Former Leeds United goalkeeper Karl Darlow recently left the Whites to sign for Manchester United as a free agent.
Despite the 49ers’ attempts to get Darlow to stay in West Yorkshire, they were ultimately unable to convince the Welshman to do so.
Darlow follows Illan Meslier out the exit door, and Lucas Perri could soon join them too. Torino are reportedly interested in taking Perri off our hands.
Following Man United’s announcement of Darlow on social media, our bitter rivals took a sly dig at Leeds after they poached our ‘keeper.
Manchester United taunt Leeds United following the signing of Karl Darlow
For as much as we all may dislike him now, we cannot deny that Darlow had an impressive season for us last year.
That is why it is frustrating that we have lost him, and especially to Man United*.*
Our rivals did not waste any time taunting Leeds on social media following the announcement.
When posting a link to Darlow’s first interview with his new club on X, Man United captioned the post, “Moving up in the world.”
Undoubtedly, this is a clear dig at us.
I’ll save you the trouble of reading Darlow’s quotes. He uttered the usual spiel all Man United signings are forced to, calling them ‘the biggest club in the world’, despite that obviously being far from the case.
Our former player and current Man United director of football, Jason Wilcox, also chimed in on the deal.
Wilcox said, “Karl has proven his ability to perform at the highest level. His work ethic and determined personality make him a really strong addition to our squad.
“We are delighted to add a player of his quality and experience to our excellent goalkeeping group.”
A new goalkeeper should now be our main priority
Tarik Muharemovic is seemingly on the verge of being our replacement for Pascal Struijk. Now the 49ers can turn their full attention towards signing a new goalkeeper.
Regardless if Perri stays or goes, a new first-choice keeper is certainly needed.
Our first pre-season game is on Saturday, 25 July against Wrexham. Unless things rapidly develop between now and then, it does not look like we will have a new shot-stopper through the door by then.
But I do hope that whoever the 49ers bring in can feature in the bulk of our pre-season.
Building that relationship between the backline and ‘keeper is so important, so we should ideally be using our pre-season games to help develop this relationship. Not Premier League games.
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