Journalist Dean Jones has claimed on The Done Deal Show that Leeds United will be regretting selling Raphinha so cheaply earlier in the summer.
The Brazilian’s future at Leeds was the talk of the summer transfer window as he was wanted by cash-strapped Barcelona, with the Catalan giants agreeing personal terms early on, only for the transfer fee to prove a stumbling block.
Raphinha finally got his move to La Liga, which saw Leeds receive £55m for the winger, which in hindsight, now looks to be a bargain for Barcelona considering that Anthony Gordon – whose attacking numbers are poor compared to Raphinha’s – is said to be of interest to Chelsea in a prospective £60m deal.
And Jones believes that Leeds will now be regretting selling Raphinha for such a relatively small fee early on in the window.
He said: “The one thing I would say about £60m for Gordon, too – Raphinha went to Barcelona for £55m. That is starting to look like the bargain of the transfer window now.
Did Leeds sell Raphinha too cheap?
Yes!
No!
“Leeds are probably looking at that and thinking, ‘we could have got £80m for him’. If that was happening now, Raphinha’s worth £80m because of the deals that are going around the Premier League.”
TIF Thoughts on Leeds’ transfer decision…
In hindsight, Leeds could have got a lot more than they did for Raphinha, however, keeping a player in and around the dressing room and squad while desperately trying to get a move away wouldn’t have helped anyone.
Raphinha wouldn’t have been in the right frame of mind to perform at the level Leeds had become accustomed to over the last two seasons, and getting in that money early on has also allowed them to spend lavishly on seven new players this summer.
Leeds were never to know that the transfer market was going to get as crazy as it did, with the likes of Gordon being worth £60m and Morgan Gibbs-White going to Nottingham Forest for £42.5m. Both players are vastly less experienced and prolific in the Premier League compared to Raphinha, but that shouldn’t deter from how Leeds have moved on without the Selecao winger and made a solid start to the league season in his absence.
Both Raphinha and Phillips were sold at huge bargain discounted prices, it seemed like we were out of money or expecting to get into a relegation slump. Did the Leeds board realize how very badly they had f**ked up the whole of last season, we seem to have being thown put into blind panic. I really am concerned for the coming season we were very bad last year and truthfully I think we have gone backwards this term, I hope I am proven wrong