Can Leeds United expect to retain Marcelo Bielsa's top assets this summer?

Ronaldo Vieira, Bielsa warned, would be worth more than the £7m Sampdoria were offering if Leeds United kept hold of him for another season but Leeds were looking for money and Radrizzani decided to take it.

“Unfortunately the club needs to have some injection,” the Italian said as Vieira departed for Italy.

That conversation and that transfer took place last July and the proof that Vieira’s price might have risen sharply on Bielsa’s watch is not so much in the midfielder’s first season in Serie A as it is in the increased value of some of the players he left behind.

Jack Clarke had seen no first-team football 12 months ago but is wanted by Tottenham Hotspur now and will cost in excess of £10m.

Kalvin Phillips, Vieira’s former midfield colleague, would command a higher fee than that. It is like Marseille’s goalkeeper, Steve Mandanda, once said about Bielsa: “He made almost everybody in this group of players progress.”

There was little in the squad at Leeds, Vieira and Pontus Jansson aside, which felt instantly saleable last summer after the club’s laboured trek to 13th in the Championship but the shift in performance and exposure under Bielsa leaves Radrizzani with assets to protect.

United, to a point, have been a selling club under their current chairman, open to offers if finances require it, and the model suggests they might cut their cloth again at some stage of this transfer window but Leeds are conscious too of protecting the spine of Bielsa’s team.

Jansson was at the centre of it for so long this season, from the point of Gaetano Berardi’s knee injury in August until the play-offs when an ankle problem sidelined him and Berardi regained his place.

The Swede is a perennial source of transfer speculation and, in the early part of the season just gone, Leeds rejected a large offer for him from Russian club Krasnodar, concluding that Jansson was too valuable to lose.

Premier League football was Jansson’s ambition when he came to England from Torino in 2016 and each passing year in the Championship begs the question of how long United can retain a defender who played for Sweden at last summer’s World Cup.

Jansson is in his homeland currently, preparing for two Euro 2020 qualifiers, but told Aftonbladet that he is ready for a fourth attempt to get Leeds promoted.

“I’ve always said that taking the step up to the Premier League is my dream and I want to do it with Leeds,” Jansson said.

“It’s up to Leeds if there’s an interest in negotiating (with other clubs) but until then I’m 110 percent Leeds. I’ll be there until the day they don’t want me.”

Jansson’s contract runs to 2022, one of the longest deals on the books at Elland Road, and United are under no pressure to renegotiate it but there are other deals which require attention, and Phillips’ not least.

The 23-year-old has two seasons left under the terms of his existing agreement but his stock has risen drastically under Bielsa and Leeds have him on the list of players they intend to target for talks.

Liam Cooper, Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Kemar Roofe are also expected to receive new offers, although Roofe stands to become a free agent at the end of next season and will seek a significant rise in his salary, to a level comparable with the wage earned by fellow forward Patrick Bamford.

Bournemouth were heavily linked with Phillips two weeks ago but the transfer window is at an early stage and Leeds are yet to receive approaches for any of their main players.

Tottenham’s interest in Clarke is genuine but the Premier League side, who contest the Champions League final in Madrid tomorrow, have held off on an attempt to force Leeds’ arm so far.

The teenage winger is one of United’s most highly-rated academy products but, in the context of this season, made far less of an impact on Bielsa’s first team than Phillips, Jansson or Roofe.

If Leeds find themselves in a position where cash is needed, Clarke might ultimately be the easiest player to sell.

United, though, will see how the land lies first: which of their own transfer targets are available and for how much, and what level of funding they can pull in by clearing out players who no longer have a future at Elland Road, a way of avoiding pressure to auction those who do.

Retaining Bielsa as head coach was partly about continuity and his discussions with Leeds prior to the extension of his contract left the club in no doubt that the crux of the team as it was this season will be the crux of the team again, in a blueprint which continues to include all of the same protagonists.