Leeds must rue selling their homegrown talent who's now better than Firpo

Leeds must rue selling their homegrown talent who’s now better than Firpo

Leeds United are a frightening prospect to come up against in the Championship at the moment, seven wins on the bounce for Daniel Farke’s self-assured Whites in the second tier seeing them shoot up to second in the division at the expense of Southampton.

Barely having to break a sweat last match to dispatch of Swansea City 4-0, Leeds will just want the victories to keep flowing on their travels down to Devon this Saturday against Plymouth Argyle.

Yet, the confident Whites could be even stronger currently if they’d just held on to this exciting left-back instead of binning him off in 2022.

Leif Davis’ time at Leeds United

Nobody could have quite predicted what Leif Davis would go on to achieve with Ipswich Town when looking back at his humble beginnings in West Yorkshire, the now explosive 24-year-old unremarkable playing for Leeds after stepping up from the academy into the first-team mix.

The current Tractor Boys number three would only manage to pick up a solitary assist from 14 first-team appearances at Elland Road, before being chucked out to AFC Bournemouth on loan during the 2021/22 season.

After this loan switch to the Cherries – which saw Davis register similar forgettable numbers to his time in the senior fold with Leeds at one assist from 15 appearances – Leeds would cut ties with the dynamic defender which has proven to be a foolish move in retrospect.

Victor Orta wouldn’t let Davis go for cheap however at the time, managing to at least get a respectable £1m to allow the 6-foot full-back to exit West Yorkshire.

Now, with Davis’ transfer value coming in at a far greater €4.6m (£3.9m) according to Football Transfers, this is a deal Leeds will regret signing off on regardless of any money entering their bank.

Despite Junior Firpo coming into his own with four assists in a much-improved 2024 for the second-tier side, Davis could well have been an even more impactful assist king for Farke’s men this season over the former Barcelona man.

What Leif Davis has achieved at Ipswich

Davis has become a man-possessed since making the switch to Suffolk, a crucial cog in Kieran McKenna’s machine at Portman Road when it comes to Ipswich devastating teams with their full-throttle attacking play.

Since leaving Leeds behind, Davis has notched up 31 goals and assists combined with 30 of those coming at Ipswich across two unbelievable seasons for the 24-year-old.

Described as an “animal” by former Bournemouth manager Scott Parker despite never really showing his full potential on the South Coast, Davis is now living up to Parker’s words with 13 assists managed this season in the second tier from just 28 games.

Davis’ numbers at Ipswich so far

Season

Games played

Goals

Assists

2023-24

28

0

13

2022-23

43

3

14

Stats by Transfermarkt

In stark contrast, Firpo – over his entire career to date – has only accumulated 16 assists with Davis only three off that total unbelievably in just one season.

With Leeds having troubles in the left-back spot this season owing to injury issues amongst many other dilemmas, it does feel like a case of what could have been if the promotion-chasing Whites had stuck by Davis instead of offloading him.

Leeds could well still have the final long-standing triumph over Davis at Ipswich this season regardless, however, as Farke and Co eye up consolidating an automatic promotion spot whilst Ipswich linger below in fourth.