“I always did everything I could to be successful with Leeds and to make the fans happy, It hurt me to read a lot of negative comments from fans on social media”- Robin Koch says he was hurt by what Leeds fans said about him
Leeds United’s relegation saw them lose several of last season’s first team squad.
Loan clauses had been inserted into a number of their contracts and once their return to the Championship was sealed, they became active and so eight players left on loan.
Given that Leeds did therefore not receive transfer fees for these players, it caused a vast amount of anger from supporters across social media, and Robin Koch has been the first to speak on it.
Koch became the first to seal a permanent exit from Elland Road earlier this week with his contract set to expire at Leeds in the summer, putting pen-to-paper on a four-year-deal at Eintracht Frankfurt.
That has now fully closed his three-and-a-half-year chapter and speaking in an interview with the Athletic, Koch has claimed the comments he received from supporters after his departure really hurt him.
He said: “It definitely hurt me to read a lot of the negative comments from fans on social media but of course, I can understand the anger. The Leeds fans are positively crazy about their club and relegation was very painful for them. I always did everything I could to be successful with Leeds, and to make the Leeds fans happy.
“For me, it was terrible that we didn’t achieve our goal of staying up at the end of last season. The quality in the team was actually very good. We were a good squad with a good spirit. But we had to deal with a lot of injury worries and unfortunately got into a negative spiral we couldn’t get out of.
“We tried everything to avoid relegation. When it was finalised, it was a very painful moment. After relegation, I had to deal with it for quite a long time. I didn’t think about leaving Leeds during the season and had no intention of doing so.
“I was fully focussed on the relegation battle but as a footballer, you have ambitions. My ambition has always been to play as high as possible. One of my biggest goals was and is to return to the German national team. It was a great opportunity for me to take the chance at Eintracht and continue to pursue this goal.”
Ultimately, it is hard to begrudge Koch a move back to his native homeland with the ambition of making the Germany squad for this summer’s EUROs in his mind.
Koch has impressed during his time at Frankfurt, winning plaudits from the media and the club’s sporting director Markus Krosche throughout the season. It was clearly the right choice.
At the same time, given his contract situation, it would’ve been nice if he could’ve found a club willing to take him on permanently, so Leeds could’ve got some money. But at the end of the day, it’s his career.
