Leeds United: Surprise confidence emerges as club head to appeal courts over £24.5m Jean-Kevin Augustin order
Leeds United are said to be “confident of success” in their appeal against paying Jean-Kevin Augustin £24.5million, The Telegraph reports.
The club were ordered by FIFA to settle the breach of contract row over the Frenchman’s brief loan spell at the club with a fee thought to be equivalent to the full five-year contract on £79,000-a-week the now-Basel forward would have received if his permanent deal had gone through [The Athletic, 10 April].
Despite already going through a lengthy appeals process in an attempt to avoid paying RB Leipzig the £18million transfer fee they were due in 2020, only to end up settling on a £15.5million payment, the Whites apparently feel good about their chances on appeal this time around.
According to The Telegraph: “His victory for player power ensures his time at the club will be of significance. Leeds are understood to be confident of success via sport’s appeal courts, but the club has already been paying out significant fees over the ordeal.
“It had reached a private settlement with RB Leipzig after declining to fulfil a pledge to sign the player after securing promotion.”
Clownish
Given the multiple rulings against the club over this saga it is surprising they would be confident at this stage, but if they view a £2.5million saving on the fee they were forced to cough up to Leipzig for a player they got three appearances out of a success then perhaps they should be confident of a similar ‘victory’ here.
But spending that amount for a player they didn’t have is in no way a success, just as paying up any length of a contract they thought they’d slipped out of won’t be.
And with every new step the wider football world are reminded of a stupid decision which reflects badly on the club.
And perhaps the worst part about it is that it is no surprise, since nobody involved in the original arrangement was going to just sit back and accept Leeds United trying to weasel out of a contract on a technicality.
Signing the forward on a loan-to-buy with a hefty obligation dependent on promotion was clearly a mistake once Marcelo Bielsa decided he didn’t want to play him, and obviously didn’t need to since the Whites went up with a contribution of less than 50 minutes game time.
But that was the club’s problem to deal with, and trying to stiff Leipzig based on the unforeseen Covid-19 delay while derailing Augustin’s career at the same time was an underhand way of dealing with it that the other parties were never going to take lying down.
Victor Orta has made some good moves in his time at Elland Road, and he has made some bad ones, but this one is rightly proving to be easily one of the worst.
The Augustin deal is compared to Chelsea’s fruitless signing of Winston Bogarde as one of the worst in Premier League history, but while the Dutchman picked up his £40,000-a-week wages for the full four years at Stamford Bridge while making just 12 appearances, he was at least in theory available if the club had wanted to use him.
Shelling out anywhere near £40million for a player you’ve already given up your rights to actually play surely is a far worse outcome.
In other Leeds United, speculation over a dressing room bust up at Elland Road has been addressed by a BBC reporter after the miserable Crystal Palace collapse.