What Marcelo Bielsa wants, he often gets at Leeds United.
But while owner Andrea Radrizzani was more than happy to back his manager with £100 million of shiny new signings during the summer, there’s one position Leeds failed to strengthen before the transfer window closed.
Not that it has mattered too much so far.
Kalvin Phillips and Mateusz Klich have taken to the Premier League like ducks to River Aire water, while you get the feeling Stuart ‘Mr Reliable’ Dallas could play in goal in a World Cup final and do a more than respectable job.
But, with another window only three weeks away, don’t be surprised if Leeds try to do in January what they failed to do in July – sign a flexible, technically gifted and hard-working midfielder capable of adapting immediately to Bielsa’s ‘death by a thousand passes’ blueprint.
In August 2019, TEAMtalk reported Leeds were one of three clubs, along with West Ham and Brighton, to express an interest in Nemanja Radoja, the Serbia international who was a free agent after leaving Celta Vigo.
Flash forward to the present day and the 27-year-old is once again looking for a new club.
Radoja has slipped down the pecking order at an underachieving Levante side, failing to start a La Liga match since 1 October. He hasn’t featured in either of the past two fixtures, with Jose Campana – another ball-playing midfield maestro in Leeds’ sights – keeping him out of Paco Lopez’s XI.
According to AS, Radoja is now planning to leave the Castellon coast behind in January. Levante wouldn’t stand in his way either. In an era where clubs are tightening the purse strings, it doesn’t make much sense to keep one of your highest earners warming the bench.
AS adds Levante coach Lopez wants his team to be more compact – and less combative – in the middle of the pitch. There’s no place, then, for a tireless, tigerish, old-school enforcer renowned for his high-octane approach and ability to go at full pelt from minute one to minute 90.
Ironically enough, those attributes may be what attracted Bielsa to Radoja in the first place.
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