Our first transfer of the summer has already been agreed, as it was confirmed today that Leeds have agreed terms with Eintracht Frankfurt for the German club to take Rasmus Kristensen off our hands, though the deal can’t be completed officially until the transfer window opens in June.
The 27-year-old made 30 appearances for Leeds in all competitions during the 2022//3 season, but after relegation he activated the loan clause in his contract and spent the next season at Roma. The Italians weren’t sufficiently impressed to want to prolong his stay, but he seems to have done rather better in Germany.
A few weeks ago the Danish international said he wanted to remain in Frankfurt beyond the end of the current season, and today it seems he has got his wish, with his current loan due to be converted into a permanent transfer. The fee was described as "undisclosed” on the official Leeds website, but an article in the Athletic has given a few more details.
They have reported that the initial fee will be £5.1m, but this could rise to as high as £7.7m if certain add-on payments are triggered. Leeds wanted closer to £12 m, but have decided to accept this lower figure, presumably thinking this is the best offer we are ever going to get. ‘Every little helps’, in the words of a well-known supermarket, and the fee will help us to meet those pesky PSR targets.
So we haven’t recouped the £10m we initially paid, but his current book value will only be £4m, as the fee will have been written off over the course of the five year contract he signed when he arrived at Elland Road. So in the current years accounts this will be a profit of up to £3.7m, as well as making sure his substantial wages won’t come back onto the books.
On the official Eintracht Frankfurt website their sporting director Markus Krosche said he was pleased to have completed the permanent signing of a player who has become "a very important part of our team’. And that is a side who are currently third in the Bundesliga and through to the Europa League quarter finals.
All of which is rather more impressive than his one ill-fated season at Leeds. He was signed from Red Bull Salzburg as he was already well kn. own to then head coach Jesse Marsch, but to say he failed to live up to expectations would be a massive understatement. Which has inevitably been reflected in the reactions on social media once we heard he was on his way.
One fan said he would "drive Kristensen to Frankfurt myself, if he wasn’t there already”. And another said he was "Not bad going forward but a shocker defensively. Always behind his man, either calamitously slow or just couldn’t be bothered”. And several have compared him unfavourably with Jayden Bogle, though others have pointed out that the latter is playing for us in a lower division, so it’s hard to tell who is really the better player.
It might just be that like Marc Roca, his game is better suited to the slower pace of the game on the continent. I thought that even in the desperate last few games of that awful relegation season he still looked committed, so I’m prepared to wish him well in Germany, while looking forward to life without him at Leeds in the future.