{"id":302400,"date":"2025-07-29T23:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T23:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302400\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T23:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T23:09:14","slug":"dont-say-that-out-loud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302400\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Don&#8217;t Say That Out Loud&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"> Gualter Fatia\/Getty Images <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-quote\" style=\"display: block; margin-block-start: 1em; margin-block-end: 1em; margin-inline-start: 0px; margin-inline-end: 0px; margin: 30px 0px; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;\">Dutch journalist Marcel van der Kraan has explained Igor Paixao\u2019s likely thinking in picking French giants Marseille ahead of <a style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/leeds-united\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leeds United<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Leeds made Paixao a top target and <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/2025\/07\/16\/leeds-united-presented-the-project-to-attacker-whites-sell-move\/688692\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gave a presentation to the attacker to win him over<\/a>, as well as <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/2025\/07\/25\/leeds-uniteds-interest-becoming-increasingly-serious-after-fresh-development\/689399\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">submitting multiple bids to Feyenoord<\/a> to get a deal done.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Brazilian though preferred Marseille and when they finally managed to agree a fee with Feyenoord, was Stade Velodrome bound.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There was some concern at the Marseille end <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/2025\/07\/26\/leeds-united-targets-agent-playing-a-surprising-double-game-as-transfer-plot-thickens\/689431\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">about a \u2018double game\u2019 they felt Paixao\u2019s agent was playing<\/a>, but their charm offensive worked.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Van der Kraan though thinks there was a clear reason that Paixao wanted to go to Marseille and not Leeds United, and he is not willing to blame the Brazilian for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Marseille_Roberto_De_Zerbi_620_ofg.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He insists that Leeds could well be fighting against relegation in the Premier League, while Marseille are in the Champions League and Paixao has already shone on that stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeeds might end up playing relegation football\u201d, Van der Kraan told Dutch daily <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraaf.nl\/video\/salaris-hato-gaat-bij-chelsea-naar-dubbele-toe\/80556297.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">De Telegraaf<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<tr>\nCompetition<br \/>\nFinish<br \/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">Ligue 1<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">Runners-up<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">French Cup<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">Round 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>Marseille last season<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, you don\u2019t say that out loud as a player when you\u2019re in talks with a club; and he did speak with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Marseille are guaranteed Champions League football.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Feyenoord_Igor_Paixao2_620_ofg.webp.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s already made a name for himself there; that\u2019s a major stage he wants to be on, and maybe he can even take another step up from there.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t rule that out.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was by far the best player in the Netherlands this season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Leeds now have to lick their wounds after being snubbed by Paixao and signing attacking players is a priority for the Whites in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They have told Patrick Bamford, the only striker in their squad to have proven he can score goals in the Premier League, he is free to leave.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Middlesbrough had been mooted as an option for Bamford, <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/2025\/07\/29\/potential-destination-ruled-out-for-leeds-united-weapon\/689662\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">but they are not expected to go for him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gualter Fatia\/Getty Images \u00a0 Dutch journalist Marcel van der Kraan has explained Igor Paixao\u2019s likely thinking in picking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-302400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114939046765339496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}