- Leeds United rubber-stamped the permanent sales of eight players in the summer, while waving goodbye to five first-team players on loan and plenty more at the end of their contracts.
Following the defeat to Southampton in the play-off final, Leeds failed to secure promotion and had to cash in. Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter and Crysencio Summerville moved to Premier League clubs.
They joined Tottenham, Brighton and West Ham for fees that reached north of £100m. Then, Marc Roca and Diego Llorente signed for Real Betis while Glen Kamara and Charlie Cresswell move to France.
Kris Klaesson signed for Rakow in Poland, though Klaesson has already left Rakow to join AGF Aarhus in Denmark. But the agent of one of those eight players has shared how Leeds were keen to sell him.
Charlie Cresswell’s agent shares how Leeds were ready to sell him
Having returned from an impressive loan at Millwall and with Leeds relegated, Cresswell was expected to play a key role. But he played just seven times last term, and Daniel Farke publicly called Cresswell out.
Eventually, it became an inevitability that Cresswell would go and he joined Ligue 1 side Toulouse for a fee of £3.8m. He’s shining in France, helping Toulouse win four of the last six in the middle of a three.
His agent Hayden Evans told The Square Ball this week that after informing Leeds there could be interest, The Whites were surprisingly keen to cash in and offload the Thorp Arch academy product to Toulouse.
“Cressie is the weird one. In most people’s opinions, you know, he’s that sort of centre-back that should be on the bench right now possibly, you know, that they would have been a part to play,” Evans said.”
But then you’ve got a situation of, well, he’s clearly not fancied because other people were getting in front of him, getting minutes off the bench in front of him. So the writing was totally on the wall.
“So when we tested the club by saying, we might have some interest and the club go fine, this is how much we want, it’s done. There’s no going back from that,” Evans continued, regarding Cresswell’s future.
Toulouse’s Norwegian midfielder #15 Aron Donnum (L), Toulouse’s French defender #19 Djibril Sidibe (2ndL) and Toulouse’s English defender #04 Charl…
Photo by VALENTINE CHAPUIS/AFP via Getty Images
Daniel Farke must be regretting Charlie Cresswell’s summer exit
If Leeds were in the transfer market for a new central defender and Cresswell was not a former Leeds player, it would be perfectly conceivable that The Whites might have the centre-back on their shortlist.
His form for Toulouse has been immense over the last couple of months. After a tricky start in which he was used on the right of a back three, Cresswell has been moved to the middle and it has clicked for him.
The last six games has seen the England U21 defender start and finish 90 minutes, in which Toulouse have lost just once – to PSG. The others have seen Toulouse win four and draw once, keeping four clean sheets.
Whether he would start over Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk remains to be seen, but he would certainly be excellent cover for the Wales star had he remained at Elland Road. But, he is now thriving in France.
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