Leeds United will be keen to offload the players that left the club on loan last summer using Victor Orta’s relegation loan clause, but Diego Llorente now looks set to return to Elland Road.
Llorente, 30, has spent the last 18 months on loan at Serie A giants Roma. The Spain international has clocked up 54 appearances for Roma, reaching the Europa League final last season with the Italian side.
Initially joining for the second half of last season, Roma renewed his stay at the Olimpico for the 2023-24 campaign. He has gone on to clock up 42 games this term, starting games after Jose Mourinho’s sacking.
He recently scored a late equaliser to draw with Fiorentina and now-Roma manager Daniele De Rossi described the centre-back as “tremendous”. Reports suggested that Roma would sign him permanently.
Indeed, it was said that Llorente had convinced Roma to buy him for £4.3m, and Leeds were confident of selling him. But now, TuttoMercatoWeb give an update and it is not good news for the Yorkshire club.
They claim that like Rasmus Kristensen, Roma will ‘probably’ not renew Llorente’s spell in Italy and he will go back to Leeds in the summer ahead of a future exit.
Diego Llorente now expected to return to Leeds from Roma
It comes as a bit of a surprise given Leeds were confident, and that Roma would only need to spend £4.3m to get him permanently. Clearly, they value him given his game time under Mourinho and De Rossi.
TMW state that Roma are trying to reduce spending and streamline their squad, and that is likely to rule out a permanent move for Llorente despite his game time and the bargain price Roma have in place.
What are the state of other out-on-loan Leeds players?
Robin Koch has joined Frankfurt permanently and Luis Sinisterra will move to Bournemouth beyond his loan. Everton’s sporting director Kevin Thewell says his side have a plan in place for winger Jack Harrison.
Leeds want £14.5m for Max Wober, which Gladbach are unwilling to pay. As stated, Kristensen will return to Leeds while Marc Roca is expected to the same and Union Berlin have confirmed Brenden Aaronson is.
So, while Leeds have managed to shift Sinisterra for a fee north of £20m, there is still plenty of work to be done to rake in any cash for the remaining players of the eight that used Orta’s relegation loan clause.
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