Cellino

Leeds United: all about the players not the price – Phil Hay

In football, it seems like everybody’s got a price and with some of these I wonder how they sleep at night. I mean, when it comes to transfers when the sale comes first and the truth comes second, you just stop for a minute and smile. The transfer window opens and fans sit back and think why is everybody so serious, acting so damn mysterious and why have they got shades on their eyes. Transfer fees climb and some say we need to take it back in time to when it wasn’t low blows and video shows; am I the only one getting tired and wondering why everybody is so obsessed, I mean money can’t but us happiness.

Sometimes it’s not always just about the price tag.

It is refreshing to know that reflecting the quirkiness of Jesse J’s lyrics, sometimes it is really important that football clubs “forget about the price tag” and instead look at what it is that they will be getting with what they spend. That is why it was interesting to note that Phil Hay, of the Yorkshire Evening Post, says that Leeds United’s transfer strategy and ethos was aimed more at the players rather than what it is that they cost.

With Leeds fans facing that double-edged sword of historical transfer fees where they either haven’t paid enough to buy quality or have paid too much on mediocrity, this more balanced approach is interesting to note. As Hay says, it’s not the fact that Cellino is awash with cash that is the issue at Leeds, it’s what he he doing with what is at his disposal that Leeds fans should hearten themselves from. Speaking directly of what is seemingly a doomed bid to sign Watford’s Fernando Forestieri, Phil Hay writes,

“Cellino did not offer £3million for Fernando Forestieri because there is cash sloshing around at Elland Road, waiting to be burned. He saw Forestieri as a sound investment so he found the money Watford asked for and agreed to pay it. “ Phil Hay: Yorkshire Evening Post; August 27, 2015

This player focus over price tag payable approach is something, measured as it is, that Leeds haven’t experienced over recent transfer windows. Last summer was more akin to the end of an episode of Phoenix Nights where Leeds would ‘have him’ basically because they were cheap. Now I am not saying that applied to all last summer’s transfers but it has often been an accusation hurled at the purchase strategy of the club in previous windows. The change in focus is more than welcome then, well to most fans it will be.

What is interesting about Hay’s article is that he says “people around the Italian say he is more resistant to high wages than high fees.” You can’t avoid fees, players valuations vary in scale and no one sells a player on the cheap. So while Cellino will likely pay a high fee, if he thinks it worthwhile and viable, he will baulk at paying high wages for the player. As Hay mentions, contracts can be structured in such a way that incentives, bonuses, clauses, add-ons…call them what you will, limit the headline wage a player earns per week. Instead they are forced to work towards these incentivised additions to supplement their ‘per week’ wage. Maybe that explains why there was a lack of connection when Sam Byram was asked to lengthen his contract but for less pay; thankfully contract negotiations are back on with Byram.

 The move behind the ‘high wage’ issue, comes as Cellino attempts to trim down the sky-high wage bill at Elland Road. When Cellino took the reins at the club, it was bleeding money; things needed to be reeled in and cut back. The wage bill per annum was “breaking £20m” according to Phil Hay, now it is said to be around £13m. This reduction was necessary to see a more even operating budget. It is with reductions like this that Cellino, Rösler and the transfer war room can sign players like Chris Wood, players they want, and pay a price over and beyond what Wolverhampton Wanderers were willing to cough up. It wasn’t the fact a spare £2.7m was found for Wood that was the issue, it was that Leeds needed Wood and the money was found. Same with Brentford’s Stuart Dallas, player need was identified and £1.3m was found. The same ethos and practice operates behind the Floyd Ayite and Anthony Limbombe bid; the player is identified, Cellino has an idea of value and negotiates. However, he shrewdly walks away should the valuation, in the case of Ayite, be too much to make the player unviable for the club. This approach echoes what Uwe Rösler said after the Elland Road draw against Sheffield Wednesday that the club were trying to sign, “the right players at the right age at the right price.”
If you wanna make the world dance, forget [largely] about the price tag. That’s been the mantra behind Leeds United’s recruitment this summer so far. That’s how recruitment should be.
All in-text quotations are from Phil Hay’s article in the Yorkshire Evening Post
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