Leeds United’s failure to complete a crucial January transfer window signing has proved so costly

The 28-year-old was brought in following the early termination of Djed Spence’s loan from Tottenham, who is now showing just how good he is at Genoa. Leeds also lost Luke Ayling on loan to Middlesbrough.

Predominantly due to his character in the dressing room, Roberts has proved to be a decent signing for Leeds, but has struggled with a few injury problems in recent weeks.

He also made some telling contributions in games against Leicester City and Huddersfield Town, but in retrospect he shouldn’t have been the only plus.

The record from Leeds’ January window makes grim reading

It’s been a long time since Leeds used the January window well. Last season, Max Wober, Georginio Rutter and Weston McKennie were brought in and apart from some decent early displays, none of these signings made enough of an impact to keep the club up.

The previous year Leeds had spent an entire month blindly chasing a deal for Brenden Aaronson. It never happened, no one else was targeted and White was very lucky to stay up.

Even in the promotion campaign January was a nightmare. Jean-Kevin Augustin was brought in as a replacement for Eddie Nketiah and he may be the most disastrous signing in football history based on how much he cost Leeds and how little he played.

Leeds can rue the lack of activity in January

Although Roberts was the only player brought in, right-back was certainly not the only position Leeds looked to strengthen.

A creative striker was looked at on the right, with Manuel Benson and David Brooks both targets. While another option would certainly have been helpful, it wasn’t the biggest setback of the month.

Leeds spent most of deadline day trying and failing to sign a number of centre-back targets. Harry Souttar, Ben Godfrey and Joe Worrall are just three who have been looked at.

Clearly, at that point, Leeds knew someone had to come. Pascal Struijk had missed about a month of action by that point, but was unable to recover and will not play again this season.

Ethan Ampadu covered Struijk brilliantly alongside Joe Rodon between the end of the New Year and the March international break, but that partnership hasn’t looked nearly as strong of late, conceding nine goals in the last three.

Leeds’ midfield was also far from it, but Daniel Farke’s clear lack of confidence in Liam Cooper and Charlie Cresswell meant that Ampadu was stuck in the back four, preventing him from moving into his best position.

If another centre-back had come in, that would have given Farke the weapons he needed to bring alongside Rodon and therefore bring Ampadu into midfield.

At the time, Leeds’ failure to sign a centre-back didn’t seem like a big deal, but it certainly developed into one.

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