Tyler Roberts officially joined Leeds United from West Bromwich Albion today, as the club announced that the 19 year-old striker is joining Leeds and has signed a four-and-a-half year deal with the Yorkshire club.
✍️ | Leeds United are delighted to announce the signing of forward Tyler Roberts from Premier League side West Bromwich Albion
— Leeds United (@LUFC) January 31, 2018
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The deal to bring Roberts to Elland Road had been rumoured for awhile now, and it was confirmed last night that Roberts was likely to join Leeds today from West Brom pending a medical this morning.
Roberts has represented Wales at a youth level, and appears set to join up with the senior squad very soon. He spent time at Walsall on loan earlier this season, where he scored five goals and had three assists in 17 appearances.
Massive shame to see Tyler Roberts leave. Watched him for the U23s last season, it was clear he'd benefited from the L1 loans. Huge potential. Should be a great signing for Leeds. #wba #LUFC
— Paul Suart (@PaulSuartWBA) January 31, 2018
Roberts has been allowed to leave West Brom because he’d refused to sign a new contract, and with his deal apparently up in the summer, West Brom felt that they would have better luck transferring him now rather than going the route of a tribunal. Tribunals can be tricky for clubs, as young players without a lot of first team experience don’t typically garner a big transfer fee.
For example, West Ham United signed Ashley Fletcher after his contract ran out at Manchester United. Despite having put in a number of good performances for Barnsley, West Ham and Manchester United were able to agree on a fee of about £1 million for Fletcher. West Ham then sold Fletcher to Middlesbrough for almost £6.5 million this past summer, meaning that West Ham had made a £5.5 million profit in only a few short months, and also a sign that tribunals do a very poor job of recognizing market prices in terms of paying for potential.
Leeds appear to have gotten a good young striker, and here’s hoping that he can step into the first team and provide a little spark that the club needs in the attack, as Leeds have looked unable to score for long periods of time this year.