Deadline day - the inside story of Leeds United's summer transfer window finale | OneFootball

Deadline day. Two words in football’s lexicon that when uttered together prompt a range of responses. Wide-eyed excitement. Teary-eyed anguish. Rolling-eyed cynicism. A lot - too much perhaps - depends on how a club's deadline day ends.

Utter the words inside Elland Road or Thorp Arch and you might see a haunted look pass across certain faces. When asked what those words meant a high-ranking club official was only mostly joking with the response: “PTSD.”

There are deadline days that come and go without major incident and some that leave a mark. Some become synonymous with the name of a player at the centre of the drama. Daniel James. Willy Gnonto. Harry Wilson. In all three cases Leeds did eventually get their man but it took two attempts to get each Welshman.

From the very outset of the summer 2026 transfer window it was never Leeds United’s intention to sign players on 1 September. As Managing Director Robbie Evans puts it: "It's genuinely a terrible idea to make deadline day part of your core strategy, if you can avoid it.”

But Leeds United did sign players on deadline day. Two of them. Left-back Melvin Bard and winger Jean-Mattéo Bahoya. A combination of factors and events conspired to bring both men to Elland Road in deals that were concluded late on the market's final day. At least in the case of Bard, everyone at Leeds woke up on deadline day knowing it was actually a thing.

“We had Bard agreed for all intent and purpose the day before,” said Adam Underwood, the club’s Sporting Director. “The position had always been a consideration for us. Communicating with Daniel on a daily basis, you get a really clear gauge of where his priorities sit, and the injury to Joe [Rodon] reinforced the fact that we really needed to go and act on that one."

Bard had been on Leeds' radar for over a year. He played in a pre-season friendly for Nice at Hull City and Leeds sent a scout along to get what Underwood calls a ‘temperature check.’

“Ultimately when we pushed forward and discussed it deeply with the coaching staff and with Daniel, we got a clear feel that he can be a really good fit and for the role we wanted, he's ideal.”

On the evening of Monday 31 August a deal was agreed swiftly, both with the Ligue 1 outfit and the player, and all that remained on deadline day was to get him in the country to finalise it with a medical and paperwork. Bard’s travel and participation in deadline day were straightforward enough. He landed at Leeds Bradford Airport at 12.55pm.

Matt Robertshaw is Head of First Team Operations. “In the lead up to deadline day, we're preparing for any potential arrivals, reserving hotel rooms for players, family and agents. We'll be booking slots for scans and booking vehicles for moving people around, whether that be Leeds or Manchester, depending on whether they need cardiac screening or not.

“Sometimes on a deadline day, it's easier just to look at what commercial options there are for flights but normally I would touch base with our broker up at Multiflight [at Leeds Bradford Airport] to try and put them on standby for any potential private jets. As soon as we get the green light from Adam and Robbie, that's when we'll execute on a private jet.

“We were anticipating a signing so I had been speaking to all these different stakeholders. We got Melvin into the country. Then one member of my team looks after the family and the agents. I look after the player and the main agent that wants to be in and around the player. Then we have a third team member floating between the two for any ad hoc requirements.”

Bard was halfway through his medical in the early part of the afternoon when Robertshaw got word that another signing was happening.

In what has become the transfer deadline day ‘war room’ at Thorp Arch training ground there is a fully functional log-burning fire, initially installed as part of Marcelo Bielsa’s desires for the players’ area. These days it is lit ceremonially in the winter, but on 1 September there was no call for it. Club chairman Paraag Marathe, Evans, Underwood, Head of Recruitment Alex Davies, Assistant Sporting Director Andrew Taylor and First Team Scouting and Recruitment Manager Mark Moran were all present and as one transfer possibility cooled entirely, another began to heat up.

Leeds had been hot on the trail of Mykhailo Mudryk, a player who by all accounts was keen on a move to Elland Road. But even if his agent was still keeping that fire stoked, Chelsea threw cold water on it with the way they wanted a deal to be structured. Mudryk instead went on loan to Tottenham on deadline day, along with Stamford Bridge team-mate Tosin Adarabioyo who made a permanent move.

“You never want to give up on the possibility,” said Underwood. “But as soon as it becomes abundantly clear that it just isn't going to happen you cut it off. So on deadline day, early doors in this room, you’re rattling through what you think are suitable candidates to revisit with the manager.

“Ideally at that stage, none of the names are new to a manager because you're putting on a whole heap of pressure that's not necessary, unless it's an exceptional profile. Daniel and his staff have a really good knowledge of the market anyway.”

The need to go and sign another winger was in part due to the pending departure of Willy Gnonto to Fiorentina. The Italian had said some of his goodbyes after the weekend’s game against Brentford and was already in Florence, awaiting the green light.

Evans has intimated that had Leeds not got a replacement the club would have had to call Gnonto back. “It was super intense because Willy going really ramped the pressure up,” he said.

There were three names being carefully considered and debated throughout the morning of deadline day. Two were eventually discounted, one of which due to concerns over his pressing, and one – Bahoya – was left standing.

“He had some elite-level metrics, good character references and ticked the boxes,” said Evans.

Underwood added: “He was a player Daniel and his team were familiar with and we had looked at him over a period of time. He was regarded as a player we could develop to see if we could get him to that stage of being a starter.”

Some time after 1pm the negotiating began with Frankfurt and the player’s agent to try and thrash out what would be a late, late deal. It helped that Underwood spent part of his summer in communication with his opposite number at the Bundesliga club to sign goalkeeper Michael Zetterer. In fact they went back further than that. The first deal of Underwood’s tenure as Sporting Director saw Rasmus Kristensen join Frankfurt.

“When we did Zetterer they had been nudging us on Bahoya and it was pretty clear he wanted a move. We were able to leverage the fact that it was deadline day to get a deal that we were particularly happy with in the short term, with an obligation-to-buy on a basis that allows us to give the player a true opportunity to demonstrate to Daniel and to the club that he’s worthy of our future investment. I think if we'd have done the deal a month earlier, that wouldn't have been a possibility. Even a week earlier they would have wanted a fixed amount.”

By late afternoon the clubs and the agent were in agreement. Bahoya, who had been training, was then given an abridged version of the pitch Leeds send to prospective signings, customised to him. He spoke to his family and his agent. He had calls with Farke and with Marathe. He said yes.

“I found out in the afternoon,” said the attacker. “It was so fast. I didn't have a long time to think, but for me it was a good project. For me it was not a pressure; it was just a top opportunity, and I was happy to take it. When it’s the deadline you think about what opportunities you have. Staying in Frankfurt was also an opportunity for me but it was not the best one. So when I had the call with the coach in Leeds, it was my first choice.

“I spoke with my family first, after that my agent and some friends but I chose because it’s my career. I need to go where it’s best for me. I was a little bit nervous [about the deal not going through] of course because it was so late but because it’s not in my hands I just needed to wait.”

Another Leeds-Frankfurt connection came to the fore on the medical front because there simply wasn’t time to get Bahoya into the country to examine him in person. Head of Medicine Henry McStay and his medical team at Leeds were gathering data on the winger’s physical state and performance. It helped that Frankfurt’s Head of Rehabilitation, Andrew Mitchell was previously Head of Medical at Blackburn Rovers and tutored one of the current Leeds physios.

“They had a really good connection there,” added Robertshaw. “That enabled them to be confident on the medical side that the information they were getting was accurate and we could then book him in for a medical the day after the deadline.”

A loan with a triggerable obligation gave Leeds extra insurance and peace of mind. So with all of that in place, it was just down to the paperwork. But as Evans says: “Deals are easy, deals can be done in five minutes. Lawyering is the hard part.”

Hannah Cox became Leeds United Club Secretary in 2016 to oversee all things football administration. She associates the words 'deadline day’ with the names Gnonto and James. The latter famously posed in Leeds colours before his move was scuppered by Swansea’s change of heart. Gnonto signed late on a chaotic deadline day when other transfers had fallen through.

This year it was once again an ordeal.

“It was very intense because there was so much going on," she said. "Willy was going out, Melvin coming in, which we already knew about prior to deadline day. We knew that we were probably going to sign someone else, but until later on in the day we didn't even have a name.”

An international transfer means, among other things, a Governing Body Endorsement and a visa. But Bahoya’s deal being a loan with an obligation meant extra paperwork. And the lateness of it all meant a deal sheet – a document that indicates a transfer has been agreed but requires extra time to be completed. Last year Leeds signed one, Wilson signed it and Fulham did not.

“I think it's only the second time we've ever done a deal sheet, and I think it's only the first time we've ever actually used it,” said Cox.

“You’ve basically got the evening to do all the paperwork, and then it goes backwards and forwards between lawyers and agents and us. You're relying so much on other people – lawyers who help with the immigration stuff, and then lawyers that help with all the transfer agreements. They all also work for other clubs as well, so you’re not their only client, and it's deadline day - everyone says they're not going to do anything on deadline day, but everyone just gets really excited on deadline day.

“And because it’s a loan with an obligation, there are more documents than there are either in a straight transfer or a straight loan. You have to do a contract for the loan period, and then you do a pre-agreement for the actual contract, if we sign it. It’s more complex, more paperwork and it takes more time.”

Outside Elland Road in the wider Leeds United world, hope and expectation were growing that deadline day would bring two signings. Head of Communications Jordan Owens said: "My phone was blowing up with journalists wanting updates. They knew we had been looking at attackers, so it was just about managing external media and what was being said in terms of accuracy. I'm in constant communication with Robbie, Adam and Hannah to keep tabs on it all. We're also in communication with the clubs we're doing transfer business with, because we will need to co-ordinate on joint announcements."

While Cox and Assistant Club Secretary Abbie Stenton were working on making Bahoya a Leeds player, Robertshaw and his team – Christina Foreman and Victor Balassiano – were working on the logistics of bringing him to England and integrating both he and Bard into the team’s plans for the upcoming week. That, and trying to accommodate a late request from Bahoya’s camp.

“He was coming with his family and they wanted to bring the dog with them,” said Robertshaw. “So I was speaking to the operator of the aircraft to ask how we could get the dog in the country and Googling dog passports and vaccination status.”

To complicate matters further, the deal that had been agreed 24 hours earlier to sign Bard from Nice was still pending. It took so long for the paperwork to come back that the club were only able to complete the signing around 10.13pm. It was announced at 10.45pm.

Leeds then required the deal sheet and the extra hour it granted them to complete Bahoya’s move prior to the midnight deadline for international transfer certificates. It all went through with six minutes to spare.

"The last moments are terrifying," said Cox. "I'm not happy until we've got approval from the Premier League, the FA, and we've got them a visa if they're an international player, and then it shows up on the system that they’re registered and eligible to play. You don’t want to let anyone down. I couldn't have done it without Abbie. There were years when I didn’t have an assistant club secretary and I don’t think it would have been possible time wise, because we went right down to the last minutes."

The decision makers at Thorp Arch had decamped to Elland Road earlier in the evening in order to be present for Bard’s contract signing and support with the Bahoya situation.

Craig Wilson, the club’s digital media manager, got the nod to put the news out for whoever was still awake.

“Bahoya was the unusual one with not having a player to create content with,” he said.

“At 10.19pm it was confirmed that he was going to be flying in next day but the back and forth between the clubs meant that we were just putting out Bard content and waiting until 12.20am when word came through that we could announce Bahoya at 12.45am. Evening transfer announcements always nice, as gives us chance to roll out ‘Don’t go to bed just yet’ - this time in French.”

It was 1.30am when Evans gathered staff for a toast and to thank them for their work. Cox's message to her boss Evans was simply: "Please don’t ever do that to me again.”

Bahoya landed on the morning of Wednesday 2 September and trained with the team later that day. His dog arrived in Yorkshire later that week.

Underwood said: “It was an incredible effort to get all that done in such a short space of time, and I think it's testament to the capability of the people that we have here, their ability to work together under extreme pressure and act on an opportunity, make a decision and follow it through. I think it’s pretty impressive from an organisational perspective and something we can be really proud of.”

Last summer the catchphrase that emerged from the boardroom after the fruitless pursuit of Wilson was ‘good window, bad deadline day.’ This year 'good window, good deadline day' has been uttered a few times. Underwood is resistant to the idea that the two words that amount to just one day should be given equal weighting to an entire summer's body of work.

“I think compartmentalising the window into the 78 days prior to deadline, and sort of weighing that up as a judgment - 78 days versus the one last day - whether it's good or bad, I don't think is a particularly logical evaluation.

“I'm a firm believer in the fact that the results speak the truth, and the only way that we can judge any work done is when you're done. We’re here for 38 games of a Premier League season and any cup runs, and it can only be judged in its totality. When we get to the end of May, that's ultimately when we will know if the work that's been done is good, bad, or indifferent.”