Bamford cancels his contract as departures continue
Friday, 29th Aug 2025 22:09 by Tim Whelan
Four players have left the club this week as we continue to reshape the squad, with Patrick Bamford being the latest and arguably the highest profile of the departing players.
Once we get into September, Premier League rules dictate that we will only be able to select players over the age of 21 if they are in a squad of 25 players, which we have to register once the window has shut. So with 10 players being signed so far, it was inevitable that a few would have to go the other way, and that will also help with trimming the wage bill to comply with the dreaded PSR.
The club’s official site announced that “a mutual agreement has been reached with Patrick Bamford which will see the striker leave the club this summer” as a free agent, even though there was still a year remaining on his contract. “He will forever be a part of our proud history”. But that wasn't enough for Bamford for Daniel Farke to keep him on for the new season, as the manager said in July.
“With Patrick, I had a really open and honest conversation. I would have preferred a completely fit Patrick Bamford in the last two seasons. He knows how much I rate him as a person. It was the second day of pre-season when I told him in my office he wasn’t part of my plans for the upcoming Premier League season, due to the fact he’s had really difficult years over the past years”.
Bamford is still only 31, and if it wasn’t for his injury record he would still have had a part to play in the Premier League, with his physical presence and his ability to hold the ball up. And it even looked as though he’d bulked up a bit when he reported for pre-season training, but no doubt his wages were part of the issue, as promotion would have ensured they had gone back up to the full rate in his contract.
In a heartfelt video on social media Bamford said “The club became a massive part of my world, and I tried to make you proud by doing the most I could on the pitch and also in the community. Right now with the way it has come to an end and the way things have been handled recently, it’s all a little bit too raw to reflect on immediately”.
“But I think in the years to come I’ll look back at this period of my life with nothing but joy, pride, and be super happy with what I’ve achieved and the fact that I was able to wear this number 9 shirt in front of you guys for this many years.” There is no word yet as to where he will go next, though Wrexham were mentioned earlier in the summer.
Also out the door (for now) is Largie Ramazani, who has gone to Valencia on a season-long loan deal, though without an option for the Spanish club to convert it to a permanent transfer at the end. With the club having five wingers in the squad after Okafor’s arrival it was inevitable that one would make way, though many fans on social media would rather we ditched Harrison instead.
The winger scored seven times in all competitions, but made only one start in the Championship after picking up an injury in October. Judging by his antics on the bus during the parade he is a very lively character and popular with his colleagues, but word had it that Daniel Farke was less impressed with his commitment in training. Will his new boss Carlos Corberan be any more tolerant?
Another player who supposedly didn’t work hard enough for the manager behind the scenes was Isaac Schmidt, who had gone to Werder Bremen on loan for the remainder of the season. And this deal does have an option to buy at the end of the loan. Schmidt made 14 appearances and looked half decent at times, but Farke clearly didn’t think he was good enough for the Premier League.
As evidenced by our efforts to ship him out even when it was acknowledged that we still needed cover in the full back positions. Clearly Schmidt wasn’t going to be trusted to provide that cover, and once the signing of James Justin had been secured, his departure was inevitable. He will now hope to get enough game time to make the Swiss squad for next summer’s world cup finals.
And finally, Sam Greenwood gone to join Polish side Pogoń Szczecin on a permanent deal, for a fee described as ‘undisclosed’ on the official Leeds site, though sources in Poland are reporting it might be as high as around £1.7m. Greenwood never really established himself in the Leeds first team, and you might have forgotten that we still had him on the books.
He did manage as many as 25 appearances during our last spell in the Premier League, though most of them were off the bench. So it’s a surprise to say the least that he’s off to Poland, as I’m sure a Championship club could have come in for him after his loan spells at Preston and Middlesbrough in the last two seasons.
He will be best remembered for his delivery at set pieces, which was something we could have done with in the last couple of seasons, when our inability to score from free kicks has been really annoying. But that alone wasn’t enough to earn him a place in the side, when his all round game wasn’t quite good enough.
Though Farke did say that if the rules allowed for unlimited substitutions like in Gridiron, he’d bring him on for set pieces and then take him straight off again! In a TV game I saw Greenwood deliver some excellent crosses from the right using the same ability he shows at set pieces, but Leeds have had too many other options on the wing to be able to give him a game out there.
We’ll join the official website in wishing all these players the best of luck in their future careers away from Elland Road.
_Reuters_
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