Manchester United shown £70m cost-saving transfer tactic by Leeds United director as prices soar

Leeds have added six senior players to their squad this season whilst bidding farewell to just two – admittedly influential – first-teamers.

Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips’ departures have been mitigated by the arrival of Brenden Aaronson, Rasmus Kristensen, Marc Roca, Tyler Adams, Luis Sinisterra and, to a lesser extent due to his position, Joel Robles.

In doing so, the United board have strengthened Leeds’ starting XI, whilst simultaneously bolstering depth in key areas.

The same cannot be said for other Premier League clubs, including arch-rivals Manchester United whose soap opera summer has featured a new head coach, a wantaway world-beater, inconsistent early season form and yet more fan protests directed at absent ownership.

In total, Leeds have spent roughly £90 million on their six first-team additions, which is a similar figure to Manchester United’s acquisition of AFC Ajax forward Antony.

The consensus among Premier League football fans is that the Old Trafford club have overspent, exploited by the Dutch side who like many others, are aware of the internal strife in Manchester and new boss Erik ten Hag’s desire to sign players he has worked with previously.

Following Leeds’ survival on the final day at Brentford last season, Jesse Marsch, Victor Orta and Andrea Radrizzani sat down to discuss the club’s incoming and outgoing transfer plans.

It is no coincidence United have signed Adams, Aaronson and Kristensen, each of whom having played for Marsch at various points in their careers to date.

Given the difficulty of a managerial transition, Leeds identified individuals with a history of playing Marsch’s preferred style in order to ease the learning process for the United squad as a whole.

In theory, if three players in a starting XI have an intrinsic understanding of the head coach’s style, it is an easier task to implement said approach than starting from scratch with an XI containing players with no prior experience.

Tying up these deals at the beginning of the window has saved Leeds the ignominy and frustration of a bidding war which often sees prices rise to unpalatable amounts, not to mention millions of pounds the club cannot afford to burn frivolously.

Manchester United on the other hand have employed a similar tactic of adding players Ten Hag has experience of working alongside. However, they have made public knowledge their pursuit of such deals and dragged their feet in signing Lisandro Martinez and Antony, ultimately costing the club more in transfer fees, and wasting valuable time during pre-season which could have been spent integrating fresh faces into their new surroundings.

Antony was involved in 22 goals (12 goals; 10 assists) for Dutch champions Ajax last season, while £21 million Sinisterra had a hand in 37 across all competitions (23 goals; 14 assists) for fellow Netherlands side Feyenoord.

Sinisterra scored or assisted on average once every 108 minutes during 2021/22, whereas Antony registered a goal involvement every 113 minutes.

The pair both operate in wide areas, have arrived from the same division and their birthday are separated by eight months – rendering the £70 million disparity in transfer fees difficult to comprehend at face value.

That is not to say Leeds have achieved every single transfer objective this summer – that is far from the truth.

United's pursuit of Charles de Ketelaere ended in disappointment as the Belgian joined Italian champions AC Milan, while the closure of this summer’s transfer window is imminent and there is yet to be movement on a new striker.

The addition of another left-back appears unlikely at this stage, too.

In his most recent programme notes, chief executive Angus Kinnear outlined the very strategy summarised above.

"Already, we know we have secured 90 per cent of our number one targets which is an impressive strike rate.

"We have also succeeded in our primary aim of getting the business done early to allow Jesse to integrate the players into the squad in pre-season, which we believed was particularly critical this year as the whole squad had to embrace a new tactical philosophy.

"The rewards of this approach have been clearly evidenced in our first four games and the players should be applauded for the remarkable speed of adaptation,” Kinnear wrote.

Leeds do not operate on the same financial plane as their biggest rivals meaning £90 million transfers are out of the question.

These budget constraints do sharpen decisions at the top, though, and action without delay has unquestionably saved Leeds money compared to if they had pursued the likes of Sinisterra up until the transfer deadline, as well as striking before other clubs could assemble rival bids.