Leeds United’s hopes of landing Che Adams may be dead in the water. Southampton turned down an incredibly lucrative offer that could have seen the Whites pay £20m for the Saints striker in the summer.
On paper, offering up a deal that potentially could have been worth that much seems like a huge showing of ambition and a willingness to gamble from the owner, but the finer details of the move show that it’s nothing but bad business sense.
The former Birmingham City man is reportedly Marcelo Bielsa’s number one target, and landing him for the remainder of the season could have been a huge boost to the Whites’ promotion chances given he netted 22 last term.
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Promotion would have triggered a clause in Adams’ initial loan deal that would have seen his move become permanent to the tune of £20m, making him the most expensive signing of the Andrea Radrizzani era.
Spending that sum on a player is something the Italian wouldn’t have dreamt of in the past as Leeds have operated on a shoestring budget, often selling players before spending anything.
Indeed, sales of Chris Wood, Ronaldo Vieira, Pontus Jansson and Kemar Roofe have helped balance the books when United have splashed out on the likes of Helder Costa and Patrick Bamford, who could end up costing £15m and £10m respectively. But with no huge sales on the horizon this month, a £20m offer for Adams seems incredibly uncharacteristic.
However, that fee would only have been paid if United were promoted to the Premier League.
The latest estimates state that promotion to the Premier League is worth £170m (Deloitte via Daily Mail), and that explains a lot.
This isn’t Radrizzani finally putting his hand in his pocket to drive the club forward, this is the Italian spending a windfall before he’s even got it.
If Leeds didn’t go up, Adams would have returned to Southampton while the only outlay United would have committed to is the loan fee.
In other news, Leeds are ‘pretty likely to buy’ one man for £8m.