10 worst Leeds United signings in Premier League era ranked – lunatic Italian 9th; four Orta clangers
Leeds United have committed several cardinal sins in the transfer market over the years, with the club, under its various ownerships, guilty of several signing catastrophes that have seen millions wasted. Here, we compile the top 10 worst since the dawning of the Premier League era.
The Whites spent years in the wilderness off the back of the reckless and wasteful spending during the Peter Ridsdale regime that sent the club tumbling down the leagues and almost leaving them bankrupt.
And while there have been some astute signings in and around the dross – check out this list of the club’s top 10 best signings of the Premier League era – there have been far too many forgettable ones that will leave supporters squirming, and the club with a lifetime of regrets.
Thankfully, Leeds’ current regime, 49ers Enterprises, have got a lot more right than they have got wrong and some of their additions since taking charge would suggest the club are aiming high – and with real intent and purpose.
Despite that, this delve into the archives shows that Leeds are arguably more guilty of blunderous signings than most, as we rank the top 10 worst signings made by Leeds during the Premier League era.
As with our last list, these don’t have to be players that featured in the top flight for the Whites, just having played for the club since the formation of the Premier League in 1992.
10) Nick Barmby
Bought for just shy of £3m in August 2002, and while he did score on his debut, his impact was minimal as Leeds slid down the table. Relegation the following season saw Barmby, who managed just six appearances in that wretched campaign, released on a free to his hometown team Hull City.
Just a major disappointment from start to finish.
9) Giuseppe Bellusci
This guy’s name is mud with Leeds fans and rightly so. While he never played in the Premier League, his two years at Elland Road were synonymous with red cards, ridiculous on-field behaviour and a fake hard-man persona that could definitely talk the talk but absolutely failed to walk the walk.
A real symbol of the ill-fated Massimo Cellini era at Leeds and he will forever be a figure of hatred owing to his role in the ‘Sicknote Six’ – six players who refused to play for the club and pulled out of the squad with ‘injury’ on the eve of a clash against Charlton.
8) Rasmus Kristensen
Another fake hard man whose time at Leeds is best forgotten, Kristensen was a disaster from start to finish. Brought into the club as part of Victor Orta’s weird obsession with signing anything or anyone who held an association with the Red Bull sports group.
Kristensen spent three years at Leeds, but two of those were out on loan, with his sole season at Elland Road ending in relegation. He ultimately left in a cut-price deal for Eintracht Frankfurt, having shown little value in the £10m Orta had invested.
7) Kiko Casilla
This looked an absolute steal when Leeds looked to fortify their promotion campaign by signing the experienced keeper from Real Madrid in January 2019, becoming the club’s top earner to boot on a four-and-a-half-year deal.
While there were a few encouraging early signs, Casilla’s Leeds career quickly went south, and the Spaniard was culpable of a terrible error in the play-off semi-final defeat to Derby when he and Liam Cooper both delayed Derby’s Jack Marriott to sneak in between them and net just before half-time of the second leg to make it 1-1 on the night.
That goal was the catalyst for a horrific Leeds collapse as Derby scored a famous 4-2 win at Elland Road (4-3 on aggregate) as Frank Lampard’s men made it to Wembley, and my brother was picked up by the Sky TV cameras, burying his head into his scarf at what was unfolding.
It quickly got a lot worse for Casilla when, in September 2019, he was accused of racially abusing Jonathan Leko in a clash against Charlton Athletic, for which he eventually received an eight-game ban for.
That event pretty much marked the end of his Leeds career, losing his place to the initially impressive young Frenchman Illan Meslier.
And while Casilla did feature three times for Leeds in the Premier League, he was loaned to Elche soon after before eventually being paid off and granted a free transfer in July 2022.
6) Weston McKennie
Speaking of Leeds horror stories, there were fewer worse than McKennie.
Brought in by Victor Orta on the say-so of then Leeds boss Jesse Marsch, the capture of McKennie on a season’s loan from Juventus was seen as a real coup at the time.
Instead, Leeds got a player who looked ill-suited to the Premier League, appeared a little out of shape amid jokes about his personal appearance and became a real joke-symbol of their ill-fated flirtation with United States players and management.
The fact that the season ended in relegation for Leeds, with McKennie playing under three different managers in that time, sums up what was a thoroughly miserable spell.
5) Paul Rachubka
Arguably the single worst goalkeeper to ever feature for Leeds; those there at Elland Road that day when Leeds were smashed 5-0 by Blackpool at home in November 2011 would certainly agree.
Leeds were 3-0 down at the break – and Rachubka had been dropped major clangers for all three, leading to his half-time substitution.
It turned out to be his sixth and final appearance for the club, and he had made four major errors that led to four goals in that time.
4) Roque Junior
Arrived at Leeds as a World Cup winner on loan from AC Milan, the player was seen as a real coup by the Whites.
However, in joining a Leeds side very much at the start of their decline, the joy at his arrival was pretty much immediately eradicated as Peter Reid’s side conceded a whopping 25 goals in his seven appearances, only gaining one point in that time.
Oh, and let’s not forget he was sent off on his home debut when he saw red against Birmingham City.
An absolute disastelclass from start to finish.
3) Seth Johnson
Moved to Leeds in October 2001 in yet another show of determination and spending power by Leeds, who already boasted one of the best midfields around.
But that £7m fee – a chunky outlay in those days – was to prove ill-fated as Johnson was beset by a plethora of injuries and rarely showed the type of form that had won him a solitary England cap prior to his move.
He made 54 appearances in Leeds in total, before rejoining Derby, where a knee injury ended his career prematurely at the age of 28.
However, it was his time at Leeds – and a player seen as the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as Leeds United’s excessive spending of that era – for which he is best remembered -and not for the right reasons.
2) Tomas Brolin
Joined Leeds in November 1995 for a then-club record fee of £4.5m, the Swede arrived with serious pedigree from progressive Italian side Parma.
However, the move to Leeds never worked out; Brolin was stung by a series of fitness issues, rarely looked fit when he did play and often clashed with Howard Wilkinson over his lack of work rate.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he was also forced to apologise to the club when an April Fool’s joke saw him pranked about a move to hometown team IFK Norrkoping in the media, only for the press to publish the article and his comments as matter of fact.
Indeed, he only managed 25 appearances in total across what was meant to be a four-and-a-half-year deal and is regarded by many as the single biggest transfer disaster in Leeds United’s history…. that is, until No.1 popped onto the scene…
1) Jean-Kevin Augustin
The single worst signing in Leeds’ history, let alone the Premier League era – and it’s not even close.
Augustin joined Leeds in January 2020, with the club securing an obligation to make the move permanent for £17.7m that summer.
On paper, it looked like a good deal. The Frenchman had a rich history, having been reared by PSG before joining Red Bull Leipzig and enjoying a strong time of things in the Bundesliga.
And while a loan to Monaco had not reaped rewards, his move to Elland Road was seen as a significant coup.
But Augustin was never match fit and Leeds, let alone being adequate to meet the work-rate required to play in a Marcelo Bielsa side. In total, he made three sub appearances totalling just 48 minutes of action, before Bielsa had seen enough and sent him back to his parent club at the end of Leeds’ Covid-hit promotion campaign.
Sadly, that was only the start of the drama, with Leipzig insisting Leeds were obligated to make the deal permanent owing to a promotion clause in his contract.
Leeds, however, argued this wasn’t the case, stating that, as Covid had disrupted the season, the clause had become invalid given the campaign had not ended, as expected before the end of May.
But the German side were not done, and, after the transfer row went through various transfer courts, Leeds were ultimately made to pay the fee of €21m (£18.4m) fee in total.
That was not the end of the saga either, and it was reported in April 2023 that Leeds were ordered to pay Augustin £24.5m (€27.9m) in compensation for breach of contract by FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber.
All in, Augustin cost Leeds a whopping £42.9m for just 48 minutes of football. The very definition of a transfer disaster.
