Thirteen players out and barely £4m raised in transfer fees. Jack Harrison’s loan from Leeds United to Everton has only fanned the flames of an Elland Road fire sale lacking the sales.
Seven players have now departed the Whites on loan since the end of last season. Robin Koch, Brenden Aaronson and Max Wober are visiting Germany, Diego Llorente and Rasmus Kristensen are sampling Rome, Marc Roca is taking another look at his homeland, while Harrison may be tempted by an annual pass to The Beatles museum.
How many of that septet will realistically play for United again? Promotion in May 2024 seems to be the only way that door is reopened to any of them, but even then, there’s only a couple with a chance of playing well enough to be welcomed back.
Koch will be out of contract next summer, so he’s effectively done. Llorente, Kristensen and Roca never impressed enough to warrant clamour for their returns, while the manner of Wober’s exit burned his bridges in the dressing room.
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Aaronson would need to play like a £25m-plus attacker with Union Berlin to warrant any further interest from Leeds fans, and even then, most would probably hope United take the money for him. Harrison has more than enough credit in the bank for a return, but it depends if Everton now have an option or if, indeed, Leeds get that promotion.
Ultimately, it’s a lot of players leaving on temporary terms who would not have been missed if they had just gone permanently at the first time of asking. Yes, there is a boost for the Whites in seeing those salaries taken off the books, but supporters are fair in wondering where the transfer fees are.
The bottom line is these clauses in their contracts take the matter out of United’s hands. When their contracts were signed off by Andrea Radrizzani, Angus Kinnear and Victor Orta, Leeds agreed to let them leave on loan in the event of relegation.
Koch signed those terms in the summer after promotion when Leeds in the top flight was the great unknown. Aaronson, Kristensen and Roca were given that agreement in the weeks after the club survived relegation on the final day of 2021/22.
Llorente would get his surprise, new contract in December 2022 with the club 15th and two points clear of the drop zone. Wober was given that clause in a similar situation a few weeks later, two points above the bottom three.
Then Harrison signed his new contract in April when the club were as high as 13th, but still only two points from danger. Interested clubs can now take those players for very little, if any, upfront outlay.
The trouble with relegation is, by definition, everyone involved has had poor campaigns and their values nosedive. It would have been very difficult to break even, let alone make a profit, on any of the seven players who have gone out on loan, with the exception of Harrison, perhaps.
Leeds will hope those players away for the season, apart from an outgoing Koch, now have campaigns which rebuild their value to the point they can be sold for something like the fees they were bought for. And that’s if these loans don’t already have pre-agreed permanent options in them for the clubs that have taken them.
It’s a big ask to expect a group of players who struggled badly last season to suddenly turn it on in new environments. There is one remaining slot on United’s books for an over-21 international loan exit.
Two days after being deemed ‘unavailable’ by Daniel Farke, Dutch media has this morning linked Luis Sinisterra with a return to Feyenoord. On loan.
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