Leeds United went into the transfer window with a lot of areas to improve upon before January was completed. But there was always a feeling that the Whites would not do too much business in January. One of the primary reason for that feeling was because Marcelo Bielsa was adamant and had even indicated (Leeds Live) once that the club might not even sign anyone in the transfer window.
The major talking point of the window is going to be the Daniel James saga as the deal fell through at the last moment even when the player had himself asked the owner to leave the club. The Welsh winger reportedly had also completed his medical (Yorkshire Evening Post) at Elland Road.
United still have some positives to cling on to as they managed to sign Kiko Casilla for free after the Whites decided to buy out his ongoing contract (Yorkshire Evening Post) with Real Madrid. It was imperative for the club to go after an experienced goalkeeper after they lost Jamal Blackman for the rest of season due to injury. Bielsa had definitely lost confidence in Bailey Peacock Farrell after his shoddy displays in 2018 as the Argentine had admitted that if not for the Chelsea loanee’s injury, he would have preferred Blackman to start in goal.
Regarding significant exits, the club lost an essential player in the form of Samuel Saiz, but United cannot be blamed for that exit as it was the player who pretty much pushed for a move away (Leeds Live) in January. That hampered their options in midfield, and for quite some time now, Pablo Hernandez has been playing in central areas for the club.
Tom Pearce has surprisingly struggled to find much game time this season when he looked impressive in the last campaign under Paul Heckingbottom. Bielsa and the club decided to send him on loan to Scunthorpe United.
Losing Saiz and shifting Hernandez to play in central areas meant signing a winger was crucial for the club in this window. Jack Harrison and Ezgjan Alioski have been average in their performances while Jack Clarke is still just 18, so he is bound to have a few off games here and there. Given the lack of experience and depth, United went in hard for James, but it wasn’t enough in the end as Swansea decided to play the role of spoilsport.
The club also managed to secure the signature of highly talented Ruch Chorzow’s 17-year-old Polish midfielder Mateusz Bogusz. However, he is likely being seen as a prospect for the future, and we don’t really see him having a major impact on the first team in this promotion run.
Therefore, the club managed to sign just one player that would affect the first team and that is Casilla. Bielsa was clear that the new signing coming in must be an upgrade over the current players and there is no doubt that the Champions League winner is an upgrade over the Northern Irish international Peacock Farrell.
However, the fans would have liked to see a midfielder and a winger coming in. The way the last few days panned out with Swansea would have further dampened the mood of the fans. So we feel the Whites had an underwhelming transfer window. Hopefully, their inability to add depth and firepower won’t cost them much in their promotion run. In conclusion, we really believe Bielsa should have done more to add depth to this team.
We will give an overall rating of 5/10.
