Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has told This Is Futbol in an exclusive interview that Leeds United are in a position where they can afford to spend £35m on players like Matheus Cunha.
Cunha is currently being linked with a move to Elland Road, with reports suggesting that it will cost any potential suitor £35m to get the Hertha Berlin attacker out of the Olympiastadion.
It is a lot of money to spend on one player, especially for a club who only got promoted last year some may argue.
Would you be sad to see Roberts go?
Yes, useful player
Not really, doesn't score
However, according to Maguire, it is a deal the Yorkshire outfit can easily afford to do this summer.
“Yes, they are,” the Price of Football author exclusively told TIF when asked if Leeds were well placed to sign Cunha for £35m.
“They get the extra £2m for each position in the Premier League and they had a good season, so that was additional money. There’s another pot of money which is called the facility fee, which says for every time you appear on live television, more than 10, that’s worth an extra £1m to you, as far as the first pick.
“I know that every match was shown live, but only some of those matches were deemed to be first picks from the broadcaster’s point of view. So Leeds got an extra £14m from their facility fees because they were good to watch on television.”
It makes for good reading for Leeds and Marcelo Bielsa, though they could have earned even more money had the club finished in a European spot.
The Whites came extremely close to securing qualification for the Europa Conference League, finishing just three points behind Tottenham.