'No loyalty whatsoever'- £3m Leeds United signing lifts lid on Elland Road move as brutal manager talks revealed

Barry Douglas has admitted that his £3m move to Leeds United made him see football in a different light as he was swiftly sold by Wolverhampton Wanderers after playing a key role in their promotion to the Premier League.

The Scottish left-back joined Wolves in 2017 and played in 39 of their 46 Championship games, scoring five goals as well as providing 14 assists - which put him top of the assist charts alongside Aston Villa’s Robert Snodgrass. However, Douglas was not around the following season to play a part in Wolves’ first season back in the Premier League as he joined Leeds in a £3m deal that summer.

The 35-year-old was the first permanent signing of the Marcelo Bielsa era, with loan deals for Chelsea pair Jamal Blackman and Lewis Baker completed earlier that summer. After play-off defeat in 2019, Douglas earned promotion with the Whites in 2020 as Bielsa’s side clinched the Championship title. Discussing his move to Elland Road on the Under The Cosh podcast, Douglas insisted he felt no ill feeling about his departure from Wolves but said it highlighted how there was no loyalty in football.

“I had a good relationship with him [Wolves manager Nuno Espírito Santo], never had any bother. Even when I left, there was a lot said about how I left and why I left. It was never really addressed because you don’t want to be putting stuff in the media. People are going to create their own narrative,” said the defender, who joined St Johnstone last month after spending a few months as a free agent.

“There was never any animosity. My agent was speaking about a new contract, towards the end of the season, but it just felt like there was some stalling and I felt something wasn’t right. It was pre-season and my agent called me and said the manager is going to speak to you. He [Nuno] pulled aside and sat me down, he told me how much admiration he had for me but that they’d had a bid from Leeds and that they were going to accept it.

“He said it was in everyone’s best interests that I take it and go. I felt like I had merited the chance to play in the Premier League, after what I’d contributed. I am all for rising to the challenge to compete with somebody - it is the opportunity I want. He said they were going to bring someone in and that selling me would help them fund bringing someone in and that they were going to go with that person and one young guy [as left-back options].

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“I was told if I stayed I wouldn’t be included, basically. He said it is nothing personal, it is just business. I was big and ugly enough to get on with it and go and enjoy something new. At that moment, I saw football differently. There is no loyalty in football whatsoever. It is just business at the end of the day.”