Leeds United are currently on course to seal automatic promotion to the Premier League from the Championship at the second attempt under Daniel Farke.
A win over Sheffield United on Monday night will take them five points clear of the Blades in second place and seven points clear of Burnley in third.
Pascal Struijk’s heroics against Sunderland last time out ensured that the West Yorkshire outfit remained at the top of the division, as he came off the bench to strike twice late on at Elland Road.
Leeds’ form in the Championship this season is a credit to Farke, his coaching staff, and the recruitment team after the club lost several key players last summer.
Crysencio Summerville, Georginio Rutter, Archie Gray, and Glen Kamara, who were all regular starters last term, were sold ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, and the Whites have adjusted brilliantly, as shown by their position in the table .
Despite losing four brilliant players, Leeds have managed to build a squad that still has a number of incredibly valuable assets – and one that is thriving on the pitch.
Leeds United's most valuable players
The Championship leaders may have lost the likes of Summerville and Rutter but their respective departures provided other stars with the chance to step up and show their value to the team.
Dan James, for example, has stepped up with an excellent return of ten goals and six assists in the Championship so far this season, and he is among the team’s most valuable players.
The Wales international is currently valued at £13.2m by Transfermarkt and only one player, Wilfried Gnonto, is worth more than him within the current squad.
Wilfried Gnonto
£14.9m
Dan James
£13.2m
Ethan Ampadu
£13.2m
Pascal Struijk
£13.2m
Illan Meslier
£13.2m
As you can see in the table above, all five of the most valuable players in the squad at the moment are stars who were already at Elland Road prior to this season, which shows that previous investments made by the recruitment team are now paying off.
The Whites have made millions by investing in young talent and then selling them on for a significant profit in recent years, with Raphinha possibly being the best example of that.
Spanish giants Barcelona swooped in to secure his services for a fee of £55m in the summer of 2022, two years after Leeds had snapped him up from Rennes for a fee of £17m.
In the same summer that they signed Raphinha, in 2020, the Whites also made a move to bring a teenage forward to Elland Road from Dutch club Feyenoord as a signing for the U21 squad at first.
That player was, you guessed it, Crysencio Summerville and the young dynamo had to fight to make his way into the first-team in West Yorkshire.
Crysencio Summerville's development at Leeds United
The Whites reportedly paid a fee of just £1.3m to sign the 18-year-old attacker from Feyenoord, which meant that it was a relatively low-risk investment for the club.
Summerville linked up with the U21s in the 2020/21 campaign and caught the eye with his performances at the top end of the pitch, as he contributed with six goals and six assists in 12 appearances in the Premier League 2.
The Dutch magician was then handed his senior Premier League debut for Leeds against Newcastle in September 2021, and went on to make six appearances in the top-flight in the 2021/22 season.
Jesse Marsch made him a first-team regular, with 28 league outings, in the 2022/23 campaign but it was a year to forget from a club perspective, as they were relegated to the Championship.
Goals
19
1st
Big chances created
17
2nd
Assists
9
2nd
Key passes per game
2.6
1st
Dribbles completed
101
2nd
As you can see in the table above, Summerville then starred in the second tier for the Whites in the following season, as he showcased his quality as both a scorer and a creator of goals on a regular basis.
The dynamic forward’s incredible form in the Championship propelled Leeds to third place in the league and to the final of the play-offs, only for the team to lose 1-0 to Southampton at Wembley – costing them promotion.
Once Leeds failed to earn promotion, via the automatic spots or the play-offs, it seemed inevitable that Summerville would be on his way out of Elland Road, which is exactly what happened.
Leeds struck gold with Crysencio Summerville
Last summer, after the Whites lost to the Saints in the capital, Premier League side West Ham United swooped in to sign the Dutch ace for a reported fee of £25m, with further add-ons that could earn Leeds more money.
Market Movers
Excluding any potential further add-ons in the future, the club made a gigantic profit on Summerville as his value soared by a staggering 1,823% during his time at Elland Road – going from £1.3m to £25m.
This shows that Leeds hit the jackpot when they signed the teenager from Feyenoord back in the summer of 2020, as they landed a brilliant player who performed superbly in the Championship, and they made a significant amount of money off his talent.
Unfortunately, though, Summerville has only scored one goal in 19 appearances in the Premier League so far this season for the Hammers, which shows that the 23-year-old star has yet to translate his second tier form over to the top-flight.
Non-penalty xG
0.18
Bottom 43%
Non-penalty goals
0.11
Bottom 22%
Shot-creating actions
4.01
Top 30%
Expected Assisted Goals
0.19
Top 50%
Assists
0.11
Bottom 28%
As you can see in the table above, the former Leeds magician has ranked poorly among his positional peers in the division in several key attacking statistics.
Summerville, who has been described as an “exciting” talent by pundit Frank McAvennie, still has plenty of time on his hands, at the age of 23, to develop and improve, though, and he could go on to be a success for West Ham in the future.
Sold for £7m: Leeds struck gold selling talent who's now worth just £600k
Leeds United made the right call in allowing one player to leave a couple of years ago.
ByEthan LambFeb 21, 2025
For now, however, Leeds have hit the jackpot with Summerville because they made a huge profit on him and, on current form, it does not look likely that the Hammers will go on to sell him for even more than the £25m they paid for his services.