Leeds United’sacquisition of second-choice goalkeeper Karl Darlow.
James Milner and Jonathan Woodgate are two notable instances of players who have switched between the two teams. Following Leeds’ financial collapse, the two departed and continued to play in the Premier League.
Naturally, Milner has progressed from being a Thorp Arch youth graduate to having 637 Premier League games under his belt. The Brighton star is currently 16 outings shy of Gareth Barry’s record of 653.
At the moment, Darlow is the only member of the Leeds team with experience playing at both Elland Road and St. James’ Park. However, another player had the opportunity to add Newcastle to a resume that already had Leeds United.
But another team made an offer that completely destroyed Newcastle’s, prompting Leeds to scrap any hopes of moving him to Tyneside, where he could have played in the Premier League.
Ross McCormack discusses Newcastle’s offer specifics in Leeds
McCormack, a Scotland international, excelled at Leeds. The former striker played the most for Leeds of all the teams on his resume, making 157 games while captaining the team and tallying 58 goals.
McCormack claims that after four years at Elland Road and during Massimo Cellino’s first summer, he was dropped by Alan Pardew’s Newcastle in 2014 when they made a £5 million approach, but Fulham came calling with a £11 million offer.
Indeed, there was interest from the Premier League. However, I encountered the identical issue when I traveled from Fulham to Villa. He remarked, “The Championship clubs that wanted me were prepared to give the club a higher salary.
“You could either stay where you are or transfer to another Championship club, as more of them were than the Premier League teams. Malaga was one, and Newcastle was another. Malaga was £6m or £7m closer.
Then, whoa, £11 million, there you go, Fulham. In an interview with Open Goal, McCormack stated, “I didn’t really think about going to Newcastle; their offer was only £5m so I knew I wouldn’t be going there.”
Other players who moved from Newcastle to Leeds, or Leeds to Newcastle
Other than Darlow and nearly McCormack, a lot of players have been traded between Leeds and Newcastle since 2000. As mentioned, two clear instances are Woodgate and Milner.
McCormack went on to Fulham and starred for the London club before Aston Villa, where his career hit the skids and the striker was forced to salvage what was left with moves to Australia and Scotland.
A far cry from when McCormack was told by Cellino he could not train for Leeds in order to remain fit and avoid injury, ahead of his move to Fulham a decade ago and becoming the league’s biggest transfer.
Leeds United will be looking to make it back-to-back Championship wins when they host Coventry City.
The Whites defeated Cardiff City 2-0 last time out. Despite returning to winning ways after their first defeat of the season against Burnley, it wasn’t the most enthralling affair.
