Leeds United were willing to splash the cash to back Daniel Farke in the summer transfer window to bolster the squad for a season in the Premier League.
Whilst they may not have brought in the winger, Harry Wilson, that they wanted on deadline day, the Whites did add to the manager’s options in several key positions across the pitch.
Their work in the summer window has helped them earn eight points from their first seven Premier League matches. A very respectable return for a newly-promoted outfit.
Ranking Leeds United's summer signings
The Championship champions brought in ten new signings to improve the squad in the summer, and we have ranked them based on how they have looked so far.
We have gone for Noah Okafor in first place because the winger has scored two Premier League goals already and looks like he could be a real difference-maker in the final third, which could be the difference between being relegated and staying up.
1
Noah Okafor
2
Anton Stach
3
Gabriel Gudmundsson
4
Sean Longstaff
5
Dominic Calvert-Lewin
6
Lukas Nmecha
7
Lucas Perri
8
James Justin
9
Jaka Bijol
10
Sebastiaan Bornauw
Jaka Bijol, Sebastiaan Bornauw, and James Justin are all in the bottom three because they have played 18 minutes of Premier League football between them.
Sean Longstaff, Gabriel Gudmundsson, and Anton Stach have been regular starters and established themselves in the XI fairly quickly, hence their rankings, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin still has a bit to prove with one goal and eight ‘big chances’ missed in all competitions, per Sofascore.
Whilst it remains to be seen how these signings will be remembered in the future, we can review how some of the club’s signings performed when they were last promoted to the Premier League.
The Whites splashed the cash to break their transfer record to sign Rodrigo for Marcelo Bielsa in the summer of 2020, and the transfer did not go exactly to plan.
How much money Leeds United lost on Rodrigo
Leeds reportedly paid a fee of £27m to sign the Spain international to bolster their options at the top end of the pitch, but he failed to provide consistent quality in the final third.
Rodrigo scored seven goals and provided two assists in 27 Premier League matches in the 2020/21 campaign, before a return of six goals and one assist in 31 games in the 2021/22 season, per Sofascore.
At the end of that second season, journalist Phil Hay said: “My criticism more and more is that the impact of that investment just hasn’t been felt. Not enough of their signings have made a difference.
“Even on Wednesday, watching Rodrigo against Chelsea, I still can’t work out what he is. Where does he really fit in and is he ever going to work. That’s a £27million player.”
The reporter could not work out where the left-footed forward would fit in, and it was fair to question his contributions after 13 goals in two seasons as a £27m club-record signing.
In that 2021/22 campaign, pundit and former player Michael Dawson also claimed that he was “hiding” and “non-existent” in a clash with Southampton in October 2021, which shows that pundits and journalists alike were unimpressed with his performances.
Rodrigo scored 13 goals in the 2022/23 campaign, as Leeds were relegated from the Premier League, and eventually left the club to join Al-Rayyan for a fee of just £3m.
This shows that the Whites had a howler with the signing of the Spaniard because he was criticised by pundits and journalists in his first two seasons at the club, scored goals in a season that the team struggled in, and then left for £24m less than what he was signed for.
It was a signing that did not prove to be value for money in the long run, and Farke and the 49ers will be hoping that none of this summer’s transfers are remembered as poorly as this one.