Signing was ‘never first choice’ for Leeds United — Rejections and Farke annoyance said to be behind deadline transfer — Sport Witness 3/9/24
By Naveen Ullal
Leeds United completed the signing of Ao Tanaka from Fortuna
Düsseldorf on deadline day.
Tuesday’s edition of Rheinische Post gives an insight into
why Leeds made a late attempt and what convinced the German club to sanction a
move.
Fortuna Düsseldorf were aware of the Championship side’s
interest towards the end of the last window.
He had less than a year left on his deal and refused to sign
an extension. The German club had to cash in from the 25-year-old’s sale, to
avoid losing him for free next summer. The Whites paid €3.5-4m to buy the Japan
international last Friday.
RP state Tanaka was ‘never the first choice’ for Leeds. They
decided to bet on him, after missing out on other targets. This didn’t please
Daniel Farke, who had a disagreement with the English club’s leaders.
It’s claimed Leeds’ failure to sign other targets forced
them to invest on signing the Japan international.
Fortuna Düsseldorf sporting director Klaus Allofs has now
insisted that there was no need for his side to sell Tanaka to Leeds.
“The targets we set ourselves in sport have been exceeded.
We didn’t actually have to sell Tanaka, we had already realised the transfer
surplus we had planned,” he said.
“But we’re all in the same boat. We cannot say that one
hundred percent of the money from sport is used again in sport. Many things
have not yet developed the way we would like. So, we can’t put everything into
the team. The fact is that we all act very carefully and do not take any
unpleasant risks. The fact is without the sale of Ao, we would not have been
able to fill all positions.”
It feels like Allofs and his side are annoyed over losing
Tanaka to Leeds. This report comes just days after the same outlet indicated
his transfer to Elland Road was seen as a great news for the German club.