It was a one-word answer from Angus Kinnear when it was put to him last month that Leeds United, all things considered, would have preferred to have retained Luis Sinisterra and Tyler Adams. “No,” Kinnear replied. Based on what? “On their desire to leave.” The end.
Kinnear was speaking a week or so after the closure of the transfer window and on the topic of Sinisterra and Adams, two of the last players to leave Elland Road before the deadline, Leeds’ CEO was direct. Both had used threats of legal action to force through moves to Bournemouth. Both were better off elsewhere. Sinisterra’s deal was only a loan but bridges had been burned all the same and Leeds were only willing to let him go once they had assurances that litigation was no longer a risk to them.
But aside from the politics, there were other considerations too. Sinisterra’s first year in England had been injury-affected and Leeds wondered if the player they were being offered in exchange by Bournemouth, winger Jaidon Anthony, would be fit more often in the season ahead. Adams, meanwhile, was heading to Dean Court with an existing hamstring complaint, one he suffered back in March and which spooked Chelsea out of signing him. There was no denying Leeds had wanted to keep both players for much of the summer but by the latter stages of August, it was apparent they were merely clinging on to two highly reluctant employees.
Sinisterra joined Bournemouth on a season-long loan from Leeds (Getty Images)
Last week, Adams finally made his debut for Bournemouth in a League Cup win over Stoke City, appearing as a substitute. A few days later, Bournemouth’s manager, Andoni Iraola, announced that the USMNT captain had aggravated his hamstring and would be missing for “some time, for sure”.
It figured that Adams could be prone to a setback because, at the points where Chelsea and Bournemouth came calling for him in the window, Leeds were never certain about his chances of successfully passing a medical after so long out. Chelsea weren’t convinced but Bournemouth pushed the signing through, committing to a deal from which Leeds stood to receive £23million ($27.8m) before add-ons. And so Adams found a way out.
Among the squad who were relegated with Leeds from the Premier League last season, the prevailing attitude was that the grass was greener elsewhere; that transfers away from Elland Road or release clauses making it easy to go were well worth jumping on. But how much greener has it been for the crop who actively sought to depart? Having cut around £40million from their annual wage bill through so many departures, have Leeds yet had much cause to regret them? And how many of those players would they actually want back?
Adams is part of a trend of players exiting Leeds but struggling to hit the ground running. The midfielder has played 20 minutes for Bournemouth and while his new club have not publicised a likely timeframe for his next absence, Iraola implied that his return would not be quick. Sinisterra’s appearances total two off the bench, the second of them in a 4-0 rout by Arsenal on Saturday. Bournemouth will reach the next international break in the Premier League’s relegation places unless they make something good of their visit to Everton this weekend.
Been a minute. Good to be back 🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/YbT0g578bD
— Tyler Adams (@tyler_adams14) September 27, 2023
Daniel Farke, Leeds’ head coach, was privately disappointed to see Sinisterra quit Elland Road in the last few hours before the summer deadline. A week or so earlier, he had hoped a legal dispute over a release clause in the Colombian’s contract was essentially resolved. But Farke rated Anthony as a straight replacement — and Anthony had both a better injury record and experience of a prior promotion from the Championship. When it came to it, it was a trade-off Farke was happy to accept.
The nature of release clauses in various contracts at Leeds meant there was only so much control Farke could have over the squad as it was when he became manager. Brenden Aaronson, after a sapping season in the Premier League, decided to take a loan to Union Berlin and began finalising a move to the German Bundesliga a few days before he was due to start training under Farke. To this point, it has been a slow burn for the American in Berlin: a Champions League outing at Real Madrid but no goals and no assists, a red card against SV Darmstadt and a 2-0 defeat to Hoffenheim on September 23 which saw him hooked at half-time. Union sit in the bottom half of the table.
There is little value for Leeds in the status quo continuing there because Aaronson was one of the players they wanted to aid them financially further down the line; that irrespective of whether he ever returned to play for United again, a good year abroad would enhance his value and avoid the scenario the club faced in the last window where any permanent transfer would have resulted in a loss on the fee they paid to RB Salzburg for Aaronson in 2022.
Robin Koch was different: a centre-back out of contract next summer and who will be available on a free when this campaign ends. Koch left on loan in July for Eintracht Frankfurt, a side with one win in six in the Bundesliga. Max Wober jumped on a switch to Borussia Monchengladbach and they are down in 13th place. Germany has not yet been the land of milk and honey.
Thanks for the support in Bochum yesterday!
See you Thursday. @Eintracht pic.twitter.com/qIf1oMeSuq— Robin Koch (@RobinKoch25) September 17, 2023
Wober, the Austria international, was the first major disappointment for Leeds in the close season, someone who had indicated his intention to stay in the wake of relegation but then surprised Farke by going to him 24 hours before a friendly against Monaco and telling him that he planned to accept an offer from Gladbach.
The exits of Diego Llorente and Rasmus Kristensen on temporary deals to Roma met with far less opposition and have not given much cause for Leeds to rue them. Roma are making heavy weather of their fixture list. Jose Mourinho is in the midst of his worst start to a full term as a coach. “This is the squad we have, for better or worse,” he said after a 4-1 beating by Genoa on Thursday; by no means a ringing endorsement.
In contrast, a couple of moves out of Leeds are going well. Marc Roca has settled quickly at Real Betis, fuelling the notion that his game and his style were far more suited to La Liga than to the Premier League. Rodrigo, out in Qatar, has two goals in four games and is proving as capable there as he was always likely to be. But over at Everton, Jack Harrison — on the way back from a hip injury — took until the last weekend of September to make his league debut. It came on Saturday in a 2-1 defeat to Luton Town. There is a chance that by joining Everton on loan, Harrison, like Sinisterra and Adams, will have bounced from one relegation to another.
At times last season, as Leeds unravelled in the Premier League, it was impossible not to yearn for Raphinha or Kalvin Phillips, the two big sales of the 2022 summer window. They were live-wires and match-winners, too good to replace. But this time? A month on from the deadline passing, the reasons to bemoan the stream of exits from Elland Road have steadily diminished. However political some of the defections were, few in Leeds are looking around and repenting at length about what they are missing.
(Top image: Getty Images)
