A section of Leeds United fans have taken to Twitter to express their frustration and disappointment that summer target Kyle Bartley is heading to West Brom.
Yorkshire Evening Post correspondent Phil Hay reported on his personal Twitter account that the Swansea City centre-back is set to be a Baggies player by the end of the weekend after reporting earlier in the summer the Yorkshire giants were in talks to land him.
Kyle Bartley to West Brom. Should be confirmed over the weekend.https://t.co/HDT2myVN62
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) July 13, 2018
The Express and Star reported yesterday that Bartley was set to undergo a West Brom medical yesterday after they beat Leeds to the £4million signing of the player.
This prompted a huge number of social media messages from Leeds fans and This Is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets:
This is awful ?
— jacks1919 (@jackss1919) July 13, 2018
I just feel totally sick that Leeds have dropped a huge bollock by not signing a player we all wanted, he wanted to come, and the price was a bargain. Shortsighted in the extreme. I give up on them now, and their obviously stupid transfer policy. We are just seen as a joke now.
— Yorkie45 (@Hauxley1) July 13, 2018
We won't sign anyone . 2 loaners one the third choice keeper . But it's fine biesla sees things in our squad that we don't . Joke club again. No ambition.
— Martin Roberts?? (@wowmart1974) July 13, 2018
Hugely shortsighted of Leeds to miss out on this one. A complete no-brainer. Bielsa may be planning his trademark genius tippy-tappy rotate-the-kids stuff, but he's still going to need players with huge knackers.
— Tom Mullen (@Tom_Mullen) July 13, 2018
Couldn't agree more. Really hard one to miss out on given his price, availability, club's desperation for an additional quality centre-back, Bartley's previous success at Leeds AND the fact he genuinely wanted to return. A genuine leader this squad severely lacks.
— LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) July 13, 2018
An absolute steal at 4M. Honestly at this point I don't care if Bielsa rated him or not, some no brainers like this should happen. We need 2 quality CBs anyways in this window and we should be hoarding players like Bartley at 4M.
— SA (@Aravind_SA) July 13, 2018
https://twitter.com/ThommHol/status/1017755125539115008
Dont need this Phil..
— ROSSii (@MrROSSii1990) July 13, 2018
Can someone at @LUFC please say wtf is going on , we are clearing so much space but cannot get one person over the line ,not filling us with the greatest confidence for a new season
— steven randall (@srand23) July 13, 2018
— Bn lark (@BnLark) July 13, 2018
COMMENTARY:
Leeds fans know a good player when they see one and Bartley certainly fits into that category. The centre-back was better than decent during his season-long loan at Elland Road in 2016-17. He was outstanding. Strong, committed, dominant in the air and the perfect partner for Pontus Jansson, the Arsenal trainee had the season of his life. His return to Swansea did not go to plan as he suffered a knee injury that reduced him to just a handful of matches. Leeds have been strongly linked with re-signing Bartley all summer and it certainly represents a blow that they have lost out to former Premier League outfit West Brom. Supporters are desperate for a new centre-back to come in, to partner Jansson. Little wonder there is so much frustration out there.