James Murray

Tue 28 November 2023 14:10, UK

Noa Lang has revealed that he was previously close to joining Leeds United when he was at Club Brugge.

Speaking on the Pingelaars Podcast on Monday (27 November), the Dutch international said that the Whites wanted to sign him for up to £34.7million (€40million) before the deal eventually fell through.

The 24-year-old winger, who joined PSV Eindhoven over the summer, added that he was “mentally exhausted” after the transfer saga as former Elland Road chief Marcelo Bielsa doubted how much he could “do without the ball”.

“The media wrote that I had agreed with AC Milan, but I was previously close to a switch to Leeds,” said Lang. “Leeds wanted to buy me for €40million from Bruges. In the end, the deal fell through and then I was really mentally exhausted. Marcelo Bielsa doubted how much work I could do without the ball.”

A lot of money

That would have been an awful lot of money for Leeds to spend on a player coming from the Belgian division, so it’s no real surprise that Bielsa had reservations.

It also isn’t a shock to hear that the former Whites boss questioned Lang’s ability off the ball as playing with high energy and tempo was a key part of his philosophy.

There is an argument that the club have splashed a lot of money on far worse players, though, as the winger has scored four goals in eight matches since returning to the Eredivisie over the summer with PSV.

But the fee was far less than the Dutchman claims the West Yorkshire outfit were looking to sign him for after making the club-record £13million switch to Eindhoven.

Time will tell whether or not he is yet another talent that got away from the Whites after they came close to signing a number of reasonably high-profile players during their time in the Premier League.

In other Leeds United news, a player looks “inevitable” to head out of Elland Road on loan in January.