No club in Europe has made more money in player sales than Leeds United this summer.
The big-money exits of the likes of Georginio Rutter, Archie Gray and Crysencio Summerville has seen Leeds make nearly £140 million, of which only £15 million has been reinvested into the squad.
Leeds now have just nine days to complete the four signings in which Daniel Farke is keen to complete, which include a full-back, central midfielder and two attackers.
However, Farke has already acknowledged it is unlikely he will have any new players available for Friday’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday.
It is certainly worrying times for Leeds supporters not only in the hope that four signings come through the door before August 30, but also that they are of adequate quality.
Farke makes claim about replacing Georginio Rutter
Even with the amount of money Leeds have generated through player sales, it is going to be almost impossible to replace Rutter or Summerville at this level.
The two players combined for a total of 50 goal contributions in the Championship last season and failing to get promoted was always going to make it difficult to keep them.
There had certainly been more hope around retaining Rutter, but speaking in his pre-Sheffield Wednesday press conference, Farke has revealed when he started planning for life without them.
The Leeds boss claimed earlier today he told his recruitment team to start life without both Rutter and Summerville as early as January, but acknowledged how difficult it will be to replace the ‘unique’ skillset of the former in particular.
He said: “I have asked everyone who is working on this topic to prepare months ago for this scenario when I was aware of exit clauses. Georgi is pretty unique the way he plays, when he shows his quality and potential he can be an extraordinary player.
“I think it was perhaps not realistic five months ago to think about this, but since January I urged everyone in our scouting department to be prepared to play without Georginio and Cree Summerville.
“I’ve urged them to work on this not just a few weeks ago but several months. One thing is to work on this replacement and the other is to bring it over the line.”
Farke with another slight dig at Leeds chiefs
Today’s press conference was the third week in a row in which Farke was tasked with facing questions without any progress being made on transfers.
With that in mind, it would be fair to say he cut a considerably more frustrated figure, both in his body language and the way he responded.
For the first time, he admitted that as a manager he would’ve liked movement to happen considerably quicker.
These quotes about replacing Rutter and Summerville are also fairly damning on Leeds’ recruitment team, considering it is now nine months since Farke seemingly told them plans needed to be in place.
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