There will be no repeat of last year’s summer spending spree at Leeds United when the transfer window reopens in June.
Marcelo Bielsa spent close to £100million ahead of the Whites’ return to the top flight. Helder Costa and Illan Meslier had their loans turned into permanent deals, while Rodrigo, Robin Koch, Diego Llorente and Brazilian winger Raphina joined for a combined outlay of £76million.
The new additions have helped Bielsa’s side comfortably secure their Premier League status and Leeds United insider Phil Hay says the work done in the summer window has laid the foundations for a much more focused approach this time around.
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The Athletic reporter, speaking with David Ornstein, said: “I don’t think they’ll spend as much as they did last summer. It was an investment of £100million. But there will be a healthy budget and the point in spending a £100million last summer to some extent was to make sure that there wasn’t the need for undue investment in windows going forward.
“It’s not that they don’t want to spend but I think they just feel that that sort of outlay year after year is probably not sustainable or probably not necessary. But the key thing for them last year and the same rules will apply this time round, particularly if Bielsa does stay, was to keep the core of the squad that played under him because they understood his methods and they’d adapted to his methods and and they they’d adapted to them very, very well. But at the same time to kind of elevate the general standard of the squad by bringing in players like Raphinha, Rodrigo, Llorente and Robin Koch and again, they will try to do the same this summer.”
Hay believes United will make three to five additions, with the impending departure of Ezgjan Alioski set to make a new left-back one of those. Alioski is being heavily linked with a move to Galatasaray when his contract expires in the summer. News that he has agreed a pre-contract move to the Turkish side has sparked fury among Leeds supporters who are still haunted by the memories of the two fans stabbed by Galatasaray fans in 2000. However, even if Alioski makes a dramatic U-turn and signs a new deal at Elland Road, Hay thinks the position is one where reinforcements are needed.
“I think they will try and find themselves a first choice left-back because that’s a position that has never really picked itself under Bielsa,” he said. “They’ve had Barry Douglas there, they’ve had Alioski there this season. I think it looks increasingly likely that Alioski will go at the end of his contract when the season finishes. But even if he doesn’t I still think they will want an out and out left-back who is a specialist in that role and and I’m told they’ll look for cover for Kalvin Phillips just to kind of solve that conundrum of what they do when he’s injured or missing from the team.
“I also think we’ll to see another more advanced, more attacking midfielder come in just to increase the options in that area where (Mateusz) Klich plays and Rodrigo and where Stuart Dallas has been in very good form recently. Those to my my mind would be the main priorities and I think to everybody watching the team, those would be the areas that really need to be the priorities.”
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