Tempting offers made late tempt fate - The Square Ball 26/1/22
GROUNDHOG JANUARY
Written by: Steven York
The Dan James transfer saga played out like a Greek tragedy
on Amazon Prime. A teary Victor Orta is seen hugging the diminutive winger
tight to his chest. The young lad was already photographed holding the shirt, a
transfer fee was agreed and medical completed. Then, in a digital world where
information and communication is instant, the phones at the Swansea end rang
unanswered. Leeds called and called to no avail. Picture Huw Jenkins, the
Swansea chair, seeing the caller ID on his phone, ignoring it with a smirk,
resolute in his desire not to weaken the Swans. He would be the archetypal
villain in the future retelling of this story.
The hands on the clock crept closer to the transfer deadline
as a pervasive sense of helplessness crept into everyone involved.
“I threw my phone,” James later told ex-teammate Kenji
Gorre, on his podcast, about the moment he learned the move had fallen through.
A four-year contract on the table. A medical completed. Interviews and photos
done. The PR machine ready to launch, fatally wounded by something so simple as
a single decision-maker getting cold feet and refusing to comply.
Pixar’s Inside Out would define this as a core memory for
Leeds fans. Not unlike the ‘Don’t go to bed just yet’ tweet has become part of
the club’s transfer identity. Moments this significant (and disappointing)
typify what we expect of transfer windows. We may turn them into memes and
chuckle at the absurdity, but that’s to hide the pain we all pretend isn’t
real. It sometimes feels like we’re doomed to repeat the Dan James incident,
that plot-line is destined to play out every January like some Yorkshire version
of Groundhog Day.
Leeds have been pursuing Brenden Aaronson quite intently
this window, with the USA international keen on the move but neither him nor
his club pushing for any urgent activity. Salzburg have maintained the stance
that they wish to keep him until the summer and the player has wisely refrained
from commenting much. Rather than pivot to other targets, Leeds seem determined
to see this one through, now or in August.
What this doesn’t really address is the anxious need for
reinforcement this season. With Newcastle approaching the window like
Supermarket Sweep and Watford trying to generate an upward bounce with a
tried-and-tested new manager, standing still feels like a risky strategy. With
Leeds heavily depleting the Under-23s to have something that looks like a first
team, and by-proxy condemning the U23s to their own relegation battle, an
injury-ridden side that was thin to begin with now looks like a single layer of
filo pastry.
It seems unlikely that our luck is going to turn, given
we’re comfortably over the half-way point this season and have struggled with
injuries the entire time. It would be surprising if every player returned to
fitness without setbacks and we finished the campaign without further injuries.
Therefore the opinion of many fans is that some fresh blood wouldn’t be a bad
idea, especially in midfield where we’ve struggled to control games.
It’s difficult to point to this situation being predictable,
as even the most pessimistic people couldn’t have foreseen all five
centre-forward options being injured at the same time, though you could have
argued that relying on Tyler Roberts (who hasn’t impressed many yet) or Joe
Gelhardt (unproven at this level) as the main alternatives to Patrick Bamford
was a risk. I don’t recall seeing anyone suggest planning for a scenario where
all non-Bamford options get injured at the same time as Bamford himself. We
did, however, have a niggling concern before this season that midfield needed
work.
The suggestion now is that Leeds are entirely committed to
securing Brenden Aaronson, to the extent that if Salzburg hold firm we’ll seek
to conclude the deal in summer and sign no-one this window. Perhaps that speaks
to the confidence Marcelo Bielsa and Victor Orta have in the current squad and
whatever information Rob Price can offer about the prognosis of our sizable
injured roster. Indeed, it seems to only be the fans who are stressed about not
folding more established talent into the first team from elsewhere.
This certainly isn’t bad news for the likes of Leo Hjelde,
Lewis Bate and Sam Greenwood, who have had their first-team status fast-tracked
due to the depleted ranks above them. It may simply be that, given the club’s
sole objective is avoiding relegation, blooding the stars of tomorrow in the
process is a win-win. But the clear concern is whether what we have is good
enough to keep our heads above the fight to survive going on beneath us.
It seems surprising that Leeds haven’t changed tack with
transfers considering the awful events surrounding James’ journey to joining
the club. Ignoring the fact it cost us magnitudes more to buy him in the end,
it feels like by moving late in the window we risk disappointment as a result.
In Bielsa we trust, but without reinforcements, we’ve no other choice.