Leeds United Transfer Mistakes: Selling These Two Players Was A Blunder In Recent Times

Leeds United may yet find themselves back in the Premier League next season, but would they be fighting Newcastle and Brighton for the title had they kept hold of certain players?

I’d say in the case of our first named player, yes, and it could have been of benefit to the player as well.  Here are two lads from opposite ends of the spectrum they perhaps should have held on to.

Lewis Cook

A great prospect in the midfield not just for new club Bournemouth, but perhaps also for England before long. Cook raked in around £7million for Leeds when he was sold to the south coast outfit last summer, but could the move have been avoided?

A planned loan back to Leeds did not materialise for the boy from York, the result being a sum total of Cook’s professional appearances this season amounting to 1 Premier League game, 1 in the FA Cup and 2 in the EFL Cup.  Scant reward for his talent and you can’t help wonder whether he’d have been better off at Elland Road in a promotion push.

The guarantee of regular first time football, the chance of Premier League status one way or the other within a year and to still be playing for the team he supported as a boy would have been attractive prospects. Given the right advice, it would not have been too hard to convince Cook to stay put and for Leeds’ part, they have to ask whether they’d rather the £7million in the bank or have an even bigger chance of Premier League football with a top England midfielder playing in their side.

Alex Cairns

Bear with me on this one. Allowed a free transfer to Chesterfield as a 22-year-old, Cairns was granted the same courtesy by the Spireites one year later when moving to Rotherham before yet another free transfer just six months later took him to Fleetwood Town. This doesn’t sound like a top ‘keeper in the making, I know.

Now 24, which is no age for a goalkeeper, Cairns has predictably started to improve and has conceded just 21 goals in 29 appearances for his League One side. So, just one division down, performing better and potentially coming up next season it would be fair to call Cairns a Championship-quality player these days.

Marry that information with the fact that, instead of Cairns, Leeds rely on Marco Silvestri as back-up to Rob Green and you can surely see the advantages of keeping Cairns. Leeds had to shell out £400k for Silvestri and pay him a much higher wage. Can you confidently say he is a better ‘keeper than Cairns right now? I can’t.