Following Leeds United’s owner Andrea Radrizzani’s recent interview with The Times, fans and the media have naturally latched on to quite a few topics that were covered.
We had the return of the takeover speculation given his comments that potential talks had been whittled down to three groups in particular, with Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s QSI group still involved, one of the other topics he spoke quite openly about was the mistakes that he’d made when it came to our transfer dealings and the contracts that players had been handed.
Especially those who ultimately didn’t work out and have since been moved on at a loss, or in some cases, are back out on loan this year as we look to recoup what we can in loan fees.
Speaking to Football Insider recently, former player and now BBC pundit Noel Whelan decided to name who he felt Radrizzani had potentially broadsided in his comments about ‘still paying the consequences’ of his early decisions.
“He’s basically talking about the players not in the side. You’re looking at Vurnon Anita, Eunan O’Kane, Laurens De Bock, Jay-Roy Grot, Pawel Cibicki, Ouasim Bouy, Yosuke Ideguchi, Felix Wiedwald. They were all handed long-term contracts, and in some cases, Leeds spent major transfer fees. Pierre-Michel Lasogga was also on big money when he was with us. There were a lot of deals that didn’t work out. That happens at every club, but I definitely think Radrizzani was too generous with long-term contracts for players who hadn’t proven themselves. He knows that as well. Plenty of them are still at Leeds, or out on loan, because we can’t get rid of them, or find someone willing to pay the same money. That’s embarrassing.”
I’m not so sure it’s embarrassing really, you don’t have to look far across football for clubs with a small stockpile of players that are drawing a wage or out on loan because they didn’t work out or a new manager simply has different thoughts on what they can bring to their first team.
It is a harsh lesson though and no doubt has played it’s part in our change of approach in the market as we look for promotion into the Premier League under manager Marcelo Bielsa, and whilst not every deal will work out from here on in, Radz has no doubt learned some very valuable lessons that we will benefit from in transfer windows to come.
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