Leeds United are renowned for being interested in bringing in young players to Elland Road. Indeed, it has been a focus at the club since Andrea Radrizzani took over ownership. However, they recently missed out on one exciting starlet as Jadan Raymond decided to sign extended terms at Crystal Palace. Now Athletic correspondent David Ornstein adds some gloss and detail to why this happened.
Raymond joined the Eagles from local youth set-up Croydon FC at the tender age of eight years old and was marked out as one to watch. Palace was keen to keep him in South London but their offer of a three-year deal was apparently turned down by the youngster’s team who favoured a two-year contract according to a jointly-authored article by The Athletic duo Matt Woosnam and Phil Hay.
The result of the youngster turning down a deal was that he then turned his attention elsewhere and that elsewhere was Leeds United. The Whites were said to be “in advanced talks” with Raymond but those talks proved to be fruitless as the youngster signed a two-year scholarship deal at Selhurst Park.
The announcement that Raymond had signed a two-year scholarship deal at Selhurst Park came on the back of Palace’s Academy being upgraded to a Category 1 Academy.
Woosnam and Hay did say in their article that Leeds United was worried about the possibility of the compensation fee that they’d have to pay to land the talented youngster. The Athletic’s Ornstein added to this with some keen detail.
Like Woosnam and Hay, he reiterated that the Whites had held talks with representatives of the youngster and were keen on taking the 16-year-old to Elland Road. However, their worries were about the fee they’d be facing. Ornstein writes that Leeds:
“feared a tribunal fee would cost them in the region of £750,000, a figure they were unwilling to commit to without the guarantee of promotion to the Premier League.“
That is now all tucked into the past and it is the future that Leeds United must focus on. That future is geared towards promotion to the Premier League and could be achieved on Thursday if Leeds United beat Barnsley and Brentford drop points against Preston North End.
