Was Eunan O’Kane’s Leeds extension a mistake?

Follow us on Google Discover

Leeds United could struggle to offload big earner Eunan O’Kane.

Time is running out and Leeds United midfielder Eunan O’Kane still hasn’t found a new club.

The Republic of Ireland international clearly has no immediate future at Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa, who did not give him a squad number for the 2018-19 campaign.

The 28-year-old had a disastrous second half of last season under Thomas Christiansen and later Paul Heckingbottom and does not appear to have recovered.

This time last year, Leeds’ Director of Football Victor Orta had just given O’Kane a new four-year deal, and the Spaniard must be regretting that decision.

Charlton boss and Whites legend Lee Bowyer wants to sign the former Bournemouth man, but claimed that he could not afford O’Kane – on £12,000 per week [The Star] – on his current salary.

The player, according to Bowyer, wants to stay in the Championship rather than drop down to League One. Problem is, there can’t be many – if any – second-tier clubs who are willing to pay O’Kane’s wages over the course of a season-long loan, having struggled so badly in 2018.

As a result, the Whites could be in a position where one of their biggest earners is contributing the least to the team, given he could potentially spend most of the season in exile if a transfer does not materialise over the next week or so.

That would’ve been the situation for Leeds regardless of the length of his contract, but it could and probably would have been easier to offload him on a permanent basis earlier this summer if he had, say, one year left instead of three.

Despite the wage factor, there might’ve been Championship clubs interested in what would’ve been a cut-price deal, before they knew that he wasn’t going to play a role under Bielsa this season.

There is nothing wrong with signing valuable players up to long-term deals, but O’Kane had only played one game under Christiansen when the four-year extension was tabled, so perhaps he hadn’t yet shown enough value since Orta’s arrival in May 2017 to deserve such a quick decision.