Leeds United face ‘brutal truth’ risk in January transfer window as ‘selling club’ – Sky Sports pundit
The “brutal truth” of the situation at Leeds United is that “every club is a selling club” and they could lose players to the Premier League in January, according to David Prutton.
The former Whites midfielder warned in his Yorkshire Evening Post column on 9 December that it would be “naive” to think that players would reject the chance to jump up to the top flight just because the club currently have a chance of gaining promotion.
With Daniel Farke’s side currently third in the Championship and looking impressive Prutton admits the situation currently has everyone “very happy” but believes that could turn very quickly with the transfer window set to open in three weeks’ time.
Sky Sports pundit Prutton said: “Every club is a selling club and every player has got his price. So let’s not be naive to think that a player who is in that team who could be part of a promotion-winning side with Leeds would for one second block a move to the Premier League because of the potential of that.
“That’s the kind of brutal truth of it. It would be trading an actual thing for the potential of an actual thing so let’s not kid ourselves with that and we saw in the summer that various players quite obviously didn’t want to be there and got their wish.
“Now it’s all gone nicely quiet and everyone is on the same page and everyone is very happy moving on the same footing. But if someone comes in from the Prem and says ‘we will give you x amount for that player and he will get that much a week’ then it can be very quick sometimes for it to turn.”
Risk-Reward
There is really nothing that Leeds United could do to avoid the potential risk of losing players midseason to the Premier League other than play badly enough that nobody wants them.
It is ultimately a good thing that the danger is there in the background because it shows how impressive this side has been under Farke this year.
The 49ers, to their credit, look to have got the right man in charge with the German and while his team isn’t perfect they have already beaten both Leicester and Ipswich away to prove they can match anyone in the division.
Of course it would throw a major spanner in the works if a top flight side suddenly decided to drop a big offer on the table for the likes of stand-outs such as Crysencio Summerville or Georginio Rutter, but that is a fact of life in the second tier.
On the plus side is the fact that all of the players in the squad currently, bar Willy Gnonto, stayed at Elland Road during the summer exodus and didn’t appear to show a major intent to leave.
And similarly, the window ahead of the season was about as disruptive as they come at Elland Road and the hierarchy navigated their way out of it pretty well in the end, so perhaps they could do so again if it came to it.
In other Leeds United news, Patrick Bamford is now in a “very, very difficult” situation at Elland Road.