Darren Bent issues promising Leeds United promotion verdict despite Georginio Rutter exit and 'pressure' claim
Leeds United have been subject to an exodus of first-team players but quality remains at Elland Road.
Darren Bent insists Leeds United still have the tools to achieve promotion despite Georginio Rutter looking set to become the latest first-team exit.
Georginio’s move to Brighton & Hove Albion is expected to go through in the coming days, following the activation of his £40million release clause late on Wednesday evening. Leeds were desperate to keep the 22-year-old and were even open to discussing a new contract, but Daniel Farke all but confirmed another huge loss in his Thursday afternoon press conference, with arguably last season’s three best players all since moving on.
Leeds will soon add Georginio to the list of sales that also includes academy star Archie Gray, last season’s top-scorer Crysencio Summerville and the ever-present midfielder Glen Kamara, with Farke admitting he is light in key areas going into the season. But there is still plenty of quality on offer at Elland Road and Bent is confident they still have enough to go up, so long as they can deal with the constant pressure.
“Yeah of course they are [good enough to go up],” Bent told talkSPORT. “But I think a lot of [what’s going wrong] is pressure. You’ve got to think, Leeds are by some distance the biggest club in the Championship. With that comes pressure, and when you look at the players in the squad, people will think every time they play against Leeds, they want to beat them because they’re expected to go back up, and rightly so.
“When you look at the squad, they’ve got Meslier, he was there under Bielsa. They’ve got Ethan Ampadu, good player. Jayden Bogle, who they brought in. Joe Rodon from Spurs, Dan James, international, [Brenden] Aaronson, who missed that chance. They’ve still got [Patrick] Bamford who can score goals, and they’ve got [Wilfried] Gnonto. I know Georginio looks like he’s going, but they’ve got players in the squad where you go, you should be able to go up.”
Leeds are expected to improve their squad before the August 30 deadline but face the prospect of an incredibly busy fortnight, with five positions realistically needed at a minimum. Farke spoke in pre-season of the need for reinforcements at full-back and in central midfield, with the exit of Summerville and soon-to-be departure of Georginio creating a large hole in the attacking unit.
Replacing the latter pair looks to be the main point of focus, with interest in Jonathan Rowe still there despite talk going quiet in recent days amid two offers from Olympique de Marseille. Leeds have also been linked with interest in Burnley’s Manuel Benson and more recently Rabbi Matondo, although the YEP understands the latter is not currently being considered.
Leeds had a £3.3m bid for central midfielder Dejan Ljubicic rejected by FC Koln earlier this summer and are yet to return with an improved number. A move for the 26-year-old seems unlikely at this moment, with Koln thought to be demanding a very high fee for someone in the final year of their contract.