One club tabled a £10m offer on transfer deadline day in an effort to prise a player out of Leeds United ahead of the final part of the Championship season, it has been revealed.
Leeds enjoy quiet window
As Leeds United boss Daniel Farke largely predicted, it was a quiet January transfer window for Leeds United. The club’s only business was to agree the temporary exit of Joe Gelhardt, who joined Hull City for the remainder of the campaign as he searched for regular first team football. Having already recruited Josuha Guilavogui earlier in the season as a free agent, Leeds felt that they did not need to be forced into business.
Their results backed that up, with the Whites currently clear atop the Championship while boasting the best attack and second best defence in the division, and they remain well on course for automatic promotion back to the Premier League come the end of the campaign, a fact underlined by an impressive January on the pitch.
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Leeds United’s results in January |
|
|---|---|
|
Games Played |
6 |
|
Games Won |
3 |
|
Games Lost |
0 |
|
Goals Scored |
10 |
|
Goals Conceded |
4 |
|
Biggest Win |
3-0 vs Sheffield Wednesday |
There was scope to bring in a player, but only if it was the right player, as Farke outlined after their 7-0 thrashing of Cardiff City.
“I think it is also our responsibility, as key people in the club, to explore if there is something to improve the group a bit and make it a higher probability we are successful”, the Leeds boss explained. “If we find something and think it’s a good addition and affordable, we will go for it. And if not, then no.”
That player appeared to be Southampton forward Cameron Archer, but the Saints would not budge on their position even as Leeds pushed for a deal, leaving them empty-handed come the deadline. And now, details of a late move for a Leeds player have emerged.
Leeds reject forward bid
That is according to the BBC, who report that Leeds were offered the chance to cash in on impressive young talent Mateo Joseph on deadline day. Spanish outfit Real Betis, who signed Antony on loan from Manchester United this January, tabled a £10m bid to take Joseph back to Spain in the dying hours of the transfer window.
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However, it was swiftly rejected by the Elland Road outfit because the forward was “deemed too important to be let go”, in a move that was in part influenced by “the club’s inability to secure the services” of Archer.
Though he has only started 11 Championship games this season, Farke has previously branded Joseph as an “excellent” forward and the Spanish U21 international has had a key impact from the bench, featuring in all but one of Leeds’ clashes to date.
He scored from the bench in their 7-0 win over Cardiff, his third of the season, to go alongside three assists despite his limited opportunities at Elland Road. Still with three years left to run on his £15,000 a week deal in Yorkshire, his future could be revisited in the summer but for now he remains a key figure for the Whites.
