Transfers out of Leeds United are one of the main expectations after the club’s relegation. It’s a squad which is expected to be gutted and picked apart by vultures swooping in for cut-price deals which take advantage of United’s demise.
However, Paraag Marathe, Angus Kinnear and Nick Hammond will know they cannot strip the squad all the way back to square one. A nucleus of the roster must remain for the transition back into the Championship and there are sure to be names the next head coach will lean on.
The likes of Jack Harrison, Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra have qualities United would want to keep. However, realistically, interest in their services and their desire to play at a higher level should mean they move on before the September 1 transfer deadline.
Daniel James is someone you would hope can make a difference for the Whites in the Championship, but while Leeds do plan to keep him, he is behind several others on the must-keep list this summer. Georginio Rutter is another player with a point to prove going into the second tier and after the investment made in him, he should be given the time to prove himself.
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Experienced heads like Luke Ayling, Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas and Max Wober are pillars the club should lean on next season. While Ayling and Cooper were not without their critics last term, they know what it takes to get out of the league, run the dressing room and bring the resilience needed to ride out a 46-match slog.
Even if you are firmly against keeping older heads like Cooper’s and Ayling’s around, what is there to be gained from moving them on this summer? They are both closing in on 32-years-old with one year left on their contracts. Their experience and status outweigh the negligible transfer fees they might fetch.
Dallas, assuming he can return to fitness, will hope to be the force he was during Marcelo Bielsa’s Elland Road reign. Wober, still only 25, showed all the attributes of a leader last season and looks like one of the more realistic holds in this squad.
There is a raft of young talent which must be kept at Elland Road this summer too. If prospects like Sonny Perkins, Darko Gyabi and Mateo Joseph hope to be top-flight stars in their mid-20s, they need to be cut loose on the second tier as they approach the end of their teens.
Archie Gray is even younger, but almost beyond a debate like this. The latest instalment of the Gray family dynasty can currently be described as Thorp Arch’s crown jewels and must be protected at all costs.
Leo Hjelde, Cody Drameh, Joe Gelhardt and Charlie Cresswell are also must-keep names returning for pre-season next month. They each had loan spells in the second tier last season and can, at the very least, be squad players if not starters in the case of Drameh and Cresswell.
Their wages are low, their potential is high and they are under significant contracts. Drameh has one year to go, but he simply has to be assured he will play regularly and sign new terms.
The one name you are probably mumbling under your breath by this point of the piece is the pièce de résistance: Wilfried Gnonto. He is a young talent we saw, at his best, putting top-flight right-backs to the sword.
He still has several years to run on his contract and did not demonstrate the later form which could see monumental fees coming in for him. Retaining the Italian would be a statement by 49ers Enterprises, but also gives the next head coach a weapon which could tear up the Championship.
