Simon Jordan predicts Leeds United off-field battle lost after what lawyer once told him
Leeds United have been “stitched up” in their ongoing battle over French striker Jean-Kevin Augustin, according to Simon Jordan.
The Whites may have to pay their former loanee £24.5million after failing to sign him on a permanent basis following his temporary spell at Elland Road in 2020, according to The Athletic.
And Jordan believes the club have lost their battle with the now-Basel forward, with the former Crystal Palace chairman once involved in a similar situation with the Eagles.
“Sometimes in football you get stitched up, as Leeds are discovering now having been ordered to pay former striker Jean-Kevin Augustin £24.5million for breach of contract,” Jordan wrote for the Daily Mail (Page 75, 13 April).
“It reminds me a little of a situation I had at Crystal Palace six weeks after I walked in the door regarding the Australian midfielder Craig Foster: He was on a three-year contract worth £500,000 a season but had to get his work permit renewed every year.
“At the end of his first season, his work permit was rejected and I was ordered by the Football League to pay up his contract. The law of the land dictated that he couldn’t play and yet I was being told to pay the player £1m.
“It was only when I said I would take them kicking and screaming to every court in the land if they made me pay that they backed down. Even then I was told I had to pay his £100,000 signing-on fee. I was ready to go to war again before my lawyer told me to quit while I was ahead. I’d won the battle. Painfully for Leeds, they have lost theirs.”
Unwanted distraction
Leeds really are to blame for this one, with the Whites foolish in their dealings with Augustin.
The player himself will be happy with the outcome after a difficult spell in his career, where he failed to have any impact at all during his brief time at Elland Road.
The club do not need such a distraction right now given both the recent takeover talk and perhaps more importantly their need to focus on their Premier League safety.
Hopefully they will learn a valuable lesson from this whole saga and not repeat such a situation with future transfers.
Any future transfers may, however, be impacted by this clumsy one, with £24.5million a huge sum to a club like Leeds.
They really cannot afford to be throwing away money in desperate times like these, with Premier League survival perhaps the only thing that will give fans hope that there are brighter days just around the corner.
In other Leeds United news, an “astounded” Tony Dorigo has been left struggling to understand events at Elland Road as the Whites recently collapsed against Crystal Palace.