Former Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa should be fondly remembered by the supporters at Elland Road due to the excellent work he did during his time at the club.
The former Marseille head coach, who is the current national team manager of Uruguay, enjoyed a terrific spell in Yorkshire as he joined them in the Championship and left with the side competing as a Premier League outfit.
Ex-sporting director Victor Orta and the 68-year-old boss worked together to secure promotion to the top flight within his first two seasons at the helm, which was followed by a ninth-placed finish in the top division.
Whilst some may look back at the signings Bielsa made, with the most expensive highlighted below, and how successful they were, the experienced tactician also struck gold with his decisions on who to cash in on.
Bielsa’s most-expensive Leeds signings | Fee (via Transfermarkt) |
|---|---|
Rodrigo | £25.9m |
Dan James | £25.1m |
Jean-Kevin Augustin | £18.2m |
Diego Llorente | £17.3m |
Raphinha | £16.1m |
One sale the Argentine boss hit the jackpot with was centre-forward Kemar Roofe’s move to Belgian side Anderlecht in the summer of 2019.
Former Whites owner Andrea Radrizzani revealed that the club needed to bring in money through sales that year in order to avoid a points deduction from the league due to their financial situation.
This means that Bielsa’s hand was somewhat forced with Roofe but there were other assets at Elland Road and his decision to cash in on the Jamaica international turned out to be an excellent one.
How many goals did Kemar Roofe score for Leeds?
The energetic attacker spent three full seasons with the Yorkshire-based outfit and plundered 33 goals in 122 appearances across all competitions in total.
He arrived at Leeds off the back of an outstanding 2015/16 campaign with Oxford United in League Two as the talented ace produced an eye-catching 25 goals and 12 assists in 49 matches, which included 17 goals and ten assists in 40 league outings.
However, the English-born star struggled for form at the top end of the pitch during his debut season with Leeds. Roofe scored four goals and provided seven assists in 49 games throughout the 2016/17 term.
The former West Brom academy prospect was then able to find his feet the following campaign with a record of 14 goals and five assists in 39 clashes, which included 11 goals in 36 Championship outings.
His final season with Leeds came in the 2018/19 campaign, which was Bielsa’s first year at Elland Road and ended in a play-off semi-final defeat to Derby County. He contributed with 15 goals and two assists in 34 matches in total, which included 15 league goals in 33 appearances.
Roofe was Leeds’ top-scorer in the Championship with his 15 league strikes, which was six more than the nine that Patrick Bamford managed after his move from Middlesbrough during the 2018 summer transfer window.
How much did Leeds sell Roofe for?
Bielsa and Leeds reportedly cashed in on the reliable number nine for a significant fee of £7m as Vincent Kompany’s Anderlecht secured his services.
He only had one year left to run on his contract at Elland Road and was offered an attractive wage hike by the Pro League side, while the Whites were well compensated for a Championship club selling a player who would have been a free agent the following summer.
His departure left a hole to fill at the top end of the pitch for Bielsa but it also presented Bamford with the opportunity to stake a claim for his place in the side, which is exactly what he did.
The former Chelsea prodigy went on to score 16 goals in 45 Championship appearances, which was seven more than any of his teammates, as Leeds won the title and earned promotion to the Premier League.
Where is Roofe now?
Roofe is currently playing for Scottish giants Rangers at the age of 30, having joined the Light Blues from Anderlecht in the summer of 2020.
The striker scored seven goals in 16 appearances in all competitions for the Belgian outfit before his switch to Scotland after just one season with Kompany.
He has been a fairly prolific scorer for the Gers throughout his three-and-a-bit years in Glasgow to date, with 37 goals in 86 matches to date.
However, his fitness record has been a huge issue over the course of his stay in Scotland. Roofe has suffered seven separate injury problems and missed a staggering 84 competitive games since the start of the 2020/21 campaign.
This means that the former Leeds forward has almost been absent for as many matches as he has played for Rangers over the last three years, which shows that the 30-year-old attacker has been a liability with his lack of consistent availability.
How much is Roofe worth now?
At the time of writing, FootballTransfers have placed Roofe’s Expected Transfer Value (xTV) at £850k (€1m), showing that his market value has plummeted since his departure from Elland Road.
The experienced finisher’s xTV of £850k is 88% less than the £7m that Leeds raked in for his services in the summer of 2019.
Roofe, who was described as a “Duracell bunny” by former Rangers boss Steven Gerrard, has been a fine goalscorer for the Scottish giants but his injury issues have caused too many problems for him to be worth anywhere near as much as the Whites received for him four years ago.
His team are not able to rely on him to play regular football as he has not played more than 21 league games in a single season since the 2018/19 campaign with Leeds.
Therefore, Bielsa hit the jackpot with his move to sell the ex-Oxford United star in 2019 as his injury issues have caught up with him and his market value has deteriorated drastically, which suggests that the English outfit cashed in on him at the perfect time.
Roofe’s exit also allowed Bamford to thrive in the final third, as aforementioned, and fire the Yorkshire side to the Premier League, which suggests that they did not miss the Jamaican marksman’s talents on the pitch.
