Rumours of Jansson’s departure have been rife for a while, and today the Yorkshire Post are reporting that Leeds have agreed a fee of £5.5m with Brentford
We already knew that he wasn’t on the plane when the rest of the squad left for the pre-season tour of Australia, and while some suggested he had merely been given extended leave after playing for Sweden in June, there were a few others who had also been on international duty at the same time who will be playing down under. Jansson was told to report to Thorp Arch this week, but instead he remained in Sweden to train with his first club Malmo.
And the Yorkshire Post have now said that "The 28-year-old appears set to leave after a breakdown in relationship between the club and player.” And Phil Hay posted on Twitter that "he’s come to be seen as a disruptive presence at Leeds and it’s reached the stage where the club and Bielsa felt it was in their best interests to cut ties with him.”
The sale of our self-appointed cult hero has naturally prompted some furious comments from Leeds fans on social media, though the anger has been directed at the relatively low size of the fee, rather than questioning the decision itself, as most accept that he needs to be moved on if something has gone off behind the scenes.
And there has been a lot of speculation as to how long this problem has been festering. The first signs that something wasn’t quite right came in the wake of the controversial game with Villa in May, when Jansson alone ingored Bielsa’s instruction to allow Villa to walk through and score an equalising goal. He then seemed distracted during our final day defeat at already-relegated Ipswich, and wasn’t selected for the second leg of the play-offs against Derby when apparently fit.
After that game he remained by the pitch for a long time staring at his surroundings, which some thought was a final look before his departure. But that could just have been disappointment at the way a season of such promise had come to nothing, and if the decision to move him on had already been taken in May, wouldn’t we have sold him to a bigger club for a larger fee?
The fact he’s gone to a club like Brentford for only £5.5m sounds like his departure is a hurried reaction to his refusal to report back on time, when he could possibly have gone for double that to a Premier League or overseas club, or at least to one of the bigger clubs in our division. Brentford fans on Twitter think his arrival makes them serious promotion contenders, but there won’t be many outside west London who see things that way.
Jansson’s departure will clearly require Leeds to sign another experienced central defender in the four weeks that remain before the new season kicks off. We have of course signed Brighton’s 21 year-old Ben White on loan, but you wouldn’t expect him to form our first choice partnership alongside Liam Cooper, while the departures of Halme and Diaz have left the squad looking even more threadbare in that department.
Let’s hope that Victor Orta has already identified a few options for Jansson’s replacement.