Roy Keane is ever the pessimist when it comes to Premier League football and promoted teams. However, Leeds United could be about to break the mould and avoid relegation at the first time of asking.
The gulf between the Premier League and the Championship is always increasing, and it’s no more evident in the fact that the last six promoted teams from the Championship have all come down within just one season.
Daniel Farke’s side stormed to the Championship title last season, amassing 100 points and dominating the league, albeit being taken down to the wire by a rampant Burnley side, and the 49ers have spent well so far this summer.
Leeds United’s summer spending totals nearly £80m, with much more left in the transfer kitty. So far, seven new players have arrived, with Leeds United signing Lucas Perri last week, filling the number one spot which was a key priority for the club going into this summer.
With the transfers rolling in and more expected soon, it’s starting to look like Leeds United have a lot of reason to believe they can beat the drop next season.
Roy Keane’s warning has been heeded by Leeds United so far this summer
Speaking last season, Roy Keane gave his verdict on teams being promoted from the Championship and how they find it difficult to compete. Keane explained that promoted teams have difficulties in recruitment because they often can’t attract the top players needed for Premier League survival, as the players joining will be taking a risk not knowing whether the team will be in the Premier League for much longer than just one season.
But given the quality of the seven summer signings at Leeds United and the experience that players like Sean Longstaff add to the team, Farke has a lot of reason to believe that Leeds can definitely compete in the Premier League next season and maybe even surprise a few teams and achieve a relatively comfortable finish.
Keane previously said: “When you do get promoted you’re talking about recruitment, but it’s hard to get top players because a lot of the really good players, they don’t want to go to a promoted team because they don’t want to be playing at that level. They want to be competing at mid-table or obviously competing for big prizes. So that’s a massive challenge.”
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Who have Leeds United signed so far this summer, and who is next?
The seven players who have arrived at Elland Road this summer are as follows: Lukas Nmecha, Jaka Bijol, Sebastiaan Bornauw, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Longstaff, Anton Stach, and Perri.
It’s a solid seven additions and all seven arguably walk into the starting 11, though Nmecha may be a backup striker going into next season, depending on who arrives and who replaces the likes of Mateo Joseph who’s widely expected to leave Leeds United, along with Patrick Bamford.
It looks like Leeds United are rapidly turning their focus to attack. Reports claim that Farke still wants to sign a winger, a new number 10, and a new striker before the summer transfer window shuts on September 1st, and Leeds United’s top striker target is Rodrigo Muniz at Fulham.
Leeds have so far been knocked back in their approaches to sign the Fulham man, though the Cottagers are looking for a new striker of their own and it suggests that they are willing to sell Muniz this summer, and potentially for less than the £50m first quoted, but only when they sign a replacement for the Brazilian.
Elsewhere, Leeds look set to turn their attentions to other wide players after Marseille won the race to sign Igor Paixao from Feyenoord. Names potentially in the running to arrive are the likes of Timothy Weah at Juventus.
The search for a new number 10 goes on, however. Leeds United are in talks to sign Gustavo Hamer, but the Sheffield United man is understood to be not so keen on a move to West Yorkshire this summer.
Who arrives next remains a bit of a mystery, though expect it to definitely be a player in the final third of the pitch.
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