By Daniel Feliciano

10th Jun, 2023 | 8:10am

Ilias Akhomach to join Villarreal despite Leeds United offering better financial package

Ilias Akhomach has opted to join Villarreal from Barcelona this summer despite having a better financial offer from Leeds, according to Sport (9 June).

The Whites were said to have a deal completely sealed with the young Spanish winger, who is out of contract at the Camp Nou this summer, before Victor Orta was sacked and saw the deal collapse.

That opened the door for La Liga side Villarreal to enter the race and convince him to join, with the player to sign a four-year deal with a release clause of between £17m and £25m.

“The skilful winger from La Masia will sign for the ‘yellow submarine’ in the coming days, thus joining the entity for the next four seasons, with which he would agree a clause of between 20 and 30 million euros,” they wrote.

“Although he had previously been linked with Milan and Premier League teams such as Leeds or Arsenal, which offered him better financial offers, the player has been convinced by Villarreal’s sports project.”

No shock

Once Orta left the club, it was pretty clear that this deal and any other deal for young Spanish talent was not going to come to fruition.

The reality is that he was driving deals for players like this, and even if he had stayed at the club our relegation from the Premier League may have had a negative effect on the deal too.

Ilias is a very talented young player but with our needs in the Championship now, our priorities are very different.

We need experience and proven players to help us ensure that we’re able to get back to the Premier League at the earliest possible opportunity, and having key players trying to adapt to an even more unpredictable and physical league just isn’t ideal.

He’ll get the regular game time he wanted at Villarreal, and we can focus on getting back to where we belong without him. No harm done.

In other Leeds news, one star is planning on leaving after an outburst at a social event.