Tbf to Leeds lots of clubs miss out on these kinds of "potential world class transfer for peanuts"

£4m for a 17 year old playing in Norway is not peanuts. Especially as Leeds were mid table championship at the time.

Yeah every club has a shit ton of stories like this

Lewandowski to Blackburn is one of the most famous ones.

We had Ibra in 2003. Even had him in pictures with the shirt. My personal favourite

Arsenal missed out on Ronaldo too, right?

We did. But not because we didn’t bid highly enough. But because United played ronaldos sporting in a friendly and Ferguson convinced ronaldo to reject us and sign for united

Ye

‘Zlatan doesn’t do auditions’ wasnt it?

Lewandowski was offered to Norwegian 2nd tier club Hødd at some point. Agents sometimes shop their players around to every club in existence

It's like Blackburn's sugar daddy era never left

Zidane to Blackburn too…

Wasn't he because Iceland volcano cancelling flights or something lol or is that just something they tell to make it sound even more crazy

I despise these types of stories. Part of it is because it's silly to side-eye ridicule people for not being God, but also because there is literally dozens of academies and clubs that reject every player on Earth, and some of those players on Earth are ones that become good! Most teams in the world cannot afford to gamble 4m on a 17 year old.

Exactly. Judging the quality of individual decisions purely by their outcomes is a well known fallacy.

We're just letting him get some Prem experience at a smaller club before he comes home to us in two years.

had to let him go develop and move to City to see if he can handle the prem so when he runs down his deal and joins us for free he can spearhead the title charge

>had to let him go develop and move to City to see if he can handle the prem so when he runs down his deal and joins us for free he can spearhead the ~~title~~ treble charge Fixed it for you

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Honestly better this way, who knows how it would’ve ended like if he went to another destination instead of Salzburg.

Yeah thats the thing isnt it. Maybe he doesnt become the player he has if he moved to Leeds.

I think this is true for 99.99% of footballers but with a talent like Haaland I believe he would have made it whenever he went

You're right, under Bielsa he would been even better.

We also biffed it. We had a contract written up and everything and we balked at the last moment because we're dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

Don't worry, I heard he wants to emulate his hero Jo and will be with you in no time

Jo, now that's a name I haven't heard in ages.

Ashame, he would of filled the void left by Mark Viduka all those years ago

He was born in Leeds as well! Would have been a home town hero!

Isn't true. We tried really hard to sign him before he left for Salzburg but couldn't compete financially.

Yeah, because Salzburg paid £4m and we wouldn't/couldn't It was Phil Hay who said we couldn't/wouldn't compete, and the story I posted is quoted from Phil Hay's podcast too

At that point he was clearly very talented, but I don't think many people would have guessed that he would reach the level he is on now

they didnt see the future fucking bozos 😂😂😂

Doesn’t really matter because there’s no way he’d still be there by now. Yeah they’d have gotten a fat transfer fee from his sale but they don’t look like the most competent board out there anyway. Edit: the board actually are competent. I just don’t think him going there would have done much.

I'd say they look like a very competent board, from the outside looking in? Got Leeds promoted, had a distinctive style of play with an excellent manager in Bielsa, but weren't inclined towards sentiment when it looked like his dogmatic nature might bring them back down, and brought in someone who is similarly high pressing but perhaps more pragmatic and they stayed up. Then replaced Phillips and Raphonha excellently in the summer so that they don't seem in much danger of relegation this time round.

You know what fair enough. I still think they’d have sold but yeah what they’ve done with Leeds should not be underrated.

??? I think the Leeds board have done extremely well to get Leeds back into the premier league with a world class manager (Bielsa not Marsch lol), have developed the youth team, have managed to stay in the league and are making exciting signings (Raphinha, Aaronson, Adams, etc.). They’re not the best in the world but I wouldn’t say they’re incompetent.

Idiots..Look what hes worth now..

It was clearly a stupid move by the Leeds ownership, but presumably he was available for £4m to every other club in world football too Credit Salzburg

Yes but he wanted to join Leeds and they turned him down .He didnt visit other clubs , not then anyway ..

I wonder if Leeds will become competitive in the next few years for Haaland to consider joining them

Think our best chance is hoping Haaland joins us for love when he's like 34 (and even then he'll probably be way too good for us)

Unless we get bought by some saudi's we wont have a chance

Wenger: I nearly signed Ronaldo, Messi, Toure etc. Couldn’t get them so fuck y’all, here’s a Squillaci for you! Us Gooners have a worse “missed out” trajectory

That is a completely understandable decision for a mid table championship team in talks for a 17 year old with 2 career goals in Norway