Leeds United managing director has fronted up to questions on the summer transfer window, sharing insight into the club’s view on various issues, including PSR above most things.
The Premier League’s spending rules have been governed by PSR for some time and it leaves clubs like Leeds coming into the division with one hand tied behind their back compared to the established clubs.
Two years as a Championship club mean Leeds are unable spend as much as their rivals in the division, but that situation hasn’t stopped Sunderland blowing United and Burnley out of the water, so what’s the difference?
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Managing director Robbie Evans discusses Leeds United’s PSR and why Sunderland could spend so much more
It’s impossible not to look at business conducted at the Stadium of Light without at least a tinge of envy, as the Black Cats made several high-profile, high-cost signings to drastically enhance their chances of survival after scraping promotion through the back door of the playoffs.
The difference between Leeds and Sunderland has been mapped out by managing director Robbie Evans, who spoke to the press on Tuesday to address the window shutting.
Leeds United fans were left baffled at the lack of late-window investment despite Daniel Farke’s constant pleas. (Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough)
In his comments, Evans notes that Leeds were right on the cusp of their own PSR threshold, and couldn’t possibly match what Sunderland spent, due to previous spending during the Championship.
“So on, PSR, as mentioned before this, unequivocally, we are maxing out PSR this season, just as last season and the season before, and that is something that would be verifiable when the accounts come out, whenever they come out. There’s no point in trying to lie about that,” Evans said, per the YEP.
“As far as the relative aggression or ambition financially between Leeds and Sunderland – as a sports business nerd, lifelong sports business nerd, they are fascinating, duelling case studies. So Sunderland has, in my view, the perfect storm in a good way of creating PSR room. Between the combination of, as far as I’m aware, little or no operating loss last two seasons, very low wage bill, gets promoted, sells their top talents for 10s of millions (Tommy Watson and Jobe Bellingham for £37m), and now is effectively carrying no prior losses and a player sale profit in the Premier League, where they have a 48,000 person stadium waiting for them to sell out every game.
“Those conditions, as far as I’m aware have never existed in the history of PSR. So my guess is that Sunderland has the highest, so-called cap room in the history of PSR, and they have been very aggressive in that which they deserve a lot of credit for. That happened as a part of their long term plan, right? Building up from a youth movement.”
Leeds United’s window was dubbed the worst in the Premier League by Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist. (Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough)
Sunderland have shrewdly allowed themselves an incredibly high PSR threshold through thrifty spending as a Championship club, followed by massive sales upon their promotion, leading them to what Evans states is a wildly contrasting situation to what Leeds had coming into the same window.
“Leeds comes from almost the exact opposite position,” Evans continued. “Last year, Leeds had to get promoted because of the level of past player investment, wage bill, etc, so we doubled down on as much quality as possible last season to maximise our promotion odds. We’ve carried a big wage bill two years ago, a big wage bill a year ago, as you all know, we lost roughly £60m in our company’s accounts record in fiscal year ’24. That loss is inside of our three year PSR window. For some perspective, between two years in the Championship and a one year in the Prem, you’re allowed PSR losses are £61m pounds. So those numbers are very similar, meaning this year we have to operate very efficiently to make our three-year window work.
“Within that, we have frankly been able to get more done through a combination of aggressive contracting and commercial success and other elements to maximise our spending this season, to get more player quality in than expected. But we are in almost entirely different circumstances from Sunderland, even though I know they’re being compared to us because we’re both promoted sides, from a broader, long-term financial perspective, they’re almost complete opposites in terms of how they’re entering this particular year from a PSR perspective.
“We don’t talk about cash in here at all, because everyone assumes that cash is infinite and that we’ll max out PSR. And that is my objective every year, to max out PSR, irrespective of the cash requirements to do so. We’re injecting tons of cash in this club, far more than any ownership group has before. But that’s not the solution. And the reason I often mention, you can check the accounts and they come out, because we understand that PSR is very opaque. For the average fan, it can become this scapegoat or boogeyman to serve whatever purpose it has to serve in the narrative of the club. So rather than let it be some kind of fungible shadow scapegoat, I want to keep reminding folks you could just check the record when it comes out. These are all verifiable facts.”
Should Leeds United have sold a first team player in order to create more room?
Leeds wouldn’t have been able to cash in on £37million worth of first team players like Sunderland and still not be that badly harmed – Watson and Jobe weren’t big losses to their side going into the top flight, relative to their value.
But it does beg the question of whether Leeds could have considered sales of their own to facilitate a window like Sunderland’s.
Who could Leeds have sold? The players likely to generate the highest fees or the most profit are as follows:
Pascal Struijk
Ao Tanaka
Willy Gnonto
Joel Piroe
The club clearly thought these four players were better off staying, rather than financing bigger spending elsewhere – time will tell if they made the right choice.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!