make adjustments in January.
Hopefully Leeds don’t find themselves in the position to have to make signings in January, in an ideal world they’d be 12 points clear at the top of the table and everyone will have a clean bill of health. However, if United do find themselves in a position of having to dip into the market, there may be very slim pickings available for them if they don’t have the budget to attract players who can make a difference.