Adam Underwood’s Leeds United transfer strategy paid off after recent developments for £60m duo — Leeds United News 25/9/25

Adam Elliott

Leeds United have the likes of Adam Underwood and Robbie Evans overseeing transfer activity, and the pair made some excellent signings this summer.

The likes of Anton Stach and Gabriel Gudmundsson have taken to life in the Premier League well at Leeds United, but there were other foreign-based players who didn’t make the switch to Elland Road in spite of interest.

Leeds bid for RC Strasbourg’s Habib Diarra but Stach and Sean Longstaff came in to bolster the midfield instead. The public pursuit from Leeds for Igor Paixao of Feyenoord was also a saga of the summer.

Leeds came really close with Paixao. Instead, it was Marseille to sign Paixao for around £30 million and Sunderland sealed Diarra’s signature for a similar fee.

A serious Paixao injury at Feyenoord meant that he would miss the start of the campaign for any of the interested clubs he signed for this summer.

Leeds signed Noah Okafor, with the Swiss international a different profile of winger but with plenty of overlap with Paixao in terms of goal threat.

Crucially, he came fit. There may well have been some minor injury issues since, but Paixao has had a slow start and only played in three games thus far for the French giants.

In that time, he has scored none and assisted the same number. That comes from two substitute appearances and one start. It may well include PSG and Real Madrid within that, but did Leeds luck out in failing to acquire him?

Paixao’s three appearances have all come in the last 12 days, having missed a chunk of games and had very little pre-season to speak of. Leeds could not afford to sign injured players like that, even if they can be huge difference-makers.

He would have cost the better part of £30 million, which is also true of Diarra. Of course, a player being injured when signed is different from an injury after signing. But, with hindsight, Leeds may well have also got lucky with Diarra as well.

Had the Senegalese international joined Leeds, there is no telling what would have happened to him, but an injury for Sunderland already perhaps shows why Leeds were not willing to pay as much as the Black Cats and take a risk like that.

Per Keith Downie, he is out for the three months after groin surgery. Even if they weren’t to know, the sensible choice was to avoid putting too much of the transfer budget into one or two players and spreading it was a better use of resources.

A half-baked Paixao averaging a 6.42 match rating so far (FotMob) or potentially injury-prone Diarra was simply too big of a risk for Underwood and Evans to take at the reported prices. Leeds avoided a £60m+ disaster.

Leeds can hit the ground running due to their strategy of signing players ready to do so. Despite Leeds fans being frustrated at the 49ers, that has paid off.

Leeds United News sources have previously outlined a more streamlined approach this summer to previous campaigns.

That is, in part, thanks to the changes behind the scenes with a smaller team but also the people currently occupying the most vital roles — such as Underwood’s role alongside Farke.

Even with some bumps and without an extra creative player signed, Leeds have recruited well. However, above all, they have a more cohesive structure in place than the previous regime prior to the 49ers’ arrival.

That is evident in their desire not to overpay and go beyond their means, even for targets deemed to be ‘stretch’ or ‘reach’ targets like Paixao and Diarra. It certainly paid off.