Deal not done for Raphinha to quit Leeds United as journalist shares what he’s been told
Raphinha has not agreed to quit Leeds United with journalist Dean Jones rubbishing claims it’s a “done deal” for him to join Barcelona.
Fabrizio Romano has reported that Raphinha’s agent Deco is in advanced talks with Barca while Sport claimed on 27 March that the 25-year-old winger has agreed a five-year contract at the Nou Camp.
However, former Eurosport journalist Jones, who’s based in the UK, has rubbished that and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of Raphinha stay on at Elland Road into next season.
“Some places are making this sound like a done deal but I don’t believe it’s progressed to anywhere near that point,” said Jones, as shown in a video clip via the Oddschanger Twitter account on Thursday [31 March].
“And, to give them some optimism too, from what I’m told, his mind’s not made up on what he’s going to do yet.
“He’s going to play for the rest of the season, he wants to end it well.
“If Leeds go into the summer and are like, ‘we’re going to be ambitious, we’ve stayed up, we don’t want to get in this mess again, these are the kinds of players we’re looking at signing and this is where we’re heading’, it’s not impossible that Raphinha stays.”
Good news
A lot of stories were published about Raphinha in the international break when you could tell that certain publications were getting bored by the lack of club football.
It’s always the way but the Spanish press seems to be worse at it.
It’s important to remember that if most of the UK-based media are rubbishing those jump-the-gun reports from outside of the country, it’s probably because they’re not accurate.
We might see those stories fade out in the coming days with the Premier League set to resume again this weekend but you can bet that once the season is over, they’ll be back.
Deco may well be in talks with Barcelona but we haven’t seen anything to suggest the La Liga giants are in talks with Leeds yet.
From everything we’ve read, it doesn’t look as though there’s an agreement close between the two clubs.
Raphinha is more than welcome to go to a top club like Barca but all that we ask of him is that he plays his best for us and goes for the best fee possible.
In other Leeds United news, Jeff Stelling has a Sky Sports pundit agreeing with his prediction Leeds versus Southampton.