Leeds United's CEO lifts lid on failed pursuits of Sheffield United and Aston Villa midfielders

While the Whites managed to make some high-profile signings late in the summer window, fans were left lamenting the club’s inability to land a number 10.

Georginio Rutter had made the advanced midfield role his own but had his £40m release clause activated by Brighton & Hove Albion.

Kinnear was quizzed about this recruitment gap on The Square Ball’s podcast and revealed the club did not feel they could find a suitable replacement for Rutter.

He explained: “I can talk specifically about two examples, two players we thought would fit the bill, two players who would be significantly better than who we have currently.

“Bearing in mind, we’re looking at replacing a £40m player, which is obviously going to be challenging at Championship level. Buendia was on our list and very clearly from Aston Villa, wasn’t going to be released, and the player didn’t want to come back down to Championship level, he felt he’d served his time at Championship level.”

Reports of interest in Hamer were widespread but Leeds faced criticism for their perceived ‘low-balling’.

Kinnear said: “And then Gustavo Hamer, who we’ve had an interest in before, before he went to Sheffield United, was another player we felt would have significantly improved the team.

“The way that transfer worked is, we all assumed there was no chance Sheffield United would sell their star player to a promotion rival, based on the prize and the size of what promotion’s worth. If they sell him to Leeds United and we go up by one point and they don’t, they’ve cost themselves over £100m in TV revenue.

“However, we were given some light and this is where the market works through agents and through contacts, that they might be open to an offer. Sheffield United are a difficult club to deal with at the moment because they’re in an ownership transition. There’s no friendly face you can ring up and get a sense of whether the player’s for sale or not.

“The only way to provoke the conversation was to make an offer. We made an offer which we think was at a fair level. They came back, very clearly, and said he was not for sale in this window to anybody, and he certainly wouldn’t be on sale to Leeds United, and there was certainly no price that could pull him away.

“Once you get that kind of feedback and you believe in that kind of feedback, you have to move on. Very simply, Gustavo Hamer wasn’t available for Leeds United in this window.”