OPINION
Andrea Radrizzani went public with his frustration and anger at the end of a draining deadline day in January as Leeds United’s bid to sign Daniel James collapsed at the eleventh hour.
The United hierarchy pointed the finger at Swansea City for the transfer falling through and Huw Jenkins’ resignation 48 hours later corroborated who was to blame.
Radrizzani and especially recruitment chief Victor Orta had put a lot of work into the James deal, which the Daily Telegraph reports was made up of an initial loan costing £1.5million rising to a £10million summer transfer if Leeds secured promotion.
Given that the Yorkshire-born winger had passed a medical, agreed terms and was photographed at Elland Road waiting for confirmation of his move, it was a traumatic 24 hours.
Subsequent reports have claimed Leeds are keeping close tabs on James and are still eager to sign him, irrespective of which division they are in.
However, their hopes of doing so have been hit ahead of the weekend.
James has now revealed he is happy to commit to a new Swansea contract, in what Wales Online report will be a hammer blow to Leeds’ summer plans.
He told The Telegraph : “I think the negotiations are taking place now.
“I am just waiting on that, I’m happy with it and am letting my agent and the club deal with it and hopefully it happens soon. I want to get into the Premier League and I’d love to do it with Swansea. There may be a time (when I have to leave) but that’s in the future.”
Orta and Radrizzani, not to mention Marcelo Bielsa, who gave the green light for the James pursuit after exhaustively studying footage of the 21-year-old, will all be spitting feathers.
The Leeds hierarchy would have hoped their groundwork in the deal would still have paid dividends in the summer, even though James’ breathtaking FA Cup goal against Brentford and recent eyecatching performances have now got Premier League clubs sitting up and taking notice.
Should the winger sign a contract extension with Swansea, his market rate will rise to a level that United won’t be able to afford.
That would be a massive frustration behind the scenes at Elland Road.