Andrea Radrizzani reveals current Leeds United player was included in collapsed swap deal with Roma for Nicolo Zaniolo
Leeds United proposed a deadline day swap that would have sent one of the current squad to Roma for Nicolo Zaniolo, Andrea Radrizzani has revealed.
The Whites were heavily linked to the want-away Italian attacker late in the window but a move never happened, before he eventually left for Galatasaray.
And now the Elland Road chairman has shared the news that the Whites suggested a swap deal that would have sent a non-EU player to Rome, but it was impossible to complete the deal.
Tutto Mercato Web quote the Whites chief in an interview with DAZN saying: “We proposed a last-minute swap with one of our team but it wasn’t possible because Roma didn’t have any non-EU posts.”
Defender Diego Llorente did move to the Stadio Olympico at the end of January in a surprise separate loan-to-buy deal.
Who?
The player is not named and it is difficult from looking at the squad who it might have been, bearing in mind injuries and time at the club, if they would have taken a non-EU slot.
Colombian winger Luis Sinisterra and the three American imports, Brenden Aaronson, Tyler Adams, and Weston McKennie are all important players who only arrived inside the last year.
That leaves only the British players, and the majority of those either feature regularly or are injured in the case of Stuart Dallas and Adam Forshaw.
If the swap would have been involving loan moves then it may have been one or more of the younger English talents that would have left for more game time.
Possibly, if it was a permanent deal it would have entailed bringing Dan James back from Fulham to get some return on the big money paid to sign him from Manchester United, but who it was will remain a mystery for now.
The January window had shaped up pretty impressively on the whole, with the two main moves done early in the form of Max Wober and Georginio Rutter, and the last few days used to take advantage of useful opportunities on Llorente and McKennie’s moves.
But unfortunately that was almost immediately all undercut by the firing of Jesse Marsch and the debacle the board conducted before finally bringing in Javi Gracia.
In other Leeds United news, the captain of an English club has been in contact with Gracia offering his help.
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