By George Overhill
Leeds United should be safe from a repeat of this summer’s chaos at the hands of release clauses next summer, but there is a potential question mark over Jack Harrison, according to Phil Hay.
The Athletic journalist said on The Square Ball on 9 September that he has been told there could be an “issue” at the end of the season with the on-loan Everton winger if the Whites aren’t promoted, but in comparison to the exodus from Elland Road this year the “vast” number of exit clauses will either be “not valid or not present”.
The Square Ball’s Dan Moylan had followed up his interview with Angus Kinnear this week (7 September) to ask the club about potential problems in a year’s time and been told Leeds aren’t expecting to struggle again.
Moylan said (40m 35s): “I did reach out to the club and ask them, and the response was that obviously player contracts are confidential so they can’t discuss individual terms but it’s not going to be a problem next summer, is the way that they’re viewing it.”
Hay responded: “I think it means that most of these clauses, the vast number of them, will now not be an issue next summer, either will not be valid or not present.
“Someone suggested to me, I don’t know if this is strictly accurate, Harrison’s might be an issue again next summer if Leeds are not promoted and they’re still in the Championship. As I say I’m not sure if that’s 100% right.
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“But I think the number that they have an issue with, if they have any, would be very small in comparison to this summer.”
Relief?
That is tentatively positive news after the transfer window saw a host of players escape early for little compensation in return, and then had Daniel Farke’s plans repeatedly undercut with further exits later in the summer.
At the same time Leeds presumably didn’t expect that situation to be a problem this time last year when they agreed most of those contracts.
So fans might be reticent to take what they say at face value for a little while, even allowing for the fact that the 49ers have now taken over.
Andrea Radrizzani, while his view carries a lot less weight among the Whites fanbase now than it once did given the events of the past year, suggested that Kinnear knew all about the relegation release clauses as he responded to the CEO’s interview via Twitter on Friday night before deleting his account.
That seems like a pretty plausible assertion so, while it would be logical that Leeds are through the worst of the uncertainty caused by the contract clauses, it would also not be a total shock for them to still prove an unpleasant surprise again next summer.
Since both Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra managed to force themselves to Bournemouth despite the clauses supposedly having expired there may still be agents looking to use clauses to their advantage.
If there was going to be an issue with anyone it probably would be Harrison, since he is the only one who signed his latest contract once relegation looked more likely than not (6 April), so the Whites will either have to avoid the issue by getting promoted or cross that bridge when they come to it.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites were left with the worst transfer loss of any second-tier side in the world this year thanks to the exit clauses.