Leeds United: Summerville departs for West Ham
Leeds United: Summerville departs for West Ham
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00:00Hello and welcome back to the Marching On Together Leeds United podcast. As always, I'm joined by my guest and co-podcast host, whatever you want to call it, Lee from the Yorkshire Evening Post. Lee, how are things today? It's a Monday afternoon.
00:16Not too bad, thank you. Good to see you as always. We're finally there. We can finally count down to the season, which is literally the next game. All the friendlies are out of the way. It's been a perfect pre-season of friendlies from a Leeds perspective. Four wins out of four. Now it's down to the real stuff and it's a case of replicating that when it really matters. Let's just hope we can do that.
00:39They'll have to do it without a very, very big player and the division's best player, which is what I'm sure we'll talk about first.
01:09To be fair, we did speak about it a lot in terms of whether it was going to be him or not. Given that Leeds didn't go up, you always thought it was a risk and a big possibility and eventually it has happened. Kwasensi Osorio has departed Leeds United for West Ham in the Premier League. A deal, according to, I think it was your colleague Graeme Smith, did he say around the ÂŁ25 million mark?
01:29In excess of ÂŁ25 million, yes. There'll be bonuses and stuff and whatever that could bring the deal up a bit further. Obviously, the jury will be out and everybody will be in discussion over whether or not Leeds got a good deal there. I think the feeling was always that maybe it was worth a bit more than that. This is the transfer window, isn't it? It's never straightforward.
01:55Well, yes, that is it. It's obviously a big blow to Leeds. There's no two ways about it. Championships, play of the season from last year and obviously had been in some pre-season activity for Leeds this summer. You thought, well, we got to last year. We thought, OK, it hasn't happened yet. We're now a week away from the season starting, but it has happened. It is a big blow for Leeds. I presume the main priority now is just finding a replacement as soon as possible.
02:23Yes, it has to be. When you say the inevitable departure of Somerville, I think you're not far wrong, really. I think when Leeds lost the play-off final, that's certainly how it felt anyway. I think most people would have just understood and thought, well, that would be the end of Cricencio Somerville. Obviously, you hoped someone like Archie Gray would have stayed. I think that Somerville was probably earmarked almost as the one that would probably go and settle the PSR issue straight away.
02:52Obviously, the offers didn't come in that early and it ended up being Archie that went instead. That obviously helped the balance sheet, so to speak, a little bit and meant that Leeds didn't need to sell as such. When you've got a player like that, obviously, who is quite clearly destined for bigger and better things in terms of a higher level than the Championship, let's hope Leeds can get to the Premier League, obviously, this next season.
03:15Then it was always going to be very hard to keep him, especially when there's clauses in the contracts. To all extents and purposes, West Ham activated a clause in his contract, which I think became apparent following Leeds' relegation. Almost not much you can do about it. I think Cricencio would have been more than happy to have stayed at Leeds had they gone into the Premier League, but obviously, they're not a Premier League club. When any Premier League club come knocking, then obviously, it's going to be extremely tempting, isn't it, in a five-year deal with an option for another year at West Ham. So, good luck to him.
03:43I mean, I don't think he goes with that. Sometimes you can get departures and there's a bit of an exit kind of thing, but I don't think there's any of that. I don't think there's particularly any of that with Archie and I don't think there's any of that with Somerville either. I think he goes with everybody's best wishes. I think people understand the game and they know that you're sort of very liable to lose a player like that. He was the Championship's player of the season and I think, obviously, you can analyse it and assess it in all different ways, but I think he probably was the best player in the division. I think that's probably about right, really. Archie Gray might have been the player with the most potential, but that's a different ballgame.
04:12So, yes, he's gone now and you wish him all the best, but obviously, from a Leeds United perspective, which is what we're here for, it's about the Leeds team and quite simply, you're totally right if I hit the nail on the head, 20 goals, including the play-offs and nine assists last season and that needs replacing. That's not a small amount. He was up there with the division's top scorers, so Leeds have got other options out wide. I mean, even now, when you go through it and look at a first-choice XI bench, there are lots of options, but that's a major player, the best player, really.
04:41He's been the best attacking player gone. So, obviously, now it's a case about replacing him and we'll come to that towards that in terms of who they might be looking at and stuff. But, yes, that's the end of it now. It was almost, as you say, every week, it was like, can Leeds hold on to him?
04:57And the longer it went on, especially after Archie's sale, you thought, maybe this might happen and they could go into the season with him and that would have been a frightening prospect for other teams trying to deal with him. But, yes, he's moved on now. It did feel a bit inevitable, it has to be said, and I fully expect him to be a big success in the Premier League.
05:15But it's no given, obviously. He's been in the Premier League before, he was a bit younger then, obviously, and didn't really tear it up. But, I mean, that's probably to be expected when he was so young. He's a different player now and I fully expect he'll be a very, very big success at West Ham and all the best to him. It's been a pleasure covering him and Leeds have lost another very, very good player.
05:32Yeah, it has been a summer of two big departures for Leeds so far. Of course, you mentioned Archie Gray there, you mentioned Cartenzio Somerville, two players who were instrumental in the campaign last year. Now they're gone and I think you've just hit the nail on the head, to be honest. Leeds have got to move on now because they're gone and there's nothing that can be done about that now.
05:54Leeds have got to go on, business has to continue, they can't just, you know, sulk about it essentially because there's a championship there to be won and Leeds need to get back into the Premier League as quickly as possible if they're going to stop losing other players of that sort of ilk in the future.