OPINION
It’s expected to be a busy summer at Leeds United after Marcelo Bielsa’s side narrowly missed out on automatic promotion and then faltered in the Play Offs.
Whether the Argentine remains in charge of the Whites or not, there is a fair bit of surgery needed on the playing squad. A total overhaul isn’t required, this is a team that played the finest football in the Championship after all, but some work is required if they are to finally return to the Premier League promised land.
However, a move for former midfielder Fabian Delph isn’t what’s required. The Sun reported earlier this week that Bielsa’s team had shown an interest in the 29-year-old, but that he would likely prove too expensive.
Former Leeds striker Noel Whelan, by and large, agrees with that sentiment: “There is a tight wage structure at Leeds and Fabian Delph’s salary doesn’t fit into it,” he told Football Insider. “£80,000-a-week would get us four or five different players, we can’t give it all to one player. It’s very unlikely to happen.”
Whelan hits the nail on the head, there. Although he asserts that Delph’s wages at City are £80,000-per-week, Spotrac reports that they are actually £90,000-per-week. That’s simply way outside the realms of possibility for a second tier side.
As Whelan says, that money could be used on four or five players, helping get the squad ready for another assault on promotion. If three of those signings paid off then Bielsa would likely be able to secure that elusive top flight return for Leeds.
To go and spend all that money on one player, however talented, would be completely misguided. It would be an emotional reunion for Delph, sure, but now’s not the time for him to come back to Yorkshire.
Plus, would he really want to swap a Premier League-winning team for a Championship outfit who would surely demand he cut his salary in half or more? It’s highly unlikely.
So as Whelan says, it doesn’t look like this potential move is going to come off. As long as Leeds are in the division below Delph, you’d imagine that an Elland Road return for the England international is nothing but a pipe dream.