More pointless than Meslier: £11m Leeds flop set to be sold for millions

Leeds United’s promotion to the Premier League means that they have to be ruthless with the players they decide to keep at Elland Road this summer.

Illan Meslier is one player whose future in West Yorkshire remains uncertain, although LeedsLive recently reported that no official offers have been made for the goalkeeper yet.

The outlet added, though, that the French shot-stopper could move on if Daniel Farke does not guarantee him game time next season, amid the club’s search for a new goalkeeper.

Meslier was dropped for Karl Darlow in the run-in at the end of last season, after making three errors that directly led to goals, and it does not seem likely that he will be a frontline option for the German boss.

Leeds, meanwhile, are reportedly set to cash in on another dud who is even more pointless to the squad than Meslier ahead of next season.

Leeds set to sell £11m flop

The former Lorient goalkeeper may end up being second or third-choice if the Whites are successful in signing another shot-stopper, but the club are about to sell a player who is even further down the pecking order in his position.

According to DeichStube, via Sport Witness, Leeds have agreed a deal with Werder Bremen to sell central defender Max Wober, who joined from Salzburg in 2023 for a fee of £11m, to the German side on a permanent deal.

The report claims that a transfer for the Austria international is in the final stages and is set to ‘imminently’ join the Bundesliga outfit this week on a four-year contract.

It adds that Werder Bremen are set to pay a fee of around £3.4m to sign the left-footed defender from the Premier League side, which represents a significant loss on the £11m that was paid for him two-and-a-half years ago.

Why Wober is less important than Meslier

Cashing in on Wober makes a lot of sense for Leeds this summer because he is even less important than Meslier in regard to Farke’s squad depth ahead of next season. Whilst the Frenchman is currently one of two first-team goalkeepers at the club, the Austrian defender is way down the list of potential centre-back options in a back four.

The former Salzburg star only played 332 minutes of football in the Championship last season, whilst Ethan Ampadu, Pascal Struijk, and Joe Rodon all played over 2,000 minutes.

Leeds have since added Jaka Bijol and Sebastiaan Bornauw from Udinese and Wolfsburg respectively to bolster their centre-back ranks, leaving Farke with Bijol, Bornauw, Struijk, Ampadu, and Rodon ahead of Wober in the pecking order.

This shows that the Werder Bremen target is even more pointless than Meslier, because he is even further down the list of options in his respective position.

As you can see in the table above, Wober also struggled in the Premier League the last time Leeds were there in the 2022/23 campaign after his move from Salzburg, barely winning above half of his duels and being dribbled past eight times in 14 starts.

The Whites were, of course, relegated from the top-flight that term and that may be part of the reason why they have moved quickly to improve their centre-back options by signing Bijol and Bornauw, after seeing how Wober performed when they were last in the division.

Overall, selling him, despite making a significant loss on the £11m that they bought him for, makes a lot of sense, potentially even more so than cashing in on Meslier does.