Leeds United chief reveals huge transfer window low point they ‘definitely underestimated’

Leeds United endured a tough a transfer window, that much is obvious for any football fan on the outside looking in. After working so hard to return to the Premier League, their dream collapsed after just three seasons in the top flight.

While their relegation to the Championship was a very tough pill to swallow, the looming summer posed a rather large threat of a mass exodus. Five players in total left the club on permanent deals — including Tyler Adams and Rodrigo — while a further eight have headed out on loan.

Fortunately, Leeds were able to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into the market for new signings. New manager Daniel Farke has welcomed nine new players to Elland Road, and while the new recruits will have certainly made a strong statement, the summer as a whole was a tricky period to navigate.

The club’s chief executive Angus Kinnear recently shed a lot of honest light on things at Leeds while appearing on The Square Ball Podcast. He discussed the ‘disappointment’ those at the club felt when players were almost desperate to leave following their relegation.

“I have to say, I kind of feel like I’ve been maybe naive about it, but it’s been just brutally disappointing at how we’ve seen players want to crawl over broken glass to leave our club,” Kinnear admitted. “You guys know I love the club and I know we’ve had a bad year but I thought there would be, for a number of these players, there’d be a bigger emotional bond and there’d be a desire to sort of put right bad seasons that they had last year.

“I think it’s more of an issue of people’s lack of desire to play in the Championship. And I have to say, I would confess we definitely underestimated the strength of that feeling.”

Leeds’ main mission is to return to the Premier League as soon as possible, but with just six points from a possible 15 so far, they have some ground to make up as the season progresses.