OPINION
Praise for the Leeds United think tank and their summer transfer business, with 16 new signings arriving and a handful of big names departing, has been conspicuous by its absence in recent weeks.
Chris Wood and Charlie Taylor were the headline departures, and the holes they left behind in the team have become increasingly apparent during a horror run that has ended talk of promotion and focused attention on whether Thomas Christiansen is up to the job.
But the absence of the Burnley pair, whose exits secured Leeds a combine £22million windfall, has been just as keenly felt as that of another 2016-17 mainstay Rob Green.
The former England international had taken on the role of back-up goalkeeper before he decided that a season understudying Felix Wiedwald in the Championship was not how he wanted to spend one of the final years of his career.
Green, 37, quit for Premier League new boys Huddersfield, where he has yet to make his debut, and he was replaced by fellow 30-something Andy Lonergan.
What a waste of a proven player, whose attitude and commitment has been widely praised by all his managers recent years, including Garry Monk.
Christiansen’s decision to demote Green at the start of the season and make Wiedwald his number one was a brave one, and a clear sign the new manager wanted a sweeper-keeper better able to build attacks from the back.
Distribution has never been Green’s strength, but he overcame a mixed start to his United career to become a key member of the team that challenged for promotion under Monk and he was arguably their outstanding player in the final months of last season.
Dropping the veteran was harsh, but selling him at the end of the summer window always looked dumb. It now appears to be an epic blunder by Christiansen, director of football Victor Orta and owner Andrea Radrizzani.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it is hard to recall too many Leeds fans calling at the end of August for Green to go.
The decision to sell him was the transfer howler of the summer and, indeed, it is turning out to be the worst Championship deal in years.
By offloading a key player in excellent form who wanted to stay, initially, Leeds attempted to fix something that clearly was not broken.
Wiedwald was a bag of nerves before he was dropped for Lonergan, who had a couple of solid matches before his blunder-strewn display at Brentford during the weekend.
With young Bailey Peacock-Farrell the other goalkeeping option at Christiansen’s disposal, it is little wonder that Leeds fans are wondering why exactly Green was sold.
The team would have saved themselves a whole heap of bother if they had simply recognised they already had a super safe pair of hands in Green.