According to The Athletic, Leeds United hoped to unveil Max Aarons as a new signing at Elland Road before the game against Shrewsbury until Bournemouth blasted them out of the water and hijacked the deal.
According to journalist Richard Amofa, writing on their official website (14 August), the right-back was undergoing a physical with the Whites before being unveiled before the EFL Cup match last week.
But Bournemouth signed a deal with Norwich as well, and then made the player a personal offer that Leeds simply couldn’t match, resulting in the 23-year-old moving to the south coast and making his Premier League debut against West Ham on Saturday (12 August).
“Max Aarons was everything but a Leeds United player on Tuesday.” Southampton were also interested in him, but he signed terms with the Yorkshire club and a price with Norwich City,” they stated.
“He had travelled up to Leeds and, according to sources, had begun his medical on Wednesday.”
“Bournemouth‘s pursuit of the right-back appeared to be coming to an end.” Leeds United were creating promotional material to announce the transaction and had wanted to parade Aarons on the Elland Road pitch before their Carabao Cup match against Shrewsbury Town that evening.
“However, Bournemouth are more bullish these days, and unwilling to admit defeat, have entered into 11th-hour talks with Norwich and Aarons’ representatives.”
“Bournemouth blew Leeds out of the water with a better deal and the opportunity to play in the Premier League again.” There were brief discussions about whether Leeds could increase their offer, as well as concerns from Aarons‘ family about his late change of heart, but ultimately Leeds were unable to match Bournemouth’s wage offer, and Aarons travelled down to the south coast at around 4pm that afternoon.”
Damn
It merely goes to demonstrate that anything can happen until the ink from the player’s signature dries on the contract.
The majority of the 49ers’ transfer business has been done quietly thus far, with little fanfare about the arrival of Ethan Ampadu or Joe Rodon before deals were practically done, and they did the same with Aarons.
But he was clearly more coveted than others, and in the end, the news spread too rapidly, allowing rival teams to take advantage of the situation and complete a deal.
The fact that we had a plan for his unveiling demonstrates how far advanced the deal was, and the fact that we couldn’t match his personal demands despite our relatively solid financial status reveals how large their offer must have been.
The 49ers were unwilling to enter into a bidding war for him, which is certainly the right move, but hopefully they learn from this and get things signed off before briefs emerge.
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