Leeds United beat top clubs to secure £7m Chelsea agreement
Getting this move done in the summer has been pivotal in Leeds’ promotion push
There has been a huge turnaround at Elland Road when you compare the current state to how they were this time last season.
Relegation to the Championship and general disillusion about how the club was being run left a bad taste in many Leeds United fans’ mouths. It looked like their return to the top flight may have only been a three-year cameo, and not the return to glory that they had all hoped for.
Massive changes around the club in the summer have ensured that the fall into the Championship hasn’t hit quite as hard as it could have. New ownership, a new manager, and a boat-load of new signings have put the Whites back on course towards the Premier League.
All the acquisitions made by Daniel Farke, in the summer window, have proved to be a success. Regardless of how much or little they’ve played, there has been varying levels of positive impacts made by all of them.
One signing in particular has been absolutely crucial to the team, not just because of his quality, but also due to his dependability. That man is Ethan Ampadu, and Leeds did well to get a hold of him considering the other teams who were interested in him.
Leeds won battle with Serie A and Bundesliga teams to get Ethan Ampadu
The Welsh international had been with Chelsea since joining them from Exeter City in 2017, as a 16-year-old. He’d struggled to get into the first-team there, and had been sent out on loan to teams in the football league, and across Europe. These ventures onto the continent, especially his last two loan spells at Venezia and Spezia, in Italy, attracted attention.
Phil Hay, of The Athletic, reported that two mid-table teams in the top flight of Italian football were interested in signing Ampadu in the summer. There was also interest coming from Germany’s top division due to his agency’s good connections with former Liverpool midfielder Didi Hamann.
Some teams in the Premier League made speculative approaches for the 23-year-old, as per Hay, but the Championship was where the real interest was coming from.
