Phil Hay: Leeds United have no gentleman’s agreement with Red Bull Salzburg for Brenden Aaronson
Leeds United do not have a gentleman’s agreement with Red Bull Salzburg to sign Brenden Aaronson in the summer, according to The Athletic journalist Phil Hay.
Leeds saw two bids for Aaronson, 21, rebuffed in the January transfer window with Salzburg showing no intention of selling the USA midfielder midway through the season.
However, it is understood that Leeds are happy to wait until the summer to sign the ex-Philadelphia Union ace.
Hay admits that in doing that, Leeds run the risk of competition for Aaronson’s signature and there’s no guarantee Salzburg will sell to them in the summer transfer window.
“It is a risk because you never know who else will get involved but from what we’re told, Aaronson was very receptive about the idea of moving to Leeds,” said Hay in the comments section on The Athletic website on Tuesday (1 February).
“He just wasn’t prepared to rock the boat at Salzburg by insisting on moving now (because Salzburg were extremely resistant to selling him).
“On the flip side, there’s no gentleman’s agreement with Salzburg – but the expectation is that they’ll be far more open to selling him in the summer window.”
Big worries
If Leeds have spent all of January trying to sign Aaronson and then fail to sign him in the summer transfer window, it will be an absolutely embarrassing and humiliating situation for the club.
According to Forbes journalist Manuel Veth on 31 January, AC Milan and RB Leipzig are both also interested in signing Aaronson.
Leeds will find it incredibly tough to go toe-to-toe with one team who’s widely recognised across European football and is third in Serie A right now. While the other team is linked up with Salzburg via Red Bull and sixth in the Bundesliga.
Leeds and Leizipg are already in a dispute over Jean-Kevin Augustin and while that is likely to be resolved in March, it means that clubs owned by Red Bull may want to avoid striking deals with the Yorkshire giants again.
Leeds should have found a way to ensure they could sign Aaronson in the summer by agreeing a loan-back deal or just agreeing a transfer that has a set-in-stone completion date of 1 July.
We really hope this failure to sign Aaronson this month doesn’t come back to haunt us because Marcelo Bielsa is very picky when it comes to signing players and Aaronson seems like someone who he really, really wanted.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites made a last-gasp move to sign a long-serving Chelsea player before the January window closed.