Leeds United could stand to make millions out of replacing Jack Clarke with Ivan Poveda.
Victor Orta deserves huge credit for pulling off a brilliant piece of business at Leeds United, with Ivan Poveda joining on a free transfer.
The signing of Jean-Kévin Augustin will go down as Leeds’ marquee bit of business this month, as he is such a high profile player.
But effectively swapping Poveda for Jack Clarke could be just as clever.
Leeds brought in Poveda for no fee, after bringing in £10 million for Clarke in the summer (the Guardian).
Of course, Clarke has a few more senior games to his name than Poveda, but outside of that there is little difference between their track records.
Poveda has played up until the exact same level in England’s youth teams as Clarke, and actually has a better record.
The Leeds new boy has scored three goals in his four games for England’s under-20’s, when compared to Clarke’s one goal in six games at the same level.
Clarke’s struggles this season show how hard it can be to predict the progress of youngsters, and for that reason Leeds deserve great credit for maximising Clarke’s value while they had the chance.
Orta also deserves praise for spotting a potential replacement, of a similar standard, who hasn’t cost them a penny.
And if Poveda goes on to fulfil his potential at Leeds, then the transfer move could turn out to be a very smart one indeed.
Not only do Leeds appear to have brought in a replacement of similar quality to Clarke, but they have also made £10 million already doing so, and if Poveda impresses with game-time then they could stand to make an even bigger return on the transfer moves in future years.
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