Leeds have completed the signing of right back Jayden Bogle from Sheffield United. He was a player the Blades didn’t want to lose, but they finally agreed to part company with the 23-year-old when we improved our initial offer.
The transfer fee has been variously described as ‘undisclosed’ on the official Leeds website, ‘substantial’ on the Sheffield United site (as they tried to appease their fanbase) and £5m elsewhere. Our initial offer was £4m, before the Blades made it clear that they would hold out for a higher fee before agreeing to do business.
Bogle began his professional career with Derby County, where he made 77 appearances, including that infamous play-off game in 2019 when Bielsa’s first promotion campaign came to an unfortunate end. Once the Rams’ overspending of that season caught up with them he moved on to Sheffield United in September 2020.
He made a further 88 appearances for the Bramall Lane mob, so he already has one promotion on his CV, though unfortunately the Blades also suffered two relegations during his time at that club. He had allowed his contract to run down so it had only one year remaining, and then made it clear that he saw his future elsewhere.
No doubt he’ll get a less than warm reception when we go to South Yorkshire on February 22nd, which will be funny if he puts in a great performance against them. The move revives a tradition of Sheffield United being our feeder club, in the footsteps of Mick Jones, Tony Currie, Alex Sabella, Keith Edwards and Brian Deane, though not all of these reached their full potential at Elland Road.
And Bogle’s comments on the official Leeds website suggest that he think Leeds are a bigger club than the Blades. "I knew there was interest and since I heard it, this is where I wanted to be. As I said, it’s a massive club and opportunity, a fantastic team, great staff, so I am really excited”.
"I've played here before and the atmosphere before a game is crazy,” the defender explained. I can’t wait for that to be on my side now and fuel me going into games, I am really excited about it.” And he also said "I am comfortable on the ball, I like to get forward and create chances, but be defensively solid and strong”.
So he should be able to supply the qualities Daniel Farke looks for in his full-backs, being able to give us further options in the wide areas when we go forward. We certainly needed to sign a new right back after a number of departures over the summer, notably the sale of Archie. Ayling’s move to Boro has been made permanent, and Drameh won’t sign a new contract, though at present he is still without a club.
Conor Roberts is now back at Burnley after their relegation, though his lack of game time at Leeds might have made him reluctant to extend his loan spell in any case. And Rasmus Kristensen won’t be coming back to Leeds either, as a season long loan has been agreed with Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Danish international spent last season at Roma, but they declined to extend their loan, as the full-back had fallen out of favour a little after Jose Mourinho’s spell as manager came to an end. Frankfurt have an option to sign Kristensen permanently for £15m at the end of the coming season, but whether they will want to after seeing him in action remains to be seen.
The Bogle signing shows the 49ers are getting the squad together, despite the rumblings on social media about Leeds now being a ‘selling club’. It’s possible they wanted to get the outgoings done first so they knew what budget they were operating with, and the way they operate is not to announce anything until the deals are complete.
So don’t panic folks. The signs are that there will be more players coming in before the season begins, and we should have a competitive squad to challenge for promotion in 2024/5.