The battle to retain players and a balancing act of release clauses - The Athletic 15/8/23
By Phil Hay
One footballing lesson learned by 49ers Enterprises is that
confident rhetoric follows you around. Promise aggression in a transfer window
and everyone listening will not just look for it, but hold you to that word —
watching closely to see how the reality matches up.
It was there in black and white when ownership of Leeds
United switched to the 49ers’ group from Andrea Radrizzani, present in Paraag
Marathe’s insistence that the new broom would be “as aggressive as we
can”. In addition, though, was the caveat
of needing to be “as creative as we can” and if that was a hint at a
complicated summer ahead, it is proving to be prescient.
An aggressive approach was taken to mean investment in new
players and Leeds, as any fool at Birmingham City on Saturday could see, are
crying out for them. But a key strand of the club’s strategy for this season,
the area of their strategy which has run into trouble, was the desire to be
aggressive with retentions; to keep some of their high-value players, to avoid
losing the calibre of footballer a Championship club would normally lose and
prevent churn that amounted to a total exodus.
The cold truth at Elland Road is that deep down, and
whatever the message they transmitted to the club, most of the footballers
rated as big assets wanted to leave. Max Wober was a perfect example and, in a
sense, the first to warn of what was coming: initially giving the impression
that he was committed to a year in the EFL, only to activate his release once a
suitable bid arrived from Borussia Monchengladbach. Individual players have
avoided talking about their futures among themselves but the atmosphere at
Thorp Arch has been one in which, in the wake of the loss of Premier League
status, so many have been waiting to see what offers came their way.
Back at the end of May, Tyler Adams, Jack Harrison and Willy
Gnonto were three of the names Marathe and the 49ers group were most set on
hanging onto. But two-and-a-half months later, none of those three have been
convinced. Midfielder Adams almost joined Chelsea last week and has been
looking to use his release clause to find a way back into the Premier League,
with Bournemouth pushing to do a deal with him. It allows him to depart for
around £20m, though the clause is believed to be time-limited and does not
remain valid right to the very end of the window.
Gnonto refused to play at Birmingham over the weekend and is
angling for a move out of Elland Road. Jack Harrison joined Everton on a
season-long loan yesterday and there is a wait now to see what happens with
Luis Sinisterra after his absence from the defeat to Birmingham. Leeds are not
so far from a position where the one high-value name they ultimately keep is
Illan Meslier, a goalkeeper they planned to sell were any satisfactory bids to
arrive.
It was not that United did not expect a big clear-out, or
that one wasn’t needed after a horrible season last year. What they did not
anticipate were departures on quite this scale, or such a lack of leverage when
it came to persuading players that it was in their interests to stay on board
and help Leeds compete for promotion. In several instances, United have been
powerless to prevent departures owing to relegation release clauses in
contracts, many allowing players to leave on loan provided the club taking them
agreed to cover the whole of their salary for the campaign ahead. Gnonto downed
tools last week because, in contrast to so many others, his deal contains no
provision like it, leaving Leeds under no obligation to sell him. But Gnonto is
clear that he wants a way out.
The upside to the stream of outgoings at Leeds is that
alongside immediate wage reductions activated by relegation, the wage bill at
Elland Road has dropped further and significantly. Last season it was costing
the club in excess of £10m a month. It has already come down to around half as
much. But consternation outside Elland Road, and with Daniel Farke on the
inside, has been caused by the incessant run of exits on loan, denying Leeds
anything in the way of meaningful transfer fees or fees that represent a big
profit on what was paid for a player in the first place.
Cuts to the wage bill will help with meeting financial fair
play limits in the Championship and there are certain loans that have suited
Leeds on the basis that the players involved — Brenden Aaronson, for example —
might otherwise have been sold at a loss, weakening their FFP position. But the
absence of incoming cash from the market has done nothing to help the club
attack the window. Southampton, in a stark comparison, are set to pull in more
than £100m in the aftermath of their relegation, money that greatly enhances
their chances of returning to the Premier League immediately. Romeo Lavia alone
looks like earning them £60m, a big gain on the £12m that secured him from
Manchester City a year ago.
Leeds are largely powerless to stop players activating
clauses allowing them to accept loan offers elsewhere. Harrison is the latest
to leave on that basis. The Athletic has been told that the reason those
clauses exist or were negotiated in the first place was because United wanted
players there recruited in the Premier League to accept automatic wage
reductions, as high as 60 per cent, if the club went back down. The makeweight
for them agreeing to substantially reduced earnings in the EFL was a separate
clause allowing them to move on – and to move on fairly easily – on a temporary
basis.
United, then under the control of Radrizzani with 49ers
Enterprises in a minority position, needed salaries to drop drastically if they
fell back into the EFL. Transfer targets were willing to accept wage cuts only
if exit provisions existed too. But it is fair to wonder now if United ever
really expected relegation to bite; whether they assumed these clauses would
never have to be confronted. It is also fair to ask how well prepared the club
were for the pressure those clauses would put on them this summer. Farke’s
view, given quite openly and repeatedly, is that the same scenario should
“never happen again the future.”
So many players have moved out on loan that Leeds are
virtually on the threshold of FIFA’s limit that allows a club to send out a
maximum of seven players on temporary deals. That rule applies only to foreign
loans, not domestic moves like Harrison’s. But in the circumstances subsequent
exits might have to be to English clubs or on a permanent basis. As Farke keeps
pointing out, defections from his squad are not what he wants to be talking
about. Incoming transfer business is badly needed. He had an eight-man bench at
Birmingham with two keepers on it. And as he spoke post-match on Saturday
Harrison to Everton was about to gather pace. It seemed unlikely to be the last
outgoing transfer.
It is impossible for Leeds’ hierarchy to paint this as
anything like a satisfactory situation, or to deny that with hindsight it would
have made more sense to establish who was minded to leave much earlier in the
summer. Players can find themselves in two minds and it is not always in a
club’s gift to know if or when offers will actually arrive. Likewise, Farke’s commendable
suggestion that United resist relegation release clauses in future has to
acknowledge the fact that doing so will reduce the pool of players the club can
go after. Footballers at the top level have an extraordinary amount of
bargaining power. But on the question of who in the squad relegated at Elland
Road last season wants to be here, the answer appears to be very few.
Redemption in this window depends now on what Leeds can pull
off in the fortnight remaining. It will take recruitment on a fairly epic scale
to convince their crowd that escaping the EFL might not require a minimum of
two seasons. Farke warned of a “bumpy” start in his very first press
conference. That description is starting to sound more than a little
charitable. He cuts the figure of a manager who wants control but does not have
it, prone to limitations as Leeds try to untangle the web they are in. The
first week of the season has cast them as a club who are some distance from
being ready for it.