Fortsetter......
said when I took the job that I’d only sign players I want, players who would make us better, so when those four weren’t possible, I left it.
“I’m not going to have a situation where I sign someone and three weeks later people are saying ‘why the hell’s this guy here?’
“It wouldn’t be right. On Monday night Massimo Cellino (United’s owner) said to me ‘anyone else?’ But I wasn’t going to start coming up with names for the sake of it.â€
The question at the deadline was not so much who Leeds had failed to sign but why.
“The club’s deal to sell Sam Byram to West Ham will be worth around £3.7million. The transfer of Diagouraga from Brentford – Leeds’ only permanent signing – cost £575,000 up front.
Cellino’s intentions as owner, short-term and long, have been unclear for some time and the durability of his tenure is hard to establish. He remains at threat of a Football League ban, pending an as-yet unscheduled appeal. Recently he has been spotted at several games alongside Steve Parkin, the Yorkshire businessman who has spoken repeatedly in the past about buying control of Leeds.
Evans said: “I’m not here to be Massimo Cellino’s friend and I’m not saying he’s faultless or perfect but money was there to spend. We just had to make sure the deals were right. With Winnall, Barnsley were critical of our valuation of him but that was our valuation. We weren’t going to go above that because it wasn’t right to go higher.
“To be fair to the supporters, if I was looking at the headlines I’d be seeing a lot of money coming in for Sam, a certain amount being spent on Toumani and I’d be thinking ‘what about the rest of the money?’.
But I know the wages for Toumani, and for Carayol and Bridcutt.
“I know what we were bidding for other players. That’s what people don’t see.
“It’s easy to think the owner’s taken a load of cash for Sam, spent a bit of Toumani and pocketed the rest as a nice wee profit but that’s 100 per cent wrong.
“If I thought that was the case – if I thought that was the reason I wasn’t getting players I want – then I wouldn’t be here because I’d be on a hiding to nothing.â€
Bridcutt and Carayol’s status as loanees means United cannot be certain of retaining them for next season.
“Evans said he expected Leeds to contact Sunderland and Middlesbrough later this month to start the process of discussing permanent transfers.
The club are 14th in the Championship and, at face value, a long way short of the play-offs; 12 points back after a round of games on Tuesday night. Evans admitted that the strength of his squad had made at least one player doubtful about joining. “I’ll not hide from that,†Evans said. “We need to be able to show players that we’ve got a plan and we’re moving forward.
“Toumani asked about that and I was able to convince him.
“Another player I spoke to – someone we wanted on loan but with a definite option to buy in the summer – said he wanted to see two or three better players in our squad, to know for sure that we can challenge next season.
“That’s frustrating but I understand his point of view. This is why we’re building, so that people know we can challenge. It wasn’t going to happen overnight here.
“When I first took over the owner was worried about relegation.
“Now he’s told me to build a team that can compete. I’ll do that but it’ll take time. I’m confident that when players see what we do in the summer, they’ll take a different look at things.
“If we’d been right in amongst the play-offs or in serious trouble then 100 per cent we’d have put pen to paper on Monday night.
“Because of where we are, we didn’t need to be rash or stupid.
“I know I’ll be backed in the summer because the owner has backed me with Bridcutt, Carayol and Diagouraga.
“I feel those signings have made us better and so does he.
“And without being good enough, I think we’ve got a strong base now.â€
United’s inaction on Monday came amid other striking deals in the Championship: Sheffield Wednesday loaning Aiden McGeady – a player Evans spoke to Everton about – and Boro paying £9m for Jordan Rhodes, on top of a deal for Leicester City full-back Ritchie De Laet. Burnley pushed the boat out for Brentford centre-back James Tarkowski.
“Aitor Karanka (Middlesbrough’s head coach) is now in the position where he’ll be forced to leave quality players out,†Evans said.
“He might feel required to play Rhodes because of the money involved which means David Nugent might sit on the bench.
“That’s a fantastic position to be in but it’s taken him and Middlesbrough three or four windows to get there and as I’ve said many times, that’s what I need.
“People will roll their eyes when they hear me say this but if we’d been in Middlesbrough’s position in the league, do I think we’d have signed Jordan Rhodes?
“I believe we would have done. I believe we’ll get to that point. But I know that saying it and doing it are two different things.â€
Read more:
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/latest-lufc-news/leeds-united-evans-looking-long-term-after-falling-short-in-january-transfer-window-1-7714021#ixzz3z92GTxUP