Having sold Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha for a combined £100m in the summer of 2022, Jesse Marsch had a war-chest to spend on new players and signed 12 new players during 2022-23 at Leeds United.
Leeds had finished the 2021-22 season with Joe Gelhardt leading the line. Rodrigo and Patrick Bamford were on the books but it was clear to see that The Whites needed to sign a new striker that summer.
But they failed to do so. In the summer of 2022, nine came in but no first-team strikers – the only striker-like player being Sonny Perkins who at 18, was an addition for the U21 side at Leeds under Marsch.
Leeds then, struggled without a proper striker during the first half of the season and in January, they spent a club-record fee to land Georginio Rutter. He was young, unproven, and unable to speak English.
Jesse Marsch had chance to sign striker for £16.75m in 2022
Rutter failed to provide the difference – obviously, he would go on to shine in the Championship and earn a £40m move to Brighton. But Rutter was not the man Leeds needed to fight the Premier League drop.
Marsch was sacked in February 2023 and three others would take to the Leeds dugout before the club suffered relegation. Something Leeds are still suffering from even now, under German boss Daniel Farke.
But in the summer of 2022, it could have been so different. Jeunes Footeux report Leeds and Newcastle were considering moves to sign Moise Kean from Juventus, the Italy ace allowed to go for a £16.75m fee.
Moise Kean is starring in Serie A for Fiorentina at the moment
That summer, Kean was preparing for the second year of a two-season loan at Juventus from Everton with an obligation organised. He would eventually complete that move, joining Fiorentina a year later in 2024.
Bought by Fiorentina for £11m two years after Leeds could have signed him, Kean has been on fire for La Viola. He sits in second place in Serie’s goalscoring rankings, netting 16 in the league and 21 in total.
Three assists, too. Kean might not have been everyone’s choice of signing but if Leeds had landed the Italy ace that summer – alongside Willy Gnonto – then it mght have just kept Leeds in the Premier League.
Certainly, it would have done had Kean produced the form he is currently providing at Fiorentina where he is pushing La Viola towards a scrap for European qualification in the final eight games of the season.
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