George Overhill

Mon 26 June 2023 21:40, UK

Leeds United may have “shot themselves in the foot” with relegation release clauses that will let players go for very low fees, according to Ryan Taylor.

Top scorer Rodrigo is expected to leave imminently, having reportedly agreed personal terms ahead of a 1 July exit to join Victor Orta at Sevilla [Vamos mi Sevilla, 24 June], and according to COPE (7 June) his release clause lets him leave permanently for just €3.5million [£3million].

The Spanish international was, until the season just gone, the Whites’ record signing at £27million [Sky Sports] and Taylor feels that in trying to be prudent towards the wage bill in the second tier Leeds United may have ended up costing themselves money.

The Daily Express journalist said to GIVEMESPORT: “This is the problem with being relegated, I think wage bills need to be protected, and, by the end, the relegation clauses are so low, you end up probably recouping less money than you would if you didn’t have the clauses.

“So you know, if that is the case, and Rodrigo is available for that sort of money, then Leeds probably have shot themselves in the foot on that.”

Too smart

Nobody would argue that including clauses in Premier League contracts to protect the club from financial meltdown in the event of relegation isn’t a sensible idea.

But if the clauses end up resulting in what amounts to a fire sale with little in the way of compensation arriving back at Elland Road then it has been taken past a sensible point to the extreme.

The most recent suggestion that numerous players have options that allow them to leave on loan this summer [Daily Mail, 26 June] is even less lucrative, even if it does get their wages off the books.

It is indeed preferable to being lumbered with a set of expensive players that can’t be shifted but surely in negotiations with players and their agents there could be some give and take between clauses that provide for wage drops and ones which make it easier for them to leave after relegation.

With wage cuts thought to be as high as 60% on some deals [The Athletic, 30 May] it looks as if players have therefore also been handed easy routes out of the club for next to nothing.

So it certainly seems like Victor Orta and the previous regime took the nuclear option in terms of making sure there was little financial risk if the club went down, but in doing so may have let assets depart for little or nothing.

And if Rodrigo, one of the few Leeds United players to come out of a miserable season with much credit, ends up being snapped up by Orta himself that will be all the more frustrating for Whites fans.

In other Leeds United news, a favourite player who the 49ers will fight to keep went against those plans with what he did at the weekend.