Leeds United ended their lengthy await a return again to the Premier League as Marcelo Bielsa guided the crew to promotion from the Championship within the 2019/20 marketing campaign.
The Argentine head coach wanted two seasons within the second tier to say the much-coveted prize of securing top-flight soccer because the Whites received the title, ending above West Brom within the desk.
Bielsa additionally got here near doing it in his first marketing campaign in cost as he led the aspect to 3rd within the desk, ending beneath Sheffield United and Norwich earlier than dropping within the play-offs.
The ex-Marseille coach arrived at Elland Street in the summertime of 2018 and his first switch window in Yorkshire was a busy one, as Victor Orta introduced within the likes of Patrick Bamford, Barry Douglas, and Kiko Casilla.
Leeds additionally cashed in one among their hottest prospects as they offered central midfielder Ronaldo Vieira to Italian aspect Sampdoria for a reported payment of £7.7m.
Whites proprietor Andrea Radrizzani defined that he made the sale for the nice of the membership, telling BBC Sport:
“The funding we’ve made prior to now yr doesn’t enable us to do the rest to search out extra assets.
“The sacrifice was very laborious for me to do as a result of he’s an important participant. He was one among greatest gamers to return from our youth however I can’t put the membership in peril sooner or later.
“We thought it could be a sacrifice we might take, and nonetheless keep the crew and make investments the place we want extra.”
One of many gamers they signed with the cash that the sale raised was Bamford and the striker scored 16 Championship targets within the promotion-winning season after which managed 17 strikes within the top-flight to assist Leeds keep their place within the division.
In the meantime, Vieira has struggled to kick on in his profession. He has solely performed 67 matches for Sampdoria in simply over 4 years on the membership, though he spent one yr on mortgage at Hellas Verona – enjoying 5 instances – in 2020/21.
Within the three seasons wherein he has performed 10 or extra matches within the Serie A, the Englishman didn’t common a SofaScore ranking greater than 6.68. For context, a rating of 6.68 would place him 18th within the Leeds squad for the 2021/22 marketing campaign within the Premier League – beneath Helder Costa and Adam Forshaw.
This means that he has been unable to ship constantly spectacular performances within the Italian top-flight and his market worth is a mirrored image of that. On the time of writing (23/09/22), Transfermarkt worth Vieira at £3.15m – considerably lower than the preliminary £7.7m Leeds obtained for him in 2018.
His worth has plummeted by 59% and this reveals that Radrizzani performed a blinder as he was in a position to rake in an enormous payment for the Sampdoria dud earlier than his profession began to move down a slope, while additionally reinvesting the cash brilliantly – with Bamford.
