Don’t be daft: Tottenham Hotspur’s Fernando Llorente is not coming to Leeds United in January

There have been plenty of transfer rumours floating around potential targets for Leeds United right now. With the January transfer window coming up in less than a month, the usual suspects are starting to be mentioned in the press as the silly season is back in full effect.

One of the rumours that keeps popping up is one linking Fernando Llorente, currently at Tottenham Hotspur, with a reunion with his old manager Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds. And while Llorente did enjoy some of the best form of his career with he was managed by Bielsa at Athletic Bilbao, Leeds taking him on loan in January is a daft rumour for a number of reasons.

The first reason the rumour is daft is because Llorente himself has said he’d like to go back to Bilbao to join up with Athletic Club. The Basque giants have struggled this season, as they are currently sitting in the relegation zone in La Liga. They recently sacked their manager and got only their second win of the season against Girona this past Monday. If Llorente does decide to move on from Spurs, it’s likely that he’ll return to Spain and Athletic Club.

The second reason why this rumour is daft is because of the wages that Llorente is currently on. Right now, Llorente is currently on wages of about £75,000 a week. Last year, Leeds signed Pierre-Michel Lasogga on a loan deal for about £15k a week, with his parent club, Hamburger SV, covering about £35k of his wages to NOT play for the club.

There is no way Leeds can have anyone, even someone with the experience of playing for Juventus, come in at £75k p/w. Leeds literally cannot afford that wage, and there is very little reason that Spurs would subsidize his move to Leeds in such a way that Leeds could afford the Spaniard’s wages.

You can almost certainly ignore this transfer rumour. It will not happen, at least not in January. If things change and Llorente’s a free agent in January, then someone might happen, but until then? No chance.