Leeds United had a busy summer transfer window after earning promotion to the Premier League, and their start to the season has justified the deals they made.
Daniel Farke brought in ten new faces, with Anton Stach, Sean Longstaff, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Lucas Perri, Noah Okafor and Dominic Calvert-Lewin becoming key figures in the starting lineup.
Jaka Bijol, James Justin and Lukas Nmecha have also been able to make contributions here and there this season too, but one summer arrival is yet to even feature in the top flight despite being fit and available throughout the campaign.
The Whites spent over £5m to sign defender Sebastiaan Bornauw from Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, handing the Belgium international a four-year contract at Elland Road worth in excess of £56,000-a-week, but so far he hasn’t played a single minute for the team outside of the Carabao Cup exit against Sheffield Wednesday.
Leeds Regretting Deal to Sign Bornauw
Able to play as a centre-back, the 26-year-old was brought into the club to provide cover and depth for the starting pair Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk, while Bijol was also brought in to compete for the position.
But so far the manager has opted to stick with his trusted defence from last season for the most part, with Jayden Bogle at right-back and new signing Gudmundsson replacing Junior Firpo on the left. That has left Bijol battling for minutes too, with the Slovenian making his first appearance in the Premier League in the 2-1 win over West Ham most recently, where he started and completed 90 minutes.
It was his first appearance in the competition since his summer arrival too, but while that’s good news for him and suggests that Farke isn’t as close-minded to change as it maybe looked, it does cement the fact that Bornauw is very far down the pecking order.
In fact, Bornauw hasn’t even been named as a substitute in four of the nine Premier League games so far this season, leaving everyone questioning what the point of the transfer was to begin with.
£5m isn’t a lot of money in today’s game, but when you consider how some of their transfer chases during the summer window went, the club are surely regretting spending money where it wasn’t needed.
Leeds wanted to sign Dilane Bakwa but baulked at the asking price, only for him to move to Nottingham Forest instead. Farke was also keen on a deal for Harry Wilson from Fulham, and although a deal was eventually agreed, it collapsed at the last hurdle when Fulham changed their mind. Having that extra £5m could well have helped them get that over the line earlier in the window, and bolster their attacking options.
We’ll never know what would have happened now, but what we do know is that Leeds clearly wasted £5m they didn’t need to by bringing Bornauw to Elland Road, and now all parties must be regretting signing off on the deal.