Leeds United’s pursuit of a no.10 lasted until the final day of the transfer window and ended with Daniel Farke’s side unable to bring in competition for Brenden Aaronson.
Farke compared Aaronson to Zinedine Zidane last week, before the USA star laid on his first assist of the season for Joel Piroe to score against Cardiff. But Leeds failed to replace the loss of Georginio Rutter.
Plenty were linked with Leeds during the window to fill the void in the no.10 role. The likes of Gustavo Hamer, Roland Sallai. Leeds-linked Emi Buendia scored his first goal in 18 months this week for Villa.
But Leeds will now have to rely on Aaronson to provide that creative spark at least until January, while Piroe and Wilfried Gnonto have been used as the no.10 in Daniel Farke’s 4-2-3-1 system this season.
Another player Leeds tried to sign is currently at Manchester City and now, Pep Guardiola has explained why he blocked a potential loan or permanent exit of the player in question during the summer window.
Pep Guardiola says why he blocked Leeds signing James McAtee
Speaking after the close of the transfer window, Angus Kinnear confirmed Leeds were interested in James McAtee. Earlier on in the window, Leeds were touted with a move for McAtee at a whopping fee of £20m.
Guardiola handed McAtee his first start of the season on Tuesday night as City edged past Watford in the Carabao Cup. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News after, he explained his decision to keep McAtee.
“It is difficult to find players with a sense of goal in small spaces who attack the final third and McAtee has that quality. That’s why I said to Txiki [Begiristain] I don’t want to loan him and I don’t want to sell him.
“I need his specific quality in small spaces. James has this ability. I have to see them and the first games I didn’t like it much and I told him afterwards: ‘Your impact in the game is not big, I want more.’
“After, he did well and his impact was really good. His period at Sheffield United helped him a lot to give value and suffer to get points, physicality, win duels, this kind of stuff. It helped him a lot playing there.”
McAtee’s Championship stats prove he would be great for Leeds
McAtee spent two years on loan at Sheffield United prior to this campaign, the first in the Championship and then the Premier League. He starred for the Blades under Paul Heckingbotton and then Chris Wilder.
Rated at £20m, McAtee would have been an expensive signing and perhaps too much, while Leeds are in the second tier. But a loan to Leeds in the Championship would have been a stunning signing for Farke.
However, given McAtee played in the Premier League last season, returning to the Championship was an unlikely scenario and viewed as a step back for the England U21 ace with G
