During a busy final couple of days of the transfer window, Leeds signed Weston McKennie and young Diogo Monteiro, while we said goodbye to Llorente but not Jack Harrison.

The signing of Weston McKennie had been widely touted for some time, so it was no surprise that we managed to get the deal over the line on Monday, with over a day to spare before the deadline. The 24-year-old midfielder joins us on loan from Juventus till the end of the season, with an option to convert the move into a permanent transfer for around £30m provided we are not relegated.

Thankfully he has lost the red white and blue hair colouring he wore during the World Cup finals, while he was in the process of earning the latest four of his 41 international caps to date. He began his career at FC Dallas before moving on to make 91 appearances for Schalke 04. His spell at Juventus was slightly longer with 96 games, in which he scored 13 goals and was part of their triumphs in the Supercoppa Italiana and the Coppa Italia.

And he was of course making all the right noises when he spoke to the club’s official website. “It feels good to be a Leeds player, I’ve heard a lot of great things from Adams Aaronson and Jesse Marsch, everyone tells me about the atmosphere here. Obviously I did my own research on the club and the support is wild, I’m really excited to be here and playing in the Premier League is a dream”.

“Knowing I’m going to be playing with some of my teammates from the national team, I’m sure it will be easy to fit in and it was an easy decision for me. I like the number eight role, going box to box, trying to create plays and then getting back defensively. I want to help the club get as many points as possible in the second half of the season, for myself I want to be as big as a help as I can and win games.”

He will obviously add to the options we have in midfield, and we have already seen Klich depart this season because of the lack of game time he was getting. And Jack Harrison very nearly followed him out of the exit, now that we have so many players who can operate on the wings, while the head coach doesn’t like to play with much width anyway.

He has recently shown he can be effective in an attacking central midfield role, but that is another area where several squad members are competing for a couple of places. So when Leicester came knocking the club seriously considered parting with the player, provided that the price was right. He did of course score a much needed wonder goal at Accrington on Saturday, but his celebration was strangely muted, so much so that for a second I was worried that the goal had been disallowed.

Jesse Marsch said at the weekend he didn’t think that Harrison was “itching to leave”, but the winger actually travelled to Leicester on Tuesday, amid suggestions that Leeds needed to raise a bit of cash to balance the books after splashing a bit of cash on new signings. The foxes began the process of arranging a medical and had made an offer of £20m.

It would have been annoying if Leeds had let him go for that much, having previously spurned a larger bid from Newcastle, but his value has diminished now the remaining time on his contract is less than 18 months. But in the end the Leeds hierarchy decided against doing the deal, partly because Leicester are potential rivals in the battle to stay out of the dreaded bottom three.

Leicester would have offered Harrison higher wages than he presently on at Elland Road, but Leeds will begin talks to offer him improved terms in the hope that he will agree to extend his current contract. And we can’t conclude that particular deal he will definitely be on his way in the summer, as we won’t risk losing him for nothing a year later.

One player who is leaving us is Diego Llorente, who has gone to AS Roma on loan until the end of the season, with a view to a permanent deal. He will be playing for José Mourinho there, which is unfortunate for him. In his first season I thought he was our most reliable defender, but he seemed to get more error prone as time went on, so inevitably he fell out of favour.

He has made only 13 appearances this season, with quite a few of them coming in cup ties, and the arrival of Max Wöber will inevitably restrict his game time even more. Eyebrows were raised when Leeds extended his contract last month, but it looks like that was only done to ensure we will pick up a transfer fee for him.

And just in case Llorente’s departure left us a bit short of backup in central defence, we have signed 18 year-old Diogo Monteiro from Servette FC. He was born in Switzerland, but has represented Portugal in various age groups in international football. He has agreed a three and a half year contract and the fee is described as ‘undisclosed’.

He will initially join the under 21 squad, even though he is right footed and that area of the squad is now leaning quite heavily to the left. I’m not sure who will get the right sided role on Sunday when Koch serves a one match suspension. We have already sent out two young central defenders (Hjelde and Cresswell) because we can’t give them enough game time at the moment, so Monteiro will face quite a bit of competition to break through in the next few years.

All the same, it’s good to see the club having such an active transfer window, in direct contrast to the one 12 months ago. It could be a sign that the 49ers are putting some funding in as they move towards a takeover, or that we are now the 19th richest club in the world in terms of income. We still have the second smallest wage bill in the Premier League, but that might be because we’ve got so many young players.

Let’s hope that over the next couple of months the squad will prove that it has sufficient quality and depth to keep us in the Premier League and get through to the later stages of the FA Cup.

Reuters

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