With Kalvin Phillips now set to leave his boyhood club for Manchester City, Leeds United's attentions will be on how to replace their talismanic midfielder.
The England man will leave a sizable gap in the Whites midfield and despite the arrival of Marc Roca earlier this summer, a direct replacement for Phillips will needed. A decision would have to be made whether they would consider spending the bulk of the money on an individual or spreading it across a handful of players.
As you'd expect, a host of names have already been linked, but is there a playbook that Jesse Marsch, Victor Orta and the Leeds United recruitment team need to be following?
READ MORE: Leeds United closing on fourth signing as Kalvin Phillips replacement strategy takes shape
We have taken a look at some of the recent big-money moves in the Premier League and how the clubs involved have replaced the departing player.
Gareth Bale (Tottenham to Real Madrid) – Summer 2013
This one is perhaps the most iconic move in Premier League history for the way in which Tottenham addressed replacing Gareth Bale. Instead of looking for a direct replacement, Daniel Levy opted to spend the £90m they received for the Welshman on seven players.
Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Paulinho, Christian Eriksen, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches and Nacer Chadli were the seven brought to the club for roughly the same money that was recouped by the sale of Bale. Ultimately, it represented awful business for Spurs as Eriksen is the only one on that list that could be classed as a successful signing.
Phillipe Coutinho (Liverpool to Barcelona) – January 2018
If the Bale spending was the worst example of trying to replace a player, Liverpool’s use of the £142m Barcelona spent on Phillipe Coutinho is certainly the best. They weren’t able to spend all of the money in the January transfer window of the 2017/18 season but they were able to spend £75m of it on Virgil van Dijk who has been a colossus at Anfield.
The rest of the money was then spent the following summer on Alisson who, like his Dutch defensive teammate, has been brilliant for Jurgen Klopp’s side. The two players were able to transform Liverpool from an exciting team to a winning team as they both played key roles in the Premier League and Champions League triumphs on Merseyside.
Virgil van Dijk (Southampton to Liverpool) – January 2018
Speaking of Van Dijk, Southampton received a staggering £75m for the towering centre-back but were unable to recreate the success Liverpool enjoyed when trying to replace him. For teams like the Saints, it must be said that it is almost impossible for them to sign a like-for-like replacement for a similar price because of their status and lack of European football.
Although, the five players they signed with the majority of the money didn’t live up the billing. Guido Carrillo was signed immediately for around £19m and was a massive flop while Jannik Vestergaard, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Angus Gunn and Stuart Armstrong arrived the following the summer.
Those players all spent extended periods at St Mary’s but were unable to have the same impact at the club that the man they were replacing had.
Riyad Mahrez (Leicester to Manchester City) – Summer 2018
As Andrea Radrizzani has alluded to previously, Leicester have made a great habit in recent years of selling some of their key players and replacing them with talented young players from around Europe. When they sold star man Riyad Mahrez to Man City in 2018, they continued the trend with some smart recruitment.
James Maddison, Ricardo Pereira, Caglar Soyuncu, Rachid Ghezzal, Danny Ward and Jonny Evans were signed following the winger’s £60m departure. Of those players, each of them have proved to be good business since moving to the East Midlands, other than Ghezzal who – incidentally – was the one signed to replace his countryman on the right wing.
In the years since, Leicester have continued to search for a left-footed winger to replace Mahrez and have failed repeatedly, showing just how challenging it can be to recover from losing a star player.
Jack Grealish (Aston Villa to Manchester City) – Summer 2021
Aston Villa faced a similar problem as the one mentioned regarding Southampton when they sold Jack Grealish last summer for a British transfer record. They knew that any player valued at £100m wouldn’t want to join a team outside of European competition.
They chose to spread the money across three players but, like Tottenham and Southampton on this list, failed to bring in players who had the same impact as the outgoing player. Emiliano Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings were signed for the vast majority of the Grealish money and none of three quite had the season Dean Smith, and then Steven Gerrard, would have been hoping for.
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