BREAKING NEWS: The £4.5m Leeds World Cup hero had a dismal spell in England after his big-money switch to Elland Road.
The World Cup hero had a dismal spell in England after his big-money switch to Elland Road.
Leeds United ended their three-year stay in the Premier League earlier this year as they were relegated from the top-flight under Sam Allardyce.
The experienced English coach arrived in an attempt to save the day but was unable to prevent the relegation after Javi Gracia and Jesse Marsch had left the club in a difficult position.
Whilst the managers can take responsibility for their respective failures, former sporting director Victor Orta should shoulder some of the blame for his work to assemble the playing squad that failed to perform.
As you can see in the table above, the Spaniard was able to splash the cash on several occasions in an attempt to bolster the squad, for Bielsa and Marsch, but rarely had success at Premier League level with those big-money moves.
Rutter and Aaronson – the two most expensive signings of Orta’s time at Elland Road – combined for one goal and four assists in 47 top-flight matches throughout the 2022/23 campaign.
The now-Sevilla chief is not the only Leeds figure to have made mistakes in that department over the years, though, and one famous transfer market blunder was the signing of attacker Tomas Brolin.
The fee Leeds paid for Brolin
Back in November of 1995, the Whites agreed a club-record deal to sign the Sweden international from Italian side Parma for a reported fee of £4.5m.
It was claimed that the club paid £600k upfront for the talented forward and the remaining £3.9m was due to be paid to the Serie A outfit over the subsequent two-and-a-half-years.
It was claimed that the club paid £600k upfront for the talented forward and the remaining £3.9m was due to be paid to the Serie A outfit over the subsequent two-and-a-half-years.
Parma reportedly announced that the deal was off as Brolin had failed to agree personal terms with Leeds but the move eventually went through, and then-managing director Bill Fotherby stated that he was always confident that it would go ahead as planned.
It was a big gamble from the Whites as they decided to smash their club record to sign a player who had only played three matches for his club that season and was coming off the back of recovering from a broken foot the previous year.
Brolin has since revealed that he did not want to leave Parma and that his belief was that the Italian side wanted to cash in on him before his contract expired, as the Bosman ruling was due to come in and they did not want to lose him on a free transfer.
Brolin’s goal record for Parma
The excellent midfielder enjoyed an impressive spell in Italy with the club as he racked up 31 goals in 190 appearances in all competitions, with spells there on either side of his time with Leeds.
He proved himself to be a goalscorer from a midfield position and contributed to a successful period in Parma’s history as they won four trophies during his time there
