This week’s story has taken two new turns.
Leeds United appeared prepared to sanction the permanent transfer of one of their loan players, but a new report indicates he could make a surprise return to the first team.
Leeds United’s signings under Daniel Farke
Over the summer, the Whites added Joe Rodon on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, along with Ethan Ampadu, who can also play as a centre-back, allowing Daniel Farke to rest some of his existing players in that position.
The Elland Road club allowed Robin Koch and Maximilian Wober to go until the end of the season in order to reduce their salary bill following relegation to the Championship, but another defensive squad player left on loan in January.
Diego Llorente joined Leeds in 2020 and has made 59 senior appearances to date. However, the 30-year-old sealed a move to Serie A club AS Roma at the start of the season, with his contract scheduled to expire at the end of the season (Transfermarkt – Llorente statistics). However, Spain’s former international has a purchase obligation as part of the arrangement that the two parties negotiated before leaving overseas.
Both Roma and Leeds have changed their stance on Llorente.
AS Roma want to keep Llorente until next summer, when he “could be redeemed” for around €5 million (£4 million), according to Roma Metropolitan Magazine (via Sport Witness).
However, according to a newer rumour this week from major magazine Gazzetta dello Sport (via SW), Roma believe Llorente is not worth the obligation money. If their information is right, the Italian club can avoid the obligation if Llorente does not play a set number of games, resulting in a surprise return to Yorkshire.
Madrid‘s native currently earns £57k per week in Italy (AS Roma salaries), which would make him the fourth-highest earner on the books if he were to return (Leeds salaries), so he needs to be removed from the wage bill where the extra cash could be used to generate funds to put towards new signings.
As previously described by journalist Josh Bunting, Llorente is typically “poor” when it comes to making individual errors and reading the game, so when you consider all of that, along with the fact that he isn’t getting any younger, getting rid of him permanently at the end of the season has to be a no-brainer.
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