Phil Hay: Benrahma could have blown Leeds move after Twitter post; delivers Ollie Watkins update
Leeds United have gone cold on a move for Said Benrahma after the Brentford attacker was said to be their number one attacking target.
On the Phil Hay Show podcast two weeks ago, the Athletic journalist had said, “Benrahma, he’s the one. If they [Leeds] could get him they would be delighted and they would do it.”
On Wednesday, in an update on his Twitter account, he said that Leeds had “gone a bit cold on Benrahma”.
Now, in an update on a Q&A on The Athletic, Hay said Benrahma’s overblown holiday video, posted on his Twitter account, had caused doubts about how he would fit into the Leeds’ dressing room.
“Leeds do rate Benrahma but have gone slightly cold on him,” Hay said. “I don’t think that Twitter post of his gave off the right message in terms of how he might fit into the dressing room.”
There was a slightly more upbeat update about Ollie Watkins, the Brentford striker that Leeds have been linked with.
Hay said, “Ollie Watkins was mentioned to me again earlier this week. And the links to Harry Wilson and Ryan Kent are genuine in the sense that Leeds have had an eye on them for a while. We need to see some movement, though. And the market as a whole needs to pick up. There isn’t much business being done at the moment.”
https://twitter.com/Benrahma2/status/1295050793784152067
Misjudged post
There were plenty of Leeds fans who thought the Benrahma video was horribly misjudged.
One said, “That’s a no then.” And it looks like the video has reached Marcelo Bielsa, a manager who’s known for wanting to keep his players grounded and humble.
It does strike us as very odd that a Championship player looking for a move would post something like this, at a time when the world is suffering in the grips of a pandemic.
It screams ego and it screams a player who would struggle to fit in with a squad like Leeds, where team is everything and egos simply aren’t tolerated.
It might not be the end of it but it does sound like Bielsa has been put off and we can’t blame him for that.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay delivers major Ben White update from Brighton side after Leeds table final £25m bid