Terminating contracts instead of selling players is becoming a repetitive theme for Leeds United.
Luke Murphy’s contract at Leeds United was cancelled this week, before he signed with Bolton Wanderers as a free agent 24 hours later.
Murphy’s exit was long overdue at Leeds, last playing a first team game for the club in 2016.
But questions should be asked why with the transfer window still open, Leeds were unable to fetch a fee for him, however small.
In isolation, this could be dismissed as a one off, but it has become a theme for the Whites.
Earlier this summer Andy Lonergan’s contract was terminated, before he signed with Middlesbrough yesterday.
Lat August Leeds terminated the contract of Toumani Diagouraga and Souleymane Doukara.
Diagouraga had a tricky season with Plymouth and then Fleetwood, while Doukara went to to be a relative success in Turkey, impressing with Osmanlispor so much that Antalyaspor signed him as a replacement for Samuel Eto’o in January.
A year earlier Leeds cut Sol Bamba’s contract short; he is now a Premier League player with Cardiff City.
On one hand Leeds were doing the fair thing to each of these players, giving them the best chance of finding a club.
They also got their wages off their books, although it is unclear if the Whites had to pay an up front lump sum in any case to pay up the contracts early, negating any savings.
At some stage, Leeds need to be more hard nosed, and insist players can only leave for a fee.
If clubs like Bolton, Middlesbrough and Cardiff really want their players, Leeds should make them pay up.
With the likes of Ouasim Bouy, Eunan O’Kane, Vurnon Anita and Caleb Ekuban still cut adrift by boss Marcelo Bielsa, Murphy may not be the last player to have his contract cut short this summer.
In the mean time, Leeds should be exhausting their efforts to try and find a buyer.
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