Only yesterday the Yorkshire Post was reporting that Leeds were unlikely to sell Mateo Joseph this summer unless a serious offer came in, but two other outlets are suggesting that is precisely what has happened today.

The Post told us that ‘Despite his frustrating 2024/25 Championship campaign, Leeds continue to regard the 21-year-old as a player of significant potential and the YEP understands he is not currently up for sale. Leeds' position is that it would take what they would regard as a really good offer to change Joseph's situation’.

But today LeedsUnited.news are quoting Graeme Bailey (Operational Head of Football with GRV Media) as saying “Leeds have agreed to let him leave. I am told the overall deal could be around the €10m [£8.5m] mark including add-ons. There were a few teams keen, but the player made it clear he wanted Betis. Leeds would have been more than happy for him to fight for his place, but Joseph wanted the move back to Spain.”

Perhaps he couldn’t bear to be parted from Junior Firpo, so he insisted on following our former cult hero to the Seville-based club. Spanish outlet Diario De Sevilla says that talks between the clubs are at an advanced stage, and have given a little more detail about the terms. Betis would pay an initial £6.75m, but a clause would give us an additional 20% of any transfer fee they receive in the future.

Ten months it seemed likely that Joseph was about to make the breakthrough as a regular starter for Leeds after an impressive pre-season, but it never quite came off. He didn’t help his cause with that crucial miss in the opening minute of our defeat by Burnley in September, and it wasn’t long before Daniel Farke decided we needed the more experienced Piroe as our main striker.

Joseph did bag a couple of goals as the season went on, showing a natural striker’s instinct against Hull, but overall he has only scored four times in 62 appearances for Leeds. Quite a few of those were short cameos off the bench, but overall that is not a great return. And yet he always seems to be highly regarded in his native land, for whom he can’t seem to stop scoring at under 21 level.

Betis first tested the water with an offer during the January transfer window, and Joseph has enhanced his reputation in Spanish circles since. This week his goal in the opening game of the Under 21 European Championship took his tally to 8 in 11 games, so there might be something about the pace of Spanish football that suits his game better than the EFL.

As Leeds need to raise funds whenever we can to avoid breaching the dreaded PSR regulations, it was always going to be tempting to cash in on a player where almost all of the transfer fee received will be pure profit. We signed him from Espanyol at the start of 2022 for a fee thought to be less than £1.5m, so his current book value will be minimal.

Ideally we want to be picking up cash for players who would otherwise be on the fringes of the squad next season rather than having to sell the key members of the side, so it looks like this transfer is going to suit all parties.

Reuters