OPINION
Leeds United’s explanation for selling Samuel Saiz on a deal where they will not receive any money until the end of the season is simply unacceptable.
The Yorkshire Evening Post report today (MONDAY) that the Spanish playmaker will undergo a medical at Getafe today and complete a loan-to-buy transfer within next 24 hours.
It is said the deal “should become” permanent at the end of the season for a fee of £6million, although stops short of saying it will definitely do so.
So, why are Leeds prepared to offload a player for no immediate fee, who has been widely hailed as one of the most gifted in the Championship over the last 18 months, and whose value has doubled in that time?
The club might point out they deserve credit for handing Saiz a four-year contract and protecting a key asset.
A Massimo Cellino-style deal would have meant Leeds having the rug totally pulled under their feet from a financial point of view.
But, where is the benefit to Leeds from this transfer?
The YEP report “United have accepted a loan offer over an immediate cash sale to avoid a scenario where an unhappy Saiz remains at Thorp Arch while other options are explored”.
Unhappy and unsettled players is a fact of life. Did Liverpool allow a supposedly unhappy Philippe Coutinho to leave on loan in the summer of 2017 when he tried to engineer a transfer to Barcelona?
No, they pulled up the drawbridge until the next window, when they sold him for an eye-boggling £142million.
Danny Ings was a fringe player until he joined Southampton in the summer. The deal? An initial loan that is guaranteed to become permanent next summer for a fee of £20million-plus.
While Leeds don’t have Liverpool’s calibre of player, they were certainly in a position to call the shots over the Saiz deal.
Fine, if the player wanted out, he could go. But his agents first needed to find him a club willing to pay £6million, guaranteed, in the January window.
It appears at this stage that United have simply caved in to a player and a La Liga club who have got the deal of the season.