Leeds United liable for fee as clause emerges in Georginio Rutter contract amid Sam Allardyce snub mystery
Georginio Rutter has a clause in his Leeds United contract that would obligate the club to pay a fee to Hoffenheim, according to Mo Ibrahim.
The club’s record signing has spent the entirety of the past six Premier League games – non won – on the bench, including the 3-1 defeat at West Ham on Sunday (21 May) where Sam Allardyce left an injured Rodrigo on the pitch and bemoaned a lack of forward options with Patrick Bamford having to go off, in what Phil Hay called a “scathing” indictment of the junior man.
And it has emerged that the Whites would reportedly be on the hook to pay the young Frenchman’s previous club a fee if he reaches a certain number of appearances, after his £35.5million move [Sky Sports, 15 January].
Reporting via Twitter Gianluca Di Marzio staff member Ibrahim wrote: “There is indeed a clause in the contract of Georgino Rutter which means if he plays a certain number of games, Leeds United have to pay a fee to Hoffenheim.”
Bizarre
While it is tempting to put two and two together and assume successive Whites bosses have left Rutter out because the club want to avoid throwing more money at his expensive deal should he trigger an add-on, it would be a very strange situation for that to be true.
Firstly, the 21-year-old has already made 10 Premier League appearances, from 12 in total across all competitions, which would be the logical point at which a performance-based fee would be due.
And with the West Ham defeat the penultimate game of a dismal season it would still be irrelevant if the threshold was even 15 games in total.
So unless there is a fee due after an oddly specific number – 11 league outings or 13 overall – there would surely be no connection between his contract and his lack of use in the relegation battle, especially when the men ahead of him were struck by injury.
Even if there were, whatever might be saved in cash sent to the Bundesliga side for Rutter would surely be massively outweighed by the benefits of staying in the Premier League.
It doesn’t reflect well on the transfer strategy under Victor Orta for the most expensive arrival in the club’s history to be deemed so unready by successive managers that he doesn’t see a minute of first-team action over a month of the most crucial period in the campaign.
And while anything that bumps up a considerable fee for a player who has been dropped into the middle of a situation that apparently didn’t call for him would be far from ideal, it is still hard to escape the conclusion that he might at least be worth throwing on as a wildcard when all else fails.
In other Leeds United news, a highly-rated Whites sensation could be plucked from the club as giants circle.
