Leeds United spent more than £100m last summer to retool their squad following promotion and are currently sitting 15th in the table, four points clear of relegation.
Supporters didn’t believe Leeds did enough to improve the squad last year. However, Leeds are in with a chance of Premier League survival ahead of the last seven league games.
The 49ers will feel vindicated if Leeds end up staying in the Premier League and believe they spent all they could last summer to improve the squad.
However, it has emerged that Leeds were also forced to fork out more money than the £100m they spent on transfers as part of doing business in the transfer market.
Leeds United paid considerable agent fees in the last year
The White signed 10 new players to improve their squad last summer, and that came at a considerable cost, including the free agent signings of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha.
An FA report has revealed that Leeds spent close to £14m in agent fees as part of the cost of doing business in the transfer market in the last year.
This includes the 10 arrivals from last summer and the signing of Facundo Buonanotte on loan from Brighton in January.
It means Leed spent more than 10 per cent of the transfer fee on agent payments to get deals done in the last two transfer windows.
That figure works out at roughly three per cent of the huge £460,300,308 spent on agents by all Premier League clubs during that time, with Leeds United ranking as the 14th highest spenders.
Unsurprisingly, Chelsea lead the way by a distance, having paid a staggering £65,102,247.
Do they need to change their transfer strategy?
Leeds spent £100m on 10 new players last summer to retool their squad, but were still left with a few holes in their squad.
They could not spend any more, as Leeds decided against adding more money to their transfer budget by selling one or two key players in the last two windows.
Leeds United Incoming Transfers – Summer 2025 & January 2026
| Player | Transfer Type | Fee (£) |
|---|---|---|
| Lucas Perri | Permanent | £15.6m |
| Anton Stach | Permanent | £17m |
| Noah Okafor | Permanent | £18m |
| Jaka Bijol | Permanent | £15m |
| Sean Longstaff | Permanent | £12m+ |
| Gabriel Gudmundsson | Permanent | £10.3m |
| James Justin | Permanent | £8m |
| Sebastiaan Bornauw | Permanent | £5.2m |
| Lukas Nmecha | Permanent | Free |
| Dominic Calvert-Lewin | Permanent | Free |
| Facundo Buonanotte | Loan | Loan |
| Leonard Ngenge | Permanent | Undisclosed |
| Edward Ibrovic-Fletcher | Permanent | Nominal |
However, if Leeds survive in the Premier League this season, their transfer strategy may need to change to improve their chances of upgrading the squad.
They will need to get better at selling players and bite the bullet on certain personnel to make more money available for incoming transfers in the summer.
Leeds also decided against committing big fees on any one player last summer. However, if Leeds want to add real quality, they will have to spend big on certain positions.
