Championship hopefuls Leeds United sold Kemar Roofe to Belgian giants Anderlecht but has Marcelo Bielsa missed him at Elland Road?
Kemar Roofe has endured a season to forget since leaving Leeds United for Anderlecht and the Belgian giants’ sporting director has now admitted that they never expected the striker to spend so much time out injured, speaking to Proximus, translated by Goal.
Considering that Leeds seem to have spent the 2019/20 campaign exploring new and novel ways to throw away points on an almost bi-weekly basis, their decision to let the prolific Roofe walk away from Elland Road last summer has not received nearly enough criticism.
The former West Brom youngster, who made a shock £6.5 million move to Anderlecht, in August, had scored 23 goals in the last two Championship seasons including 14 under Marcelo Bielsa in 2018/19.
With Patrick Bamford squandering chance after chance in his absence and the Eddie Nketiah experiment blowing up in Bielsa’s face, Leeds surely would have turned some of those maddening defeats into wins with Roofe in the ranks.
The Englishman has endured a mixed time in Belgium, scoring seven times in 16 games, though ongoing fitness problems remain a concern for sporting director Michael Verschueren.
“Roofe? We looked at his medical history and he never had big problems. We’ve been unlucky,” the Anderlecht chief said of a striker who has endured calf and ankle problems of late.
With a little inspection, however, Verschueren’s comments don’t really stack up. Roofe missed 14 Championship games under Bielsa last season and it was his prolonged absence in the spring that played a major part in Leeds failing to secure automatic promotion after all.
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