Far removed from the days of Sir Alex Ferguson’s hairdryer treatment or Brian Clough’s no-nonsense approach, players have all the power in modern football.
Teams who hover around the bottom half of the Premier League have felt the full force of player power since the rise of the ‘big six’, with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Matheus Cunha and Kalvin Phillips moving within the top flight for huge fees in recent years.
Leeds United have dealt with their fair share of star players leaving for pastures new, including Ballon d’Or candidate Raphinha and academy starlet Archie Gray.
Leeds’ record departures
|
Leeds’ largest ever sales |
Signed for – fee |
|---|---|
|
10. Chris Wood |
Burnley – £14m |
|
9. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink |
Atletico Madrid – £14.5m |
|
8. Luis Sinisterra |
Bournemouth – £20m |
|
7. Tyler Adams |
Bournemouth – £23m |
|
6. Crysencio Summerville |
West Ham United – £25m |
|
5. Rio Ferdinand |
Manchester United – £30m |
|
4. Archie Gray |
Tottenham Hotspur – £40m |
|
3. Georginio Rutter |
Brighton – £40m |
|
2. Kalvin Phillips |
Manchester City – £42m |
|
1. Raphinha |
Barcelona – £50m |
Despite Leeds’ status as a huge club with a rich history, some players are just destined for greater things, as Pascal Struijk revealed just how good Raphinha was right from the off at Elland Road: “I knew for sure that he would be able to play with a top team.
“You look at his goals and assists, which he did for us as well. When you go to a big team, it’s about how you react when you make a move like that and I always believed in his ability, I had no doubts.
“My first impression of him was, ‘this guy’s got quality’. Sometimes you have players and you see them on the pitch and you think, he’s got that bit extra. When you see him doing it in the Prem, the talent speaks for itself.”
The Brazilian left Yorkshire on good terms after scoring in the game that secured the Whites’ Premier League status for another year, but not everyone on the list above can say the same.
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Things didn’t really work out at Elland Road.
Ferdinand: ‘I was a nightmare to make Leeds sell me’
Rio Ferdinand was perhaps the most controversial transfer of his time, leaving Leeds to join arch-rivals Manchester United in 2002, going on to win six Premier League titles under Fergie as one of the greatest centre-backs of all time.
And while it may be of little surprise to the Elland Road faithful who have never forgiven the legendary England defender, he told talkSPORT this week that he refused to leave then-chairman Peter Ridsdale’s office, imploring Leeds not to haggle on their price.
“I’d be causing him a nightmare to get out if we had an agreement. I did that at Leeds. I heard Man United were interested in me and I knew Leeds had to let me go.
“I went to Peter Ridsdale and said ‘listen, I know you need to sell me, let’s not haggle over a couple of million here or there. Get a deal done’.
“I was there for hours waiting and he ended up getting the deal done.”
That’s not to say Leeds were hard done by from a financial point of view however. Accounting for inflation, Ferdinand would be the second most expensive Premier League transfer of all time, coming in at around £200m in today’s terms.
Considering Southampton only received £75m for Van Dijk, widely regarded as the world’s best current centre-back, when he joined Liverpool in 2018, Ferdinand certainly cost the Red Devils a pretty penny.
However, his attitude towards his former employers only soured relations further after what was already a controversial move, taking advantage of the club’s financial difficulties as they plummeted to the third tier of English football.