Phil Hay: Question mark over major Leeds summer transfer after worrying development
Leeds United were hit with a huge blow on Wednesday, with the news that striker Jean-Kevin Augustin had suffered a possible recurrence of his hamstring injury.
He’s been limited to just 48 minutes of appearances from the bench since he signed on loan in January.
Leeds have an obligation to buy Augustin if they get promoted – which is looking very likely now – for a club-record fee of around £18m.
However, Hay thinks that could possibly be in doubt after the latest setback.
One Leeds fan asked, “How’s this going to work then if we get promoted? Are we still committed to buy him even though he hasn’t played a single minute while fit?”
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Hay replied saying, “It was described to me as an obligation on promotion but yours is a fair question. Will Leeds/Bielsa want to keep him? Will Augustin want to stay, given how little he’s played?”
We’re no experts on obligation contracts but you’d have to imagine there’s a provision in there for fitness/injury.
Leeds won’t want to sign a player who can’t get and stay fit, especially given Marcelo Bielsa’s demands from his players.
That’s only likely to get more demanding in the Premier League and we doubt Leeds can afford to spend £18m on a player with real injury issues.
However, it could be that an obligation is an obligation, and it now poses the question as to whether Leeds fans would want him.
There was a lot of hype around him when he signed. That turned into disappointment when he didn’t play.
And there will be plenty of Leeds fans who would rather Victor Orta looks elsewhere now.
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