This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
Leeds United came so close to promotion last term.
The Whites threw away automatic promotion in the final weeks of the season, and their playoff campaign came to an abrupt end after losing 4-3 on aggregate to Derby County.
Unfortunately, the Yorkshire club’s loss against the Rams meant that they’d be spending another season in the Championship.
This will sting to read, but this may have all been avoided if Leeds had completed one signing that they were eying up the previous summer.
Watch Leeds United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below
The man they almost signed
This week it has been revealed by the man himself that Leeds almost brought in Dean Henderson last summer.
Indeed, the Manchester United loanee spoke to Sheffield United’s website about how he almost joined the Elland Road outfit in 2018.
“I’d been down to Leeds, and it looked as though I was signing there.
“Bristol City were very keen as well, and then my agent rang me and said that Sheffield United had been on the back burner. I said to him ‘Why haven’t you told me?’, because I really wanted to go there.
“The gaffer rang me, we spoke on the phone for an hour, and to be honest I was walking there before I even put the phone down. I was just buzzing to come to Bramall Lane.”
Could have been the difference
It’s a huge sliding doors moment, but it’s not too outlandish to say that the Whites may have got over the line last season if they’d have signed Henderson that summer.
Not only would the young goalkeeper have been an upgrade on both Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Kiko Casilla after they both had shaky spells as Leeds’ number one last term, but it also would have taken away one of Sheffield United’s most important players.
Peacock-Farrell started the first half of the campaign in goal but Casilla cost his side on multiple occasions with moments of madness in goal, events that aren’t usually associated with a more calming head like Henderson.
Why being the away goalkeeper at Leeds is the toughest job in football in the video below…
The Spanish stopper was coincidentally sent off against the Blades and was then at fault in the playoffs too. Might it have been different if they had Henderson instead? Quite possibly.
The Man Utd loanee kept 21 clean sheets for the Blades last term, evidence that he is a fine shot-stopper and a reliable figure.
That type of performance has carried over to the top-flight as Opta state that Henderson has prevented more goals than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League. Not only that, but he’s also received an England call-up. His qualities, therefore, are undeniable.
This isn’t to say that the Steel City outfit wouldn’t have been right up there without Henderson, but with the goalie keeping the most clean sheets in the Championship last term, it may be fair to say that he could have swung things in Leeds’ favour if he had opted to move to Elland Road rather than Bramall Lane.
