Reports have emerged claiming that Leeds United defender Max Wöber holds a loan exit clause in his contract following relegation.
Leeds’ summer window has been dominated by talk of the number of players leaving the club on initial loan deals, following their relegation from the Premier League.
The latest to join that list is centre-back Max Wöber, according to journalist Peter Linden, who claims that the defender has interest from both Germany and from the Premier League this summer.
It means that Leeds could lose yet another centre-back on a loan deal after seeing Diego Llorente and Robin Koch secure such exits from Elland Road.
Here, we look at two reasons why Leeds must ensure that this has no chance of happening…
He’ll be vital in our starting lineup
You could see from the early impact Wöber had at Leeds last season that he was able to instil some sort of calm into Jesse Marsch’s chaotic system.
Put him in a side that is possession-heavy such as Farke’s and we could see much more from the defender, who has developed his entire game in sides playing at the top of their divisions with Ajax and Red Bull Salzburg.
Not only that, but he’s arguably our best centre-back as things stand, so we need to be building around players like him, rather than letting him go.
We have no depth to let more defenders leave
Losing Llorente and Koch was inevitable and doesn’t hamper our plans at all really, but losing Wöber really would.
We’d be going into the season with one less starting-quality centre-back in the squad, and that massively hampers our chances of doing well across 46 games.
Wöber wouldn’t be expected to start every game across the season, but his ability to cover at left-back and in defensive midfield adds a great deal to our depth.
Take that away and we’re suddenly relying on Liam Cooper and Pascal Struijk to prop up the left side of the defence.
