Leeds United transfer news: Robin Koch is Manchester United ‘cut-price fall-back’ behind two big-money stars
Manchester United’s interest in Leeds United defender Robin Koch is as a bargain alternative to high-priced targets Kim Min-Jae and Axel Disasi, Miguel Delaney reports in The Independent.
The German centre-back appears to be on the way out of Elland Road this summer following relegation, with reports in his home country insisting that he can leave for free thanks to a clause in his contract.
Despite a difficult season with the Whites Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg (14 June) reported that “loose talks” had occurred between Koch and Erik ten Hag’s Champions League qualifiers.
Delaney reports that the unexpected development pegs the 26-year-old as a cheap alternative to the two big-money options.
He writes in The Independent: “While Napoli’s Kim Min-Jae is ultimately valued more by Bayern Munich, they have been scouting Monaco’s Axel Disasi, with Leeds United’s Robin Koch a surprise cut-price fall-back.”
L’Equipe reported on 7 June that the Frenchman would cost as much as €50million [£42million], while Corriere dello Sport put the South Korean’s price even higher on 6 May at €60million [£51million].
Landing on his feet
On his day Koch is an accomplished defender, as his eight caps for the German national side show, but after two consecutive seasons with Leeds United where he was a regular in one of the worst defences in the Premier League it could be considered failing up if he got a move to Old Trafford.
There surely was enough quality in the Whites squad to have kept the club in the top flight if it had been deployed in the right way in the season just gone, so it is no surprise that there is wide interest in a number of players this summer.
But it is more unexpected that the likes of Koch and Junior Firpo apparently have multiple takers after the defence conceded a league-worst 78 goals.
Struggling Elland Road defenders may well land in a new environment and look somewhat transformed, as has been the case with Diego Llorente’s loan move to Roma, which looks like being made permanent.
If others also leave and suddenly exhibit more of the quality which convinced the club to sign them in the first place it would surely raise questions over what a succession of Leeds United managers weren’t doing that those elsewhere are.
With Kim looking likely to be on his way to Bayern [90min, 20 June] Ten Hag will presumably have to decide whether he wants to splash out on Disasi, otherwise a surprise Elland Road to Old Trafford switch for Koch could be on the cards.
It will grate enough if the German can indeed leave for nothing should he head to the likes of Eintracht Frankfurt, but if the old rivals in Manchester take advantage of such a situation fans will likely be even less impressed.
In other Leeds United news, a BBC pundit has questions about the “very successful” confirmed Elland Road appointment.