![]() The next he is out for eight weeks with damage to one of his hips. One minute Junior Firpo is chatting happily after a friendly with Blackpool, telling you that the year ahead cannot be any worse than the year behind him. Leeds would not be Leeds if left-backs were not causing them some sort of headache and it is extraordinary to think of the number of managers and seasons which have been compromised at Elland Road by weakness in that area. ![]() Yet this week showed again how pre-season exists to disrupt the best-laid plans of sporting directors and coaches, compelling Leeds to think about signing another left-back, a position they were hitherto happy with. That course of action has been bubbling for a while, the last requirement of note in this window. Leeds were more than ready to wave everything off at the first opportunity, long since weary of devoting so much toil to making the most complicated of transfer deals watertight, and the domino effect should kick shortly as selling Raphinha greases the wheel for their own plan to sign a new forward. It took until lunchtime yesterday for Barca to give him his contract to sign, at which point other relevant paperwork was still lagging behind. He had been in Catalonia for two days, the white smoke billing but no new Pope on the balcony. There was, realistically, no stepping back irrespective of how much Barcelona have been winging it but even overnight on Thursday, the messages with Leeds United flew this way and that as Barca tried to get into a position to meet their obligations to Leeds, satisfy La Liga and unequivocally confirm Raphinha as their player. There was a video of him stepping into a waiting car, a personal message from him to their supporters and a photo of him wearing a Barca-branded polo shirt, pointing to the club’s crest not in any way the sort of image which might come back to haunt an official Twitter account if the adoring output proved premature. The instant Raphinha landed in Spain, Barcelona’s social team were all over him.
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