Championship manager already forced to defend player Leeds United sold for £2m this year

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A large part of Daniel Farke’s tenure as Leeds United manager has been about clearing dead wood from the side in order to build a team capable of winning promotion.

Since arriving at Elland Road, Farke has waved goodbye to 26 players on a permanent basis that have had first-team involvement at Leeds. From Archie Gray, to Robin Koch, to Club Brugge’s Dani van den Heuvel.

Leeds have had to do that in order to remove wages from the wage bill following relegation, and bring in cash to balance the books and provide Farke with cash to go an reinvest and build a squad capable.

He has done that over the last 14 or 15 months. Georginio Rutter scored his first Brighton goal at the weekend, Tyler Adams has become injury plagued, Luis Sinisterra has impressed as have plenty more.

But one player to leave Leeds during Farke’s tenure as manager is really struggling at a Championship rival. Sold in January 2024, the player in question has forced his manager to defend him this week.

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Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris defends Leo Hjelde after Leeds exit

Many will forget that actually, Leo Hjelde started in Farke’s first competitive game as manager. He lasted only a half for Leeds in the 2-2 draw against Cardiff before the German boss hooked him at the break.

He only played three times under Farke and eight times in total for Leeds. That Cardiff outing was his only league appearance under Farke and that led to Sunderland paying £2m to sign Hjelde in January 2024.

Since then, Hjelde has played just 12 times for the Black Cats and only once this season, even if he did captain Sunderland in the Carabao Cup against Preston. Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has commented.

“He’s very close to the team and he will have opportunities for sure. He’s a good player, he has a good mentality, he is still very connected with the team. We need this kind of player.

“They are not really involved at the minute but they are very close to the team and I’m sure he will have an opportunity to play,” Le Bris told The Northern Echo about Hjelde when asked about his game time.

Leo Hjelde fails to live up to hype after Virgil van Dijk comparison

A Norway U21 defender, left-footed centre-back Hjelde arrived at Elland Road from Celtic as one of Victor Orta’s many young recruits. It came after failing to play for Celtic but starring on loan at Ross County.

Leo Hjelde’s false starts as he struggles to realise potential:

That loan saw him work under John Hughes, who tipped Hjelde to be the next van Dijk as per BBC Sport: “Leo is going to be the next Van Dijk – trust me on that. The quality he has shown, the physical challenge.”

Since those comments, Hjelde failed to make it at Leeds and actually, was particularly indifferent even in the U21 side at Elland Road. The move to Sunderland has not worked either, struggling to win game time.

It will be interesting to see where Hjelde turns next. Whether it works out at Sunderland or the defender has to leave again and find himself a new club in order to finally start playing and show his potential.