This hasn’t been a perfect transfer window, but Leeds aren’t going backwards despite the quiet summer - The Athletic 27/8/21

By Phil Hay

To properly explain the dynamic of recruitment at Leeds United, it helps to revisit a conversation that took place in the January transfer window of 2020.

Marcelo Bielsa was short of a striker — unexpectedly short, after Eddie Nketiah’s request to terminate what was meant to be a season-long loan from Arsenal — so Victor Orta made quick work of lining up deals for Billy Sharp and Glenn Murray. Both were available and whoever Bielsa picked, he would be getting a forward with promotion from the Championship on his CV. Realistically, he would be getting goals too.

Bielsa thought about it, and said no to both options. In the system he favoured, and set against the criteria he had for a striker, neither player was a good fit.

It sent Leeds down a path that led to Jean-Kevin Augustin’s door (another story entirely) and caused some nervous amusement at Elland Road. They were at a crucial stage of the season so nothing was very funny but it was hard not to laugh at Bielsa sticking to philosophy at the expense of the gift horse.

Leeds, in his three and a bit years, have never signed a player without Bielsa’s green light. Orta retains every one of his scouting reports but where players such as Sharp or Murray are concerned, the debate is not worth labouring once the Argentinian rules it out. The size of the squad is his decision too, even when people on the inside feel anxious about the lack of bodies. August last year, when they signed Diego Llorente, was a rare occasion where Orta felt compelled to make the argument that having an extra centre-back was worthwhile insurance.

There have been examples this summer of how that relationship continues to flow.

Orta took a keen interest in Noa Lang, a goalscoring Ajax winger, but Bielsa was not so sure. Headlines followed but an offer did not and Lang has joined Club Bruges instead. The same went for Matheus Cunha, Hertha Berlin’s Brazilian forward.

How far Leeds could have pushed their budget in this window is a moot point (Cunha’s transfer to Atletico Madrid this week will cost the Spanish champions over £25 million) but the club have the dual task of establishing a budget and meeting Bielsa’s tight specifications in a market where the players who fit it best often carry high valuations. Bielsa pays attention to prices and has been known to recommend that Leeds avoid certain deals. As one source told The Athletic, in no way would Joe Willock from Arsenal for the £25 million Newcastle reportedly paid this month have interested him at all.

If there is any frustration at Elland Road about the current window, it primarily relates to their bid for Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher.

Had Gallagher taken a loan to Leeds over the one to Crystal Palace he chose, their business would have been as good as done by the end of July, save only for the possibility that a winger would tempt Bielsa late on.

At the stage where Leeds’ interest in Gallagher emerged, Orta was optimistic about persuading him to sign. Within a few days, the signals from Gallagher’s camp indicated that he was swaying towards moving across London to Selhurst Park, helped by the promise of more games (or more starts) under new Palace manager Patrick Vieira. Losing the midfielder Bielsa had been chasing from the outset was an undeniable disappointment.

Leeds then turned to Lewis O’Brien of Championship neighbours Huddersfield Town but soon hit an impasse over the 22-year-old’s fee — they value him at £4 million, Huddersfield want no less than £8 million. There is no sign of either club shifting from those positions and the attitude at Elland Road is that they do not need O’Brien enough to make the extra money worth paying.

There are other players out there — a source in London told The Athletic that Leeds turned down an approach offering them Harry Winks on loan from Tottenham Hotspur — but Bielsa’s comments last week were as good an indication as any that the club are likely to let the deadline pass.

That Leeds themselves see room for another central midfielder in the squad is hardly in dispute.

They tried to sign Michael Cuisance from Bayern Munich last summer and came within a medical of paying £18 million for him. They would have happily borrowed Gallagher and, if Huddersfield’s demands for O’Brien were lower, they would be doing that deal. Holding off is a conscious decision and, to an extent, a risk, even with Adam Forshaw’s recovery from injury showing green shoots.

As Bielsa said, he does need more players (albeit not many by his own preferred headcount). But equally, he has a squad whose past form allows him to maintain confidence in them.

A few days ago, I tweeted to say that Leeds’ only remaining incoming signing was likely to be Leo Hjelde, an 18-year-old Celtic defender yet to play for their first team who will join the under-23s (the area where recruitment has been most intense this summer). Added to that was the news Ian Poveda was about to join Blackburn Rovers of the Championship on loan for the rest of the season.

There are some voices out there who seem genuinely panicked by the limited activity but one of the overriding words on my feed was “boring”. And £13 million Junior Firpo from Barcelona aside, this window has been restrained. The £11 million spent on Jack Harrison, which should prove great value, is harder to advertise as an acquisition when he’s spent the last three years on loan here from Manchester City.

Orta will see it differently after all the time spent chasing Gallagher and O’Brien, not to mention the analysis of players including Lang who did not actually attract a firm bid, but, in plain sight, Firpo is the signing who is going to make a difference in the here and now.

Anyone looking for an explosion in the transfer market was not about to be blown away here. But it is, very much, the summer window Leeds served notice of when they said a year ago that their big outlay after promotion would mean lower expenditure 12 months down the line. Recruitment is necessary in every close season but it is also true that if your scouting department and head coach know what they are doing, major recruitment need not be an annual event.

The changes in this window do not scream “Big step forward”. And the reality with Bielsa is that all of the progress made under him has come in big steps, starting with Leeds skinning newly-relegated Stoke City 3-1 on that sunny Sunday afternoon in August 2018. But this window does not point to a big step backwards either and if there is concern on the outside, it is probably less to do with the fear of the squad running into trouble over the coming months than the possibility of impetus slowing, even if the slowdown is only temporary.

A thought occurred the other day as teeth were gnashing over a lack of action.

People have come to expect things of Leeds United again.

Which in itself is a good sign.