Rayo Vallecano will not negotiate with Leeds United for Andoni Iraola
Rayo Vallecano will not negotiate with Leeds United for the departure of Andoni Iraola and a deal is “highly unlikely”, according to Marcos de Vicente.
The El Chiringuito journalist believes that it will be an expensive prospect if the Whites are to prize the 40-year-old out of La Liga, with a release clause believed to be over €10million [£8.9million] and apparently non-negotiable.
Sky Sports on Wednesday 8 February named the Spaniard as the “leading contender” following Carlos Corberan’s contract extension at West Brom which saw a move for him collapse, but it looks like anything but a done-deal despite Victor Orta reportedly being in Madrid for talks as of late Tuesday night [Mail, 7 February].
Reporting via Twitter Wednesday De Vicente wrote: “Andoni Iraola has a fairly high clause. And the club is not going to negotiate for his departure.
“Leeds would have to scratch their pockets a lot if they want to get him out of Rayo Vallecano. I see it highly unlikely.”
In response to a follow up question he wrote: “I don’t know the exact amount, but more than 10 million, yes.”
Doors closing
The situation is going to start becoming a concern if the top candidates to take over at Elland Road either reject the move or are unobtainable.
There will be somebody available eventually, but the further down the list Leeds United get the greater chance they end up with the wrong person, and with Premier League survival currently in the balance that is clearly a risk.
Having spent big in January to augment the squad it would be worthless if the Whites board weren’t willing to complete the job by getting the right manager to put it all together.
So if Iraola is amenable to the move himself, then surely it is worth coughing up to meet his release clause in order to bring him in.
It is little surprise that Rayo Vallecano aren’t going to make it easy, because Jack Harrison’s one-time teammate in New York has taken them from the second tier to battling for European qualification in the past two years.
They will do everything they can to keep hold of a manager who is proving to be highly successful, just as West Brom did with Corberan, so Orta needs to get Iraola himself on board with the idea if there is any chance of success.
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