According to the latest reports from the Daily Mail, Leeds United are going to wait until the end of the season to begin contract talks with key players like Kemar Roofe and Mateusz Klich. The duo are currently in the last 18 months of their contract. After this ongoing season ends, they will enter the final year of their deal.
The reason for the postponement of the contract talks is the financial pressure on Leeds’ owner Andrea Radrizzani. The report claims that the Italian owner can be forced into selling the club if the club fails to win promotion back to the English top flight.
It is believed that the owner has pumped in £30m of his own money in the last two years at the club and another season in the Championship could be the end of the road for him. One of the primary reasons why the owner cannot continue pumping more money is because Radrizzani’s British sports broadcast company, Eleven Sports UK, is facing an uncertain future.
All this isn’t going to help the player’s contract situation, and the pressure seems to be piling on the Whites as they have slipped to the third spot after the end of the recent round of fixtures.
Kemar Roofe is currently nursing an injury, but the forward has been an integral part for the Whites this season. The English striker has managed 14 goals so far in the Championship and also drew interest (The Sun) from Premier League outfit Newcastle United in the January transfer window. Therefore if the Whites hope to keep him beyond this season, they need to get him on an improved contract (file this under duh 101!).
The West Yorkshire outfit are playing a risky game here by waiting until the summer to get their key players on new contracts, and a situation like this is never ideal. However, one can understand the thinking from clubs’ point of view as well as they want to wait up until the end of the season to see in which division they are set to play in the next season. With a promotion to the Premier League, there is no doubt that the club can offer much more lucrative deals to their crucial players like Roofe and Klich.
The reports from Daily Mail also add that the Whites can stand to make as much as £200m if they move to the Premier League and the Italian owner is willing to go all in on this season. Therefore, the Whites cannot afford to miss out on promotion if they want to keep hold of their key players.
