Angus Kinnear in fair offer claim after Leeds United enrage Sheffield United over Gustavo Hamer
Angus Kinnear has confirmed what happened that led Leeds United to make a controversial bid for Gustavo Hamer from Sheffield United during the transfer window.
The Whites CEO told The Square Ball on 12 September that the club made a “fair” offer for the Dutch star despite assuming the Blades would have no interest on selling to a promotion rival and risk missing out on £100million in revenue from Premier League promotion.
But he says they got word through contacts that a move might be possible yet had no direct contact to check with at Bramall Lane due to their ownership situation, so made a bid that was categorically rejected.
According to Alan Nixon on 26 August the offer made was worth £13million, which has since left manager Chris Wilder particularly offended [The Star, 30 August].
Kinnear said (14m 35s): “The way that transfer worked is we all assumed there was no chance that Sheffield United would sell their star player to a promotion rival based on the prize, the size of what promotion’s worth. If they sell him to Leeds United and we go up by one point and they don’t they’ve cost themselves over £100million in TV revenue.
“However, we were given some light, and this is how the market works through agents and contacts, they might be open to an offer. Sheffield United are a difficult club to deal with at the moment because they’re in an ownership transition so there’s no friendly face who you can ring up and get a sense of whether a player’s for sale or not.
“The only way to provoke the conversation was to make an offer, and we made an offer which we think was at a fair level, and they came back very clearly and said he was not for sale in this window to anybody, and he certainly wasn’t on sale to Leeds United, and there was no price that could pull him away.”
Chris Wilder enraged by Leeds United transfer offer
The assumption that Sheffield United would have no interest in selling their star man to a local and promotion rival makes sense, as does the response that confirmed just that.
Wilder, and many fans on both sides, are bound to take issue with the idea that the offer made was a fair one though.
While Kinnear didn’t clarify the exact value it clearly went down like a lead balloon at Bramall Lane so they obviously disagreed with that assessment.
Turnover at the top of a club may also be a valid reason for the matter being especially complicated, but if the firm response was received after the bid went in it surely wouldn’t have been impossible to get such feedback without.
And given Jayden Bogle was signed a matter of weeks earlier in the transfer window from the very same place it is not as if the lines of communication weren’t established.
According to Transfer Watch on 27 August Hamer himself had agreed personal terms on a Leeds move, but Nixon indicated the Whites bid had failed to trigger a relegation release clause because it had already expired.
If they were trying to activate that clause it would explain why the offer was low and has to go down as another frustrating miss in the unsuccessful pursuit of a number 10.
Kinnear admitted that was the one “missing piece” of the window after also seeing an attempt to sign Emi Buendia from Aston Villa rejected, with Daniel Farke publicly expressing his disappointment after the deadline in the first sign of disharmony between the manager and the ownership [Graham Smyth, 2 September].
In other Leeds United news, another frustrated ace who didn’t make it to Elland Road before the deadline now has a January exit on the cards.
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