{{primary_category}}
{{/primary_category}} 
Leeds United unlikely to 'justify the expenditure' on Georginio Rutter without Premier League football - Graham Smyth
Leeds United will need Georginio Rutter to perform in the Premier League in order to justify their expenditure to bring him in, according to Graham Smyth.
The Whites made it six games unbeaten with a 3-0 win over Watford as Rutter turned in another excellent performance which he capped off with an assist for the final goal.
And speaking on the Inside Elland Road podcast (27 September, 5mins 30) Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Smyth is sure that the French youth international will be “very good” in the Championship but feels he needs to do it in the top flight for Leeds to be able to justify splashing over £30m on him in January last season.
“He is going to be very, very good in the Championship,” Smyth said.
“I’m not sure you’ll ever be able to justify the expenditure, the level of expenditure. Because in order to make a profit, if you’re looking at this through the lens of Leeds sign players maybe a little bit more left-field because they think there’s a sell-on potential here, yes teams wanted him in the summer but they weren’t going to pay what Leeds paid for him. Not quite.
“In order to make a profit he’s going to have to do it in a big way in the Premier League. I don’t think that doing it in the Championship is going to yield a profit. People don’t pay £40m for Championship players do they, so he’s going to have to do it in the Premier League.”
Focus
Leeds spent big on Rutter because his potential and ability is clear for all to see, and it’s easy to forget that he simply wasn’t given a real chance in the Premier League.
He came in under Marsch who was sacked just days later, and both Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce had no interest in giving him a chance to be the saviour that we needed at that time.
Rutter went away in the summer, knuckled down and really focused on getting better and despite interest from top clubs he never pushed for an exit or made any noise unlike some of his other colleagues and now he is reaping the rewards.
His performances have been fantastic so far with his technical quality and physical attributes shining in a physically demanding league, and he has nailed down a place in Daniel Farke’s first-choice attack.
We don’t need to worry about potentially selling him in the future. We need to worry about getting back to the Premier League and we have a better chance of doing that with Rutter in the side right now.
In other Leeds news, Don Goodman drops “really shocked” verdict after what he saw at Leeds.