Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams won’t be on Leeds United’s “Christmas card list” this season, and fans won’t care because Ethan Ampadu has been demonstrably better already.
The summer window was probably one of the most baffling in memory for Leeds, with players leaving left and right for no money, as they exercised loan clauses put in place by the previous regime.
Top-flight moves for plenty of players seemed intriguing to say the least, given a lot of them playing poorly is why Daniel Farke is picking up the pieces in the EFL this season.
How is Tyler Adams getting on?
Bournemouth were the scourge of Leeds in the summer window, taking advantage of their Premier League status to spoil a number of Elland Road plans, as Max Aarons turned his back on Leeds to move to the Cherries, Andoni Iraola did too, while they prised Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra from the club in August too.
Sinisterra and Adams both threatened legal action to head to the South Coast, as the latter made a £23million transfer, leading to CEO Angus Kinnear claiming neither would be on the club’s “Christmas card list” due to their antics.
Adams arrived in Iraola’s squad carrying the same injury that stopped him from playing a part in Leeds’ survival run-in, but has been confirmed to be in their squad tonight for the EFL Cup clash against Stoke City.
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Will Leeds care?
It’s interesting to see how Adams gets on, because there’s a top-flight player there that was on show for us before his injury.
Having said that, Leeds fans and the club in general will not be fussed at all about the USMNT skipper anymore, given that we have someone comfortably better, who has been fully fit and impeccable in the meantime:
Adams’ main upside for us was his ability to read the play against possession, cover lots of ground, and break up attacks with ease. Ampadu does that.
Adams’ key weakness was his tendency to treat the ball like a hot potato, shifting quickly without much progression or even consideration to do so more often than not (via FBref):
Ampadu, as the first-receiver in our build-up, has been exceptional for Farke and a key reason as to why Leeds not only dominate possession, but look very dangerous with it too, going from back to front in an instant against Watford at the weekend.
The club clearly hoped we could keep Adams, but the standard set by Ampadu here is something that the American could not keep up with – all at the bargain fee of £7million too.
£16million spare in the bank and a better player that is fully fit right now. Tidy.