Since dropping into the Championship, Leeds United have found it tough to convince Premier League clubs to loan them their young talent.
The Whites did manage to prise Manor Solomon and Joe Rothwell on loan from Tottenham and Bournemouth respectively, but they are both already well established players.
Leeds were able to sign those two because they had already been deemed surplus to requirements at their current clubs. It was a similar story for Joe Rodon, Djed Spence, Jaidon Anthony and Connor Roberts last season, too.
There are plenty of examples over the last 13 months of Leeds being interested in a Premier League youngster, but losing out to other Championship clubs.
Fabio Carvalho to Hull City in January was a major one, while Jesurun Rak-Sakyi to Sheffield United and even Owen Beck to Blackburn Rovers are more recent.
Why Leeds missed out on Daniel Jebbison to Watford
After losing out on Rak-Sakyi, Daniel Farke explained in a press conference that Leeds have been missing out on these sort of players due to not offering guaranteed game-time.
Of course, these comments did not go down too well with Chris Wilder, but when the likes of Wilfried Gnonto and Dan James are already at the club, it is understandable.
But Rak-Sakyi certainly wasn’t the only example where that happened to Leeds, with transfer expert Graeme Bailey exclusively telling LeedsUnited.News there was a similar scenario with Daniel Jebbison, too.
Leeds had been keen to sign Jebbison following his release from Sheffield United but were beaten to his signature by Bournemouth, who agreed to pay £1.5 million in compensation.
In the next stage of his development, Bournemouth opted to loan out Jebbison to a Championship club, with Watford winning the race ahead of Leeds due to their guarantee of regular minutes.
Bailey said: “Daniel Jebbison, Leeds were still in for him towards the end. I think if he’d been guaranteed more game time, Leeds might have got Jebbison. He’s an interesting one now he’s gone to Watford, let’s see how he does there.
“The only reason he’s gone to Watford is they can guarantee the playing time, but Leeds couldn’t. He’s one that went under the radar a little bit. There were a few full-backs Leeds were in for, but Firpo is doing well now.
“I don’t think there’s that many Leeds were too disappointed by. Obviously they did try for Hamer and some strikers towards the end, I think they’re fairly happy.”
Leeds placing weight of expectation on Mateo Joseph
Though all of the chatter since the end of the window has been about Leeds’ failure to sign a 10, another striker may not have been the worst idea either.
Mateo Joseph is undoubtedly Leeds’ first choice number nine and hopefully will be for many years to come, but he does not have much in the way of support.
Patrick Bamford is the only out-and-out alternative to Joseph in Farke‘s squad, but he unfortunately struggles to stay fit these days.
Leeds are now effectively hoping and praying Joseph is able to stay fully fit until at least January, when it may be worth reassessing.
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