Leeds United: Angus Kinnear makes Gus Hamer and Emi Buendia transfer revelation | OneFootball

Leeds United CEO Angus Kinnear has confirmed the club were keen on Gus Hamer and Emi Buendia.

Leeds United CEO Angus Kinnear has revealed that the club did try to sign Aston Villa’s Emi Buendia and Sheffield United’s Gustavo Hamer in the summer transfer window.

It was a hectic period for the Whites, who lost Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter following their failure to win promotion back to the Premier League.

Whilst selling the trio was a blow, it did give Leeds some room to manoeuvre in the market, and several new faces arrived.

However, some feel that Leeds have failed to replace Rutter, as they arguably don’t have a standout natural number ten in the squad, even if the likes of Joel Piroe, Brenden Aaronson and Wilfried Gnonto can play centrally.

Leeds United were keen on Emi Buendia and Gustavo Hamer

And, speaking to The Square Ball, Kinnear opened up on how difficult it can be to convince players to move to the Championship, as he confirmed Buendia, who excelled at Norwich under Farke, and Hamer were on their radar.

“One of the things which has been a theme across the summer is getting to players who really wanted to play for Leeds United. That’s really hard because it surprised me how much players want to play in the Premier League versus the Championship.

“Buendia was on our list, and very clearly [the feedback] from Aston Villa [was that he] wasn’t going to be released, and the player didn’t want to come back down. He felt he’d served his time at Championship level.

“We all assumed that there was no chance that Sheffield United would sell their star player to a promotion rival based on the price and the size of what promotion is worth. If they send them to Leeds United and we go up by one point, they’ve cost themselves over £100m in TV revenue.”

Leeds United were right to target quality this summer

It’s not going to mean much to Leeds fans knowing they missed out on two quality players, but it is reassuring to know that the club were targeting quality, as Buendia and Hamer would’ve been superb additions.

Some will argue that they were unrealistic, as Buendia is a quality player who has shown he belongs in the Premier League, and he will want to be part of an Aston Villa squad that are in the Champions League as he recovers from a serious knee injury.

Meanwhile, as Kinnear outlines, convincing Sheffield United to sell Hamer was always going to be difficult, because, unlike Jayden Bogle, he isn’t entering the final year of his deal at Bramall Lane.

Nevertheless, Leeds were right to target high-quality players this summer, as they don’t need squad fillers, and they will feel the likes of Manor Solomon and Largie Ramazani are players who can make a difference.

Leeds United have the squad to push for promotion

In an ideal world, they would have brought in a proven number ten to replace Rutter, but the reality is that Leeds still have enough in this group to compete for automatic promotion.

The January window will come around quickly, and, who knows, maybe they could revisit a move for either Hamer or Buendia if their circumstances change at their respective clubs.

So, it will be interesting to see how the window plays out, but the only concern in the short-term is building on what has been a positive start to the season for Daniel Farke’s side.