sport news Raphinha and Phillips leaving has the air of another difficult season for Leeds trends now
6 shares
View
comments
When Leeds United star Raphinha climbed into the away end at Brentford following the final match of the Premier League season, it felt as if the flares burning around him were fuelling hope of a brighter day. The team had survived and a fire-sale would be avoided.
What has played out since renders memory of that breathless afternoon as hazy as the west London sunshine.
You left the Brentford Community Stadium believing that Leeds — odds-on favourites for relegation before kick-off — had won a reprieve. What they have since lost is their two best players, Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips, bound for Chelsea and Manchester City respectively.
It had been hoped after the miraculous escape at Brentford that this would be a good summer
Had Leeds gone down, their exits would have been inevitable. But that victory at Brentford and the emotion that followed — Phillips and Raphinha were front and centre of the celebrations — gave the impression of a squad and club reunited on what had threatened to be a day of division. A little more than a month out from the new campaign, however, and there is a danger that the departure of both players will leave a hole into which those left behind will stumble. There is a fear, too, that manager Jesse Marsch lacks the Premier League experience to navigate such pitfalls, and the same can be said of the club's new signings to date.
Yes, a case can be made for each of Rasmus Kristensen, Brenden Aaronson and Marc Roca having the potential to emerge as smart
