History was made in Leeds United’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur. For the first time in the club’s competitive history, a line-up was named with no players eligible for England selection.
According to LUFC Data, every previous competitive line-up named by the Whites included at least one player eligible to represent The Three Lions. Liam Cooper was, of course, born in England, but he has declared for Scotland’s national team.
Jack Harrison has been the player holding off this particular record in recent weeks, but an injury forced him out of the squad in the capital. Leeds had players eligible for France, Germany, Scotland, Netherlands, USA, Spain, Denmark and Italy starting at Spurs.
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It’s a landmark which raises an interesting thought on how forthcoming transfer windows may map out for the Whites. While the youth ranks have been rammed with some of this country’s best young talent in recent years, Harrison is the only England-eligible addition made to the senior squad since promotion.
Like Cooper, Daniel James is an Englishman declared elsewhere, but it’s a telling statistic on how English players move in the transfer market. In short, domestic talent has carried a premium and it’s an economical factor impacting Leeds now they compete with the world’s richest clubs for the talent to keep them in the Premier League.
Director of football Victor Orta has previously discussed which markets his small scouting team tends to focus its resources on. Transfers into Elland Road have recently come from Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Norway and France.
In May 2020, Orta said he divided most of the world’s recognised competitions into three classes: Class A, Class B and Class C. In the first class Orta lists the top divisions of Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Denmark.
There are also the second divisions in France, England, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain and the reserves of every Champions League club. However, Orta specifies only selected teams in France, England, Portugal, Italy, Germany and Spain’s first divisions will be scouted for financial reasons.
League One and League Two in England are also included in the top class of competitions Orta scouts. He said: “I start the season in August. I have a first part of the year I make a quality/quantity view of games in leagues we consider productive.
“These are the leagues in Class A, which we consider productive. If there is an asterisk it is because, obviously, in La Liga you don’t watch Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid because it’s not affordable to me.”
It remains to be seen which way the January and subsequent summer transfer windows will go for the Whites, but the line-up at Tottenham and recent transfer dealings might suggest a lot of the best domestic talent remains over-inflated for United’s budget.
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