Leeds United had to wait 16 years to get back to the Premier League under the tutelage of Marcelo Bielsa in 2020. However, their stint back at the top flight lasted just three seasons and midway through it Bielsa was sacked. However, just a season later they were back in the Championship following a run of managerial upheaval that even saw Sam Allardyce in charge for a few games.
Leeds’ return to the top flight led to the club spending big in the market to ensure that they do no have to return to the second tier again for a good number of years. However, Victor Orta made some terrible mistakes in the market and poor recruitment eventually led to them getting relegated at the end of the 2022/23 season.
The former Leeds director of football made some expensive mistakes and a return to the Championship was a result of the Whites making some poor errors in recruitment.
However, Leeds were said to be interested in several players during that period who went on to establish themselves as world-class players and could also have made a difference at Elland Road.
We have tried to build an eleven out of some of the players they missed out on and it has turned out to be an outrageously good side.
Emiliano Martinez
Former Leeds United reporter Phil Hay claimed in the summer of 2020 that the Argentina goalkeeper was on their radar.
Leeds were almost certain to sign a new goalkeeper after securing promotion to the Premier League as Kiko Casilla failed to convince and had a racism charge hanging over him from the FA. Illan Meslier was largely untested at that time.
The Whites were interested in Martinez but the club decided to stick to what they had and the Argentinian moved from Arsenal to Aston Villa.
He has gone on to win a World Cup and won the Lev Yashin award in back-to-back years, largely for his heroics on the international stage with the national team.
Meslier has been a solid goalkeeper for Leeds but the Whites fans would wonder what could have been had Martinez arrived at Elland Road in 2020.
Nahitan Nandez
Nandez is not one of the most glamorous names but in 2021, he was frequently mentioned in the gossip columns around Leeds. Former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa was said to be a fan of the Uruguayan and wanted to take him to Elland Road four years back.
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The kind of impact Bielsa had on players such as Kalvin Phillips, Mateusz Klich and Stuart Dallas, it wouldn’t be unfair to say, that Nandez could have played some of his best football under him had he joined Leeds.
Nandez eventually left Cagliari last summer and joined the Saudi side Al Qadsiah. Nandez could have been playing in one of the top leagues of Europe now had he joined Leeds.
Ben White
The English defender still is one of the most popular players who had a loan spell at Leeds. He was pivotal in the Whites getting promoted to the Premier League in the 2019/20 campaign.
Leeds wanted the defender back at Elland Road on a permanent deal. However, Brighton decided against selling him and eventually sold him to Arsenal a year later for a considerably big fee.
Once Arsenal wanted him, Leeds were never going to get White back but it would have been a tantalising alternate reality had White returned to Elland Road.
Leeds could still be in the Premier League or the Whites would have earned a big fee through selling him to one of the bigwigs of English football.
Josko Gvardiol
Leeds wanted to sign the Croatian defender when he was still at Dynamo Zagreb and Marcelo Bielsa wanted to take him to Elland Road. However, the centre-back had a different plan for his career and chose to move to Germany.
Gvardiol later, when he was at RB Leipzig, revealed that Leeds did try to sign him and he met officials from the club to discuss a move before taking a different decision.
“Bielsa was the coach and I don’t know if you know this but my goal in my career is to play in the Premier League”, he later told The Times.
“I didn’t speak with Bielsa but of course, he sent a few people and they came to Zagreb. I met these guys and they showed me it was something like a plan for how they see me in their style of football.
“I mean, when they presented it everything looked good and you could maybe see yourself there in that moment.
“I knew that I needed to take a few steps more before I get [to the Premier League] one day. At the end, Leipzig is a really good club and I feel good here.”
Milos Kerkez
In early 2023, there were suggestions that Leeds United were the favourites to land the Hungarian left-back from AZ Alkmaar. However, those claims went out of the window once the Whites got relegated from the Premier League.
Bournemouth snapped up the left-back and he has not looked back since then. He has been hugely impressive in the Premier League and has been linked with a move to Liverpool and Manchester United.
Kerkez is now destined to play for one of the bigwigs of the Premier League soon but could have easily been at Leeds if they were still in the top flight.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
Kvaratskhelia is currently one of the exciting footballers in Europe and some of the biggest clubs in Europe are eyeing signing him next summer from Napoli.
However, Leeds scouted him when he was still at Rubin Kazan and were still interested in him when he briefly returned to Georgia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
From there he moved to Italy and he has not looked back since.
Kvaratskhelia would have been the perfect replacement for Raphinha when he joined Barcelona from Leeds and would have been a cult hero at Elland Road.
Rodrigo De Paul
Leeds were back in the Premier League in 2020 and Marcelo Bielsa wanted to bring his Argentinian compatriot Rodrigo De Paul to Elland Road.
Fabrizio Romano claimed that the midfielder was keen on the move to Leeds and a deal was down to the Whites negotiating a transfer with Udinese.
However, an agreement never materialised and De Paul spent one more season at Udinese before he joined Spanish giants Atletico Madrid.
The midfielder was a big part of the Argentina team that won the World Cup and his work rate is one of the reasons Bielsa was keen to sign him at Leeds.
Teun Koopmeiners
He is now considered one of the best midfielders in Serie A and joined Juventus from Atalanta last summer. However, he was on Leeds’ radar when he was still a Dutch youth international making a name for himself at AZ Alkmaar.
He was one more player who was slated to join Leeds when Bielsa was their manager. But it never happened and Atalanta snapped him in 2021.
The Dutchman has not looked back and is now at one of the biggest clubs in Europe.
Cody Gakpo
Former Leeds director of football Victor Orta famously took a flight to Eindhoven in 2022 to hold direct talks with the player to convince him to move to Elland Road.
Leeds had a deal in place with PSV Eindhoven and Orta was expected to return to England with Gakpo. However, the forward declined the move and stayed in the Netherlands.
The Dutch forward joined Liverpool just a few months later in the January transfer window of 2023 and is now on course to become a Premier League winner at Anfield this season.
Victor Gyokeres
The Swedish forward is the toast of European football due to his scoring feats at Sporting Lisbon and is expected to join Manchester United next summer.
However, former Leeds United director of football Victor Orta passed up the opportunity to sign him when he was at Coventry City. One could say, the Swede would have been useful in their relegation season when Patrick Bamford was struggling and Rodrigo was injured.
Orta told postgraduate students at the Liga Portugal Business School: “When I was at Leeds United I didn’t want to give €14m for him.
“Cases like that of Gyokeres are the good surprises that football gives us, those things that we cannot measure.”
Who did Leeds sign in January 2023 when they were desperate to add more goals? An inexperienced Georginio Rutter for £40m. The Frenchman became a cult hero at Leeds later but he struggled to get used to the Premier League.
Leeds could not call upon their big-money signing when they needed to as the team slid towards relegation.
Ollie Watkins
Leeds wanted to sign a striker when they got promoted to the Premier League in 2020. Watkins has revealed that Leeds were indeed interested in him but eventually signed Rodrigo.
There were suggestions that Leeds were on the verge of signing the forward from Brentford that summer but made a late decision to shift their focus towards.
The Spaniard turned out to be a solid player for Leeds but it would not be hard to wonder what could have been given how Watkins has performed at Aston Villa.
It is easy to see the England striker would have made a bigger impact than Rodrigo had he joined Leeds.
