“They need to clinch that promotion ticket, If they’re in the Championship I think you can almost forget about holding onto the player”- Paul Robinson says Leeds needs to secure PL promotion to secure Summerville’s future at Elland Road next season
Leeds United are certain to receive bids for wing ace Crysencio Summerville with the “vultures circling”, Paul Robinson has said.
The Dutchman, 22, was recently named the Championship Player of the Season having score 17 goals and provided eight assists thus far for a Leeds side vying for automatic promotion.
Such form has, naturally, attracted plenty of attention from elsewhere and the Sun reported (14 April) that newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen have entered the race for Summerville, with Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Newcastle and West Ham also named as suitors.
Asked about the Leverkusen links by MOT Leeds News, ex-Leeds keeper Robinson says it is inevitable clubs will bid for Summerville and that gaining promotion will be key to the club’s hopes of keeping hold of their star man.
“I think Crysencio Summerville’s future is solely determined on what league Leeds are in next season,” Robinson said.
“They need to clinch that promotion ticket, If they’re in the Championship I think you can almost forget about holding onto the player because there’s going to be vultures circling, who have a big cash pot to spend.
“He’s been excellent this seaosn, he’s been named Championship Player of the Season and rightly so, you look at his goals, you look at his contribution and he’s really come into his own this year.
“If Leeds are in the Premier League then there’s a real conversation to be had because they have a lot of bargaining power, they can offer him a new contract, a new wage packet and he’s a Premier League player.
“If Leeds are not in the Premier League it’s not a conversation to be had, I think if the situation does arise that the club are in the Premier League and the player still wants to leave and the bids come in, well the bids are going to come in and it just puts Leeds in a stronger position because they’re a Premier League club and they can fight off bids or hopefully get a higher bid for him.
“Ideally the club would like to keep him, being a Premier League club that would be a lot easier than being a club in the Championship. It’ll be almost impossible to keep a player of his quality in the Championship.“
As Robinson says, the reality is that Summerville is going to draw a lot of admiring glances this summer because of how brilliant he has been in the Championship.
Leeds sit third in the table and have three games to go so they still have a great chance of automatic promotion, and if not then they would be many people’s favourites in the play-offs.
But the truth is Leeds need to get that promotion otherwise Summerville is going to want to leave, whether that be back to the Premier League or a move to a club like Leverkusen who can offer Champions League football next season.
It is a huge weeks on the pitch and that will determine how big of a summer it is off the pitch too, in regards to Summerville and several other top talents at the club.
