Gabby Agbonlahor tips Leeds United hero for summer exit, English club failed with late bid for Whites attacker

Speaking exclusively to the Yorkshire Evening Post, he said: “It was a strange summer. To be honest I feel this summer reflected more on the Covid crisis than the [last] one because perhaps in the last one we still had the expectation that in a moment the fans would be back [but fans did not return in full at all last season].

“Now there are still fears around the world about the negatives of that so it was a bit of a conservative summer, not only in England, in all the world. The different crises, the TV crisis in France, the situation in Spain with the salary caps, people were trying more to get players they don’t need out, than players they need in.

“When you analyse the big, big movements, with Messi, Sergio Ramos, there is like a domino situation.”

Leeds were a beneficiary of the domino effect, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford pushing Dan James towards an exit that had otherwise looked unlikely all summer long.

In a conservative market, despite having little in the way of first-team additions planned, Leeds still had to work hard to do business that met with the current recruitment policy, the budget and Bielsa’s expectations.

“Again it was our line to get quality, not quantity and be creative to strengthen the team,” Orta told the YEP.

“There was a lot of time spent working together with Marcelo and his staff.

“The situation of the left-back was an issue from the start of the market and we were really happy to solve it quickly and allow Junior to start a proper pre-season with our style of football. The situation of the winger, we were trying to get the name, not trying to get one player for one player’s sake. The reason it was perhaps more delayed is because we were trying to get the name, the player we really wanted, so we didn’t need to sort it at the start of the market. The situation of the keeper was more or less sorted in parallel, the negotiations with the loan to Elche and I have to feel proud that we were the first team to pass an exception panel in England with Kristoffer.”

We’ve gathered the best of today’s Premier League speculation below…