Jack Harrison’s appearance at Accrington Stanley on Saturday left everyone watching him reading between the lines.
There was no celebration when he buried the first goal in Leeds United’s 3-0 FA Cup win, just a deadpan reaction to a classy strike. There was a smile, a chat and an embrace with Jesse Marsch when he was substituted in the second half, more affection than a head coach usually shows in the heat of battle. Was Harrison staying or was he going? Did any of this mean anything?
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After full-time, Harrison emerged from the tunnel to be interviewed by LUTV, Leeds’ in-house TV station. He looked content and relaxed as he completed the sort of media duties players prefer to dodge when their future is in doubt. But even as he wrapped the conversation up and climbed onto the team bus, all bets were off. Leeds might keep him. Leicester City might sign him. Nobody with skin in the game was willing to predict how the January window would end for him.
It closed on Tuesday with Harrison a Leeds player, retained after a week which came close to producing a different outcome. Much of the saga around him played out privately, never quite offering a precise picture of what the various people involved wanted, but up until the last hour before the deadline, a deal with Leicester was still being mooted.
On Tuesday evening, Harrison actually made the trip to Leicester’s training ground, pre-empting the possibility that he could be sold at the last minute. City got a medical going. Then, with the clock counting down, Leeds reached the decision to keep him and the prospect of him leaving finally died a death.
Leicester had taken a shine to Harrison in previous windows but as this January went on, they were made to feel like capturing him was more achievable than it had been in the past. They wanted wingers, among their targets the Brazilian Tete who joined them from Lyon on Sunday, and they were set on Harrison if Leeds were willing to accept a fee of £20 million or thereabouts. An approach was made club-to-club late last week, in the build-up to Leeds’ FA Cup tie with Accrington, but Harrison started that match regardless. His appearance was symptomatic of the fact that Leeds were undecided about their next move.
Harrison is a prominent player at Elland Road, an established face since Leeds first signed him on loan from Manchester City in 2018. He has close to 200 league appearances for the club and he has built a reputation as a dependable and solid Premier League footballer: committed, rarely injured and, for all that his form can ebb and flow, a source of goals and assists.
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His contract, though, ends in 18 months’ time and by the end of last weekend, when Leeds finalised the loan signing of Weston McKennie from Juventus, the club had effectively committed to £70 million-worth of first-team players in January. Though McKennie’s deal is temporary initially, a £30 million option is due to be activated at the end of the season, provided Leeds are not relegated from the top flight.
Selling Harrison, then, was a means of balancing the books and offsetting some of the expenditure on incoming transfers at Elland Road. At £20 million, Leeds would have turned a profit on the £11 million paid to buy him from City in 2021. Those discussions played out for several days at boardroom level, where so much is now connected to the planned sale of the club by chairman Andrea Radrizzani to minority shareholder 49ers Enterprises.
Though Leeds did not jump on Leicester’s approach, and though Marsch said twice last week that he wanted Harrison to say put, they did not knock it back with any haste. Only as the window drew to a close did the club categorically indicate that he would not be sold. Harrison had journeyed south by then, in case a deal was struck at the death.
Harrison, for his part, was not agitating for a transfer or actively stating a desire to depart. By Tuesday, he was simply philosophical in realising that if Leeds wanted to cash in on him, it made sense to take up an offer elsewhere.
Harrison was not pushing for a move from Leeds (Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Joining Leicester would have meant a pay rise via a substantial contract, potentially as long as five-and-a-half years. Their pay structure is higher than that at Elland Road. But like Leeds, they are experiencing a hard season in the Premier League. Brenden Rodgers spoke recently about his side being in a relegation fight. That fact also weighed on United — the question of whether it was prudent to sell to a club so close to them in the table.
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When Marsch was asked about Harrison after Leeds’ win at Accrington, he said his perception of the winger was that he wasn’t “itching to leave”. Director of football Victor Orta recruited Harrison from City in the first place and advised the club to keep him. Harrison had been influential for some time and was still relatively young at 26. He had made Gareth Southgate’s provisional England squad for the World Cup, without actually making it to the finals. He had started all but four of Leeds’ Premier League fixtures this season, despite the wide array of attacking talent on offer to Marsch.
Last summer, when Newcastle United made moves to sign Harrison, Leeds fended them off by placing a price tag of £40 million on him. Radrizzani told The Athletic in advance of the window closing that Harrison was essentially off limits, too good to lose. But six months have passed since then and Harrison’s dwindling contract has inevitably lowered his value.
Leeds plan to hold talks about a new deal with him in the weeks ahead and hope Harrison is open to accepting improved terms and staying beyond his present contract. The reality of football finance is such that if an extension cannot be reached, more consideration would have to be given to selling him when this season finishes, at which point his deal would be a year away from expiry. He has developed too well for Leeds to allow a scenario where Harrison exits on a free transfer.
Leicester were aiming to do two wingers before the January deadline. Rodgers, their manager, likes to say that competition in a squad is the game’s greatest coach and in both Tete and Harrison he was targeting left-footed footballers who could play wide on the right and cut in off that flank. Tete’s move from Lyon went through without a hitch but when the crunch came on Tuesday evening, Leeds thought twice and resisted Leicester’s offer for Harrison.
City felt from Tuesday morning onwards that the deadline was most likely to pass with Harrison remaining on the books at Elland Road; that the process had become too complicated to unravel itself in time. With Tete on board, all that was left was for them to loan out Marc Albrighton to West Bromwich Albion and Ayoze Perez to Real Betis. Albrighton had played infrequently under Rodgers this season and wanted more game time but the transfer, nonetheless, reduced bodies in an area where Rodgers hoped to strengthen more heavily. Another reinforcement was not forthcoming and ideally, they would have kept Albrighton
Harrison is training as usual with Leeds this week and will be in contention for Sunday’s league game at Nottingham Forest. Marsch was as unequivocal as he could be about wanting to keep the winger, about his importance to the dressing room, and it was not the American’s intention for the hug between them on the touchline at Accrington to be the equivalent of goodbye. When the time came to put up or shut up, Leeds felt the same, resolving to reject Leicester’s approach and focus on a contract extension instead. For Harrison, it was the archetypal deadline-day experience — a late scramble and a transfer that never was.
