Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa says 10 players wanted to leave the club during the January transfer window, although only revealed Crysencio Summerville as one of that group.
It is proving to be a difficult second season in the Premier League for Leeds under Bielsa, currently sitting 15th in the table, but with a seven-point cushion above the relegation zone.
The Yorkshire club have been hampered by injuries to big players like Kalvin Phillips, Patrick Bamford and Robin Koch, but there are still plenty of players in the squad who were keen to move on loan in January, despite gaps opening up in the first team.
Bielsa revealed Summerville, a 2020 signing from Feyenoord who has made five Premier League appearances this season, asked to leave directly.
‘He spoke with me and told me that he wanted to leave,’ the Leeds boss said of Summerville.
‘I told him that there weren’t any problems with him leaving. The reason why I said this to him is that as a player he has a pretty frequent participation in the first team, not necessarily coming on, but he is a player that was contemplated frequently and he asked to leave. For me that reason, that motive is sufficient.’
The Argentinian says he had the same attitude to any player that wanted to leave the club, not wanting to stand in the way of anyone who would rather be elsewhere.
However, he also made it clear that he is not the only decision-maker and the club would not be so willing to let any player move who asked to leave.
‘Any player that tells me that they want to leave, I would answer, “no problem, I’m not opposed to you leaving. What is the reason?” That is because he wants to leave. I don’t analyse whether it’s fair or not, whether it corresponds or not. Simply not wanting to be here is sufficient.
‘The club has a different outlook on it, because the players sign contracts and they acquire obligations,” he said.
‘The obligations sum up to economic. I don’t have the power to decide contractual or economic problems.
‘In the case of Summerville, there were 10 players in a similar situation and all of the subjects, I treated them in the same way, as it can’t be any other way.’
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