The sale of Georginio Rutter to Brighton and Hove Albion was finally completed yesterday, so by most accounts Leeds need to sign at least four new players before the transfer window shuts at the end of the month.
We were wondering why Rutter’s transfer was taking so long, as he had travelled to the south coast for a medical before the end of last week, and hadn’t been in the playing squad who faced West Brom. Was he hesitating over the move? Was there a disagreement between the player and Brighton over the terms of his new contract?
Could Leeds have persuaded him to stay after all? Sadly, all such hopes were dashed when a statement appeared on the club’s official website to announce his departure. "Leeds United can confirm Georginio Rutter has joined Brighton & Hove Albion in a permanent transfer, after the Premier League side activated an exit clause in his contract”.
"Every effort was made to keep Georginio at Elland Road despite his exit clause being activated, but he was persistent and adamant in his desire to leave and we respect his decision. Georginio now departs Leeds United having made a total of 66 appearances, scoring eight goals over an 18-month spell.”
"We would like to place on record our thanks to Georgie for his efforts both on and off the pitch, along with his exemplary attitude and professionalism during his time at the club. We wish him all the very best for the future.” Leeds turned down earlier bids of £29m and then £35m from Brighton, before our hand was forced by that pesky release clause, with the final fee believed to be around £40m.
This represents a modest profit on the £25m we paid to German club Hoffenheim 18 months ago, as the headline figure of £35m for that transfer included bonus payments that in the event never became due. Mainly due to us not being in the Premier League. But that has done nothing to placate quite a number of our fanbase, who have been reaching for their keyboards to accuse the 49ers of ‘asset stripping’.
Certainly he has left a big hole for us to fill in the midfield, as his driving runs from midfield played a huge part in the campaign when we accumulated 90 points, always seeming likely to unlock opposing defences, and always playing the game with a smile on his face. Though at times he attempted to do too much rather than find a colleague, and that stat of only 8 goals illustrates the number of good chances that he missed.
I was told that he had been practicing his shooting in pre-season training, and that might have been true if his shot that crashed back off the post against Boro is anything to go by. Sadly, that proved to be just about the last piece of action we saw of him in a Leeds shirt, and if is finishing is going to show a big improvement this season, it’s Brighton who will reap the benefit.
Galling as it is that we keep losing players to clubs with much smaller fanbases like Brighton and Bournemouth, that’s the way it will be until we get back into the Premier League. We’ve now raked in a total of nearly £140m in transfer fees this summer, yet we now have a first team squad of only 19 players, plus a couple of teenagers like Charlie Crew who might be able to do a job if need be.
So the powers that be at the club are under huge pressure to re-invest some of this cash in the next two weeks, and although I’ve started to check the news on an hourly basis to see if we’ve signed anyone, there’s no concreted news of any deals yet. One problem is that other clubs know we’ve got cash to spend and that we urgently need to go back up this season, so are likely to push up their prices accordingly.
The Yorkshire Post are reporting that Sunderland are insisting on a fee of £25m for Jack Clarke, which would be galling when he was once our player and we sold him for only £9m. The same paper think a move for Burnley’s Manuel Benson is more likely, as the Lancashire club need to trim their squad to cope with the demands of PSR.
Jonathan Rowe is in the process of negotiating a loan move to Marseille, but Sky Sports have reported that nothing had been agreed yet, so Leeds could still be in the frame for the Norwich winger. And finally, German outlet BILD think and offer of £6.8m will be enough to land Dejan Ljubicic from Cologne, as he central midfielder is out of contract and the end of the current season.
The 49ers might be fortunate that we don’t have a home game before August 31st for the fans to vent their frustration, so if there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes they have got time to get at least some of these deals over the line. Let’s hope for all our sakes that the month will finish on a better note than it started.