Leeds United were bled dry by this flop who earned more than Ilia Gruev.
Although the spotlight at Leeds United this season has been often stolen by the likes of Crysencio Summerville and Daniel James starring for the Whites, there are a number of more understated performers that have allowed Daniel Farke’s men to tick in the Championship away from the more high-profile names.
Ilia Gruev fits into that latter category, with the former Werder Bremen man’s absence felt in Leeds’ disappointing 2-2 draw away at Watford recently.
As data analyst Ben Mattinson stated earlier in the campaign, the midfield maestro has been a “revelation” following his arrival in the summer, helping to fill the void that was left behind by Kalvin Phillips after the Englishman’s departure in 2022.
Earning just £15k-per-week, the success story of the 23-year-old further brings into view how much of a colossal flop this signing was back in 2017 who ended up draining the Whites dry with forgettable performance after forgettable performance.
Vurnon Anita’s time at Leeds
Leeds must have thought they stumbled across a coup when they bagged former Newcastle United man Vurnon Anita on a free transfer seven years ago.
Fresh off a successful spell with the Magpies, which saw the 17-time Curaçao international make 153 appearances at St James’ Park before the Whites came calling, Leeds just never got the best out of the experienced midfielder in the end to the dismay of everyone at Elland Road.
Anita would end up making an unmemorable 22 appearances for Leeds in total during his debut season, the ex-Ajax youth product not exactly helped by the Whites underperforming that same campaign under Thomas Christiansen and then Paul Heckingbottom to finish in an unsatisfactory 13th spot in the Championship.
The now 35-year-old would be offloaded back to the Netherlands with Willem II on loan after just one season at the club, before leaving Leeds for good after having his contract terminated in 2020 for CSKA Sofia.
Anita’s excessive wage at Leeds would have made the deal flopping hard sting even more, with the 5 foot 7 dud costing the Whites a grand total of £1.3m over one costly campaign when examining his hefty salary.
Vurnon Anita’s wage at Leeds
The current Al-Orobah FC man would end up pocketing £25k-per-week donning Leeds white, becoming the club’s second-highest earner during the 2017/18 season consequently.
Removing Pierre-Michel Lasogga’s extortionate £58k per week salary from the equation – who was a loanee from Hamburger SV – Anita would have amazingly been the most well-paid permanent member of the Whites camp despite failing to ever click into gear in West Yorkshire.
Anita would also find himself pocketing more than both Adam Forshaw and Pontus Jansson, with both of those players going on to be long-standing servants at Elland Road compared to the £ 25k-per-week man by amassing 211 appearances between them.
Contrasted with the camp put together by Farke in the present, Anita raked in £10k more per week than the aforementioned reliable head of Gruev and even £5k more than Wilfried Gnonto.
Farke will hope there will have been lessons learnt from this rash approach handing out handsome wages for the sake of it if Leeds do end up winning promotion back up to the Premier League, whilst Anita looks to finish his waning career out in Saudi Arabia as a forgotten former Whites figure.
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