Ollie Watkins and Leeds: The Sliding Doors missed transfer that feels like a ‘What if?’ — The Athletic 13/7/24
By Nancy Froston
Ollie Watkins and Leeds United had their Sliding Doors
moment back in the summer of 2020.
With Leeds freshly promoted to the Premier League, Watkins
was under serious consideration as an attacking option to bolster Marcelo
Bielsa’s side for their first top-flight campaign in 16 years.
There was an early plan when it came to recruitment after
winning the Championship title — Leeds would go up and recruit the best talent
from the division to go up with them. Watkins, now England’s Euro 2024
semi-final hero having come off the bench to score a 90th-minute winner against
the Netherlands, was on that list along with then-Brentford team-mate Said
Benrahma.
Interest in Watkins, who joined Aston Villa later in the
window for a club record £28million ($36.4m), was high. His 26 goals and three
assists as Thomas Frank’s team reached the play-off final made him a good
prospect for top-flight teams. This was a young (he was 24), promising
homegrown attacking option. After considering and then disregarding Benrahma as
an option, Leeds’ list narrowed down to two targets: Watkins or Valencia
forward Rodrigo.
Rodrigo, a Spain international, was the more established and
arguably more glamorous prospect — but a source at Leeds who was involved in
transfers at the time — who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships
— told The Athletic that Watkins was “a really good option and a priority too”.
The club entered the window with the view that either player could work for
them. It was all a case of which deal materialised and whether Rodrigo would
open himself up to the idea of coming to England.
The pull of Premier League football at Leeds under Bielsa
held weight. Rodrigo arrived in August 2020 for a reported club-record fee of
£27million. Benrahma eventually joined West Ham in October 2020. Watkins had
joined up with former Brentford boss Dean Smith at Villa a month earlier.
“There were quite a few (interested clubs),” Watkins told
Sky Sports in a May 2021 interview. “Leeds were interested, but they signed
Rodrigo. Tottenham were interested — they made it clear if Harry Kane was fit,
then he would play. I did have that in the back of my mind, but they said with
the schedule and the Europa League, there were a lot of games coming up.
“I had big decisions to make, but I made the right one.”
Is Watkins the one who got away for Leeds? His age,
potential and what he has gone on to achieve would suggest so.
There was some uncertainty among clubs scouting him that
summer, doubts over whether the Exeter City academy graduate could be an
out-and-out No 9 in the long term. He had mainly been used on the wing before
transitioning to a more central role in his final season at Brentford. Now,
though, Watkins has become a bonafide leading man.
Fourteen goals and five assists in his first league season
at Villa was an impressive start compared to Rodrigo’s league contribution of
seven goals and two assists at Leeds in 2020-21. When Rodrigo signed, many
expected the Brazilian-born player to arrive as competition — or even replace —
Patrick Bamford in the No 9 role but the incumbent proved surprisingly
difficult to unseat. Bamford scored 17 goals in that first top-flight season,
making the step up to prove doubters wrong.
Rodrigo had impressed Bielsa during pre-season and was
identified by the Argentinian as the player who stood out most in the six weeks
before the 2021-22 campaign but Bamford thrived in the system. Most often,
Rodrigo played behind Bamford as a hybrid between a midfielder and a No 10.
Rodrigo had previously operated as part of a front two with Valencia — not a
system Bielsa favours.
Though he had a cameo role as a lone striker at the end of
the first season in the Premier League where he played well — he scored a brace
in a 4-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor — Rodrigo could not make the No 9 role
his own. His 28 goals in 97 appearances for Leeds were important, and his
pressing and ability to attack the space was effective, but he did not fit
easily within Bielsa’s system.
Even when Bielsa left and Jesse Marsch took over, Rodrigo
never seemed a natural option as a No 9. He scored 13 goals in the Premier
League as Leeds were relegated, but they often looked better when Bamford
played. He left Leeds for Qatari side Al-Rayyan in 2023 but Watkins has
continued to grow at Villa, helping them reach the Champions League.
Whether Watkins would have taken Bamford’s place as the sole
striker in 2020 is another question. Despite Watkins’ relative lack of
experience in the role, Bamford’s injury record means it is likely he would
have got his chance. There are also similarities between Bamford and Watkins —
the former was rarely successful as an out-and-out No 9 before he started
playing for Bielsa. Watkins could have thrived in Bielsa’s system but how often
is a proven Spain international, such as Rodrigo, available and willing to join
a promoted side?
The Euros hero who could have been Leeds’ is another of
history’s nearly-deals to be consigned to folklore. While many will shelve club
loyalties if Watkins finds a moment of magic again in this weekend’s final
against Spain, there will always be a question of ‘What if?’ around Watkins and
that first summer up from the Championship.