Is paying £18 million not to have Jean-Kevin Augustin around a good deal?

News broke on Tuesday that Leeds United could be forced to fork out £18 million to RB Leipzig for Jean-Kevin Augustin. The strikers loan deal had a clause inserted which meant his transfer would be made permanent should Leeds achieve promotion to the Premier League. Leipzig assert that this clause was activated whenever Leeds United achieved promotion. Leeds however dispute this, claiming the paperwork stated a cut-off date of 30th June 2020. The season was of course curtailed due to the Coronavirus pandemic and Leeds eventually achieved promotion after the 30th June. For this reason Leeds believe they are not liable for the transfer fee but a statement from Leipzig yesterday claimed that FIFA had ruled in the German clubs favour…

In the proceedings against Leeds United FC regarding the transfer of Jean-Kévin Augustin, RB Leipzig received a positive decision from FIFA in the first instance. However, the judgment is not yet final.

The verdict is of course still open to be taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport it could be a while before Leeds have to reach for their wallet for a player they no longer have.

Both Leeds and Leipzig relinquished any claim to Augustin last summer, allowing him to sign for FC Nantes where it seems his career has followed a similar pattern to his short spell at Leeds. Augustin made just three substitute appearances for Nantes last season, totalling 34 minutes. But he has not appeared since November and was banished to Nantes reserve team until the end of the season by manager Antoine Kombouaré. The Frenchman has struggled to regain fitness following a hamstring injury picked up whilst at Leeds. This has been compounded following a Covid-19 diagnosis last year and suffering the ongoing effects of ‘Long Covid’.





Augustin was once a promising prospect, a French youth international capped at every level from Under-16s to Under-21s who was top scorer at the U19 Euros in 2016 ahead of team mate Kylian Mbappé. But following 20 goals in 67 appearances in the Bundesliga his career has stalled. Unsuccessful spells at Monoco, Leeds and now Nantes with fitness issues and rumours of attitude problems raised questions over the future of his career. With Bielsa’s standards and demands on players so high is it best that Jean-Kevin Augustin is not at the club, even if we have to pay £18 million?

Bielsa not only demands unbelievable levels of fitness and conditioning but also desires players who are team players and are a positive influence around the club. Pontus Jansson was moved on for his signs of dissent in the Aston Villa game and demands to return later to training following international duty despite being one of our better players in Bielsa’s first season. Gaetano Berardi was kept at the club and within the first team squad group whilst recovering from injury largely because of his positive influence, particularly on the younger players at the club.

So are we better without Augustin, even if we have to fork out the £18 million to Leipzig, after all if we had made his deal permanent last summer we would have had to pay out a similar amount in wages given his £90,000 a week wages and a 4 year contract. For the sake of the group it’s probably best we don’t have another Ouasim Bouy on our hands, one on ten times the salary for that matter! If we had signed Augustin permanently last summer, we might not have Raphinha in our lives either. Which I’m sure we can all agree would be a very, very bad thing!