Leeds United will fear it is no longer their season to gain promotion straight back to the Premier League after a car accident in their last game against Queens Park Rangers has now shaken any confidence in West Yorkshire.
The Whites were humiliated by Marti Cifuentes’ hoops instead of securing back-to-back wins in the Championship. The R’s beat Leeds 4-0 at Loftus Road, with Daniel Farke’s men ultimately trudging off the field in bad spirits after being subbed dejected.
Illan Meslier was the key Leeds player to be heavily criticized after that humiliating away defeat. The leaky Leeds goalkeeper conceded four goals in west London, having conceded three away to Middlesbrough in the previous game.
Leeds’ problems between the sticks must leave them full of regret at the way they treated a former goalkeeper who moved to Leicester City for just £1.25m in 2011 and in the end never looked back.
Kasper Schmeichel’s time in Leeds
The Danish goalkeeper is now known as a reliable goalkeeper and is most often associated with the Foxes, for whom he played a whopping 479 games before moving to OGC Nice in 2022, breaking a connection that lasted more than decades.
But in 2011, Kasper Schmeichel was spoken of in the shadow of his father, who was a legend at Manchester United in his playing days and wanted to make it through the senior ranks wherever he could.
The Whites would be targeting Schmeichel after a promising spell in the second division with Notts County, acquiring his services on a free transfer after he made a total of 49 appearances for the Magpies, keeping 25 clean sheets in those games.
Schmeichel came straight into the game and became Leeds’ first choice goalkeeper, making 40 appearances in his only season in Yorkshire. He played for the arch-rivals Red Devils, which perhaps didn’t go down well with his family.
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Full Leeds line-up on Schmeichel’s Championship debut |
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Leeds 1-2 Derby County, August 2010 |
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1. GK – Kasper Schmeichel |
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2. RB – Paul Connolly |
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3. CB – Neill Collins |
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4. CB – Richard Naylor |
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5.LB – Fede Bessone |
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6. CDM – Jonny Howson |
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7th CM – Neil Kilkenny |
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8. CM – Bradley Johnson |
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9. RW – Lloyd Sam |
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10th ST – Luciano Becchio |
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11. LW – Sanchez Watt |
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Source: Transfermarkt |
However, things wouldn’t be entirely smooth sailing for the inexperienced goalkeeper as he only kept ten clean sheets all season and kept six clean sheets in just one notable 4-6 defeat to Preston North End in the league.
Still, Leeds should have been more patient when it comes to the 6ft 2in Dane if they had been on their side with hindsight and had known how much Schmeichel would make huge strides at his next employer, Leicester City, after he had said goodbye to the turbulence at Elland Road.
They were unaware of his move to the King Power Stadium until the last minute, with the Foxes only completing their move on deadline day on the eve of next season. So there must have been an element of Schmeichel lining up in his new colors immediately after the move was completed that was intended to prove all Leeds opponents wrong.
He would certainly do that, even winning the Premier League title at Leicester while remaining number one between the posts for a long period of 11 years.
Kasper Schmeichel’s time in Leicester
It wouldn’t be the slightest exaggeration to say that the Scandinavian goalkeeper is now a permanent fixture in Leicester’s hall of fame, having been at the Foxes’ side from their lackluster days in the Championship right through to the exhilarating games under Claudio Ranieri at the height of theirs incredible title win in the top division.
Schmeichel, who played in more than 400 games for King Power, kept an impressive 147 clean sheets, a significant proportion of which came over the course of the season. Leicester did the unthinkable and were crowned Premier League champions.
The Danish goalkeeper has kept 15 clean sheets in the league this season and is an ever-present and important figure in Ranieri’s historic team.
Even as his King Power career came to an end, Schmeichel’s importance to the Foxes’ cause never waned, as he kept seven clean sheets in 37 games in his final season.
In 2021 – just a year before his bittersweet exit from the Foxes – Schmeichel’s estimated transfer value would be a hefty £12.3 million, according to Football Transfers, with his powers showing no signs of waning even as he becomes more of an experienced head in the Leicester dressing room became.
That amount is a far greater sum than Leeds sold him back in 2011, when Schmeichel’s career with the men exploded after he finally left the chaos of West Yorkshire behind him.
But despite being described as an “outstanding” goalkeeper by ex-Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers while he was still in the Foxes’ dugout, Leicester only got £1 million for the then 35-year-old to end his time at the former FA Cup winners with a downer.
Leeds would love nothing more than to turn back the clock and give the Danes a second chance at success at Elland Road now, especially considering the problems they are currently having between the sticks.
Leeds’ goalkeeping problems
Meslier will be lucky to remain Farke’s main goalkeeper for Leeds’ final game of the second division regular season against Southampton after his horror show at Loftus Road could cost his side dearly in the race for automatic promotion.
But unlike Schmeichel, who they let go far too cheaply, Leeds could still manage to get a pretty penny out of a potential suitor who has their eye on the leaky Frenchman.
Meslier’s transfer value is currently the highest in the Leeds squad, according to Football Transfers, at £20.4m, although his form has dipped sharply at Farke’s fear-stricken Whites of late.
If Leeds decide to cash in down the line, they’ll be hoping they can come up with a fresh, up-and-coming team to succeed the ex-Lorient player and even bump into the next Schmeichel, who would end up staying there.