A section of Leeds United fans have been raging on Twitter after owner Andrea Radrizzani admitted that selling Ronaldo Vieira to Sampdoria was a “sacrifice” that he had no choice but to do.
Vieira, 20, joined the Serie A club earlier this week for a fee worth up to £7.7million, despite playing a key role in the Whites side last season and having many people dubbing him as being one for the future.
However Radrizzani has claimed that he had little option but to cash in on the England youth international.
“I’m not stupid, I don’t want to lose money and I know I could sell for more next year, but the club unfortunately needs to have some injection,” he told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“We need to focus investment on what we need. At this moment we needed a striker and we need players with other characteristics so we had to take this sacrifice. It was very difficult for me. It’s a sacrifice that even if I didn’t want, I had to do.”
Some Leeds fans are fuming with Radrizzani for his justification for selling Vieira, with one saying it is a “disgrace”.
This is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets:
https://twitter.com/leeds_4/status/1025769327922958336
https://twitter.com/JtotheRain/status/1025770836039540736
So what @N4gativeA has said all along is evidently true? We are skint and have to sell players before we can buy others. Radz's net spend this season is only around £3m. If he can't inject more £ without selling we are going nowhere!
— Aran (@AranLeeds) August 4, 2018
Honest. Sold RV to fund Bamford by the sounds of it. Baffled why we sold RV when he was advised by MB his price would double next year. We have £10m from 49ers so surely that’s not Douglas, loans and pay offs all spent up?
— PD (@parmadiggyd) August 4, 2018
Looking forward to another 15th place finish.
— Simon (@bulmer_simon) August 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/corkyleedsutd/status/1025774793998655493
Sons like another crap chairman without cash
— Kleve MOT (@kleve1980) August 4, 2018
OPINION
Vieira was not in the best of form last season, but he is certainly someone who is going to keep improving season by season and a manager like Marcelo Bielsa would have definitely improved him. It does explain why Leeds’ business has been so limited so far this summer though. The Whites have only signed two players on permanent deals with loan signings padding out the rest of the squad. With the transfer deadline less than a week away, this is a sign that no more deals will be done unless they are on loan or a free transfer – unless Radrizzani decides to flog more first team players.