Leeds United were seeking for a new goalkeeper in the summer with Illan Meslier’s future uncertain. It led us to Bayern Munich’s Alexander Nubel, who instead chose to join Stuttgart on loan for the season 23-24.
Nubel, 27, was a difficult target. He had starred for Monaco on loan from Bayern Munich over the previous two seasons, appearing 97 times for the Ligue 1 club. He returned to Bayern in the summer, his future uncertain.
Leeds made an £8 million bid for Nubel, according to the German magazine Kicker. Meslier was expected to leave Leeds, and the Whites required a new starting goalkeeper. Nubel would have been fantastic.
Meslier, of course, has remained. Much of that could be attributed to our failure to get Nubel to Elland Road. Bayern were eager to accept the £8 million sum, but Nubel was skeptical of us.
Understandably so, given that we are in the Championship and he had just returned from a loan spell at one of France’s greatest teams. He chose to join Stuttgart on loan for the season 23-24, allowing him to stay in the top flight.
So far, he has played for Stuttgart. He has made 11 appearances for the German club thus far, appearing in every game Stuttgart has played this season. They are in fantastic form, having won nine games and losing only two.
Nubel has kept six clean sheets in his 11 games, an astounding score of only 11 goals conceded. After a 5-1 loss to Leipzig, his record looked much worse. Nubel is a star in Stuttgart.
Of course, we maintained Meslier, so it would be incorrect to state that we missed out on Nubel. But if we had signed Nubel, Leeds might have pushed Meslier even harder to go.
