Presenter and YouTuber Conor McGilligan has ripped into Leeds United’s decision to award Diego Llorente a new four-year deal at Elland Road.
Llorente signed for Leeds in 2020 after the Whites won promotion to the Premier League, with the Spaniard an experienced signing having featured for Real Sociedad in La Liga and the Europa League.
However, his move perhaps hasn’t gone as well as envisaged, with Llorente featuring only 15 times in the Premier League in his debut campaign and has now lost his place since Liam Cooper’s return from injury in Leeds’ backline, playing just once since September.
Unsurprisingly, McGilligan has been left baffled by the club’s decision to award the 29-year-old with a new contract, with the presenter sharing his bemusement on the One Leeds Fan Channel.
He said: “For me, this is just lunacy, it’s a bizarre, bizarre move from Leeds United, I do not understand it.
“You don’t get well-run clubs offering out deals to players who have been probably [in the] top two worst players in the club since they’ve arrived.
“Don’t get me wrong, [he] had a decent spell at Leeds, but since a sort of six to seven-month spell has ended, he’s been a very, very poor addition to this rank, to this team.
“It’s another really bad decision by the club.”
TIF Thoughts on McGilligan’s comments…
It does seem an incredibly strange decision by Leeds to extend the centre-back’s stay for four years.
The Whites spent £18m on the defender with surely no chance of recouping an offer like that considering his form, minutes and age.
It’s an even more painful one for Leeds fans with it reported by The Athletic that they opted to sign him over Josko Gvardiol, who moved to RB Leipzig from Dinamo Zagreb that same summer, with the Croatian now subject to elite European interest following a breakthrough World Cup campaign.
Part of the fourth-worst defence in the league, it now begs the question of whether Leeds will enter the market for a centre-back with them committing Llorente’s future at the club, as the seemingly most expendable option in the middle of the defence has now seen his stay extended potentially until he’s 33 years old.