Leeds United continued their march towards automatic promotion from the Championship with a 4-0 win over Oxford United at Elland Road on Saturday.
The Whites secured all three points thanks to goals from Dan James, Jayden Bogle, Brenden Aaronson, and Manor Solomon, and sit second in the division as it stands.
When Marcelo Bielsa led the club to promotion in the 2019/20 campaign, he had the mercurial talent of Pablo Hernandez, who produced nine goals and nine assists that term.
That was the Spanish wizard’s last season of playing regular matches for the Whites, though, as Victor Orta and Bielsa moved to sign his replacement in the summer of 2020.
The end of Pablo Hernandez’s time at Leeds
After a return of 34 goals and 38 assists in 151 matches at Championship level for Leeds, Hernandez had reached the latter stages of his career and became a bit-part player in the Premier League.
The veteran midfielder only started three of his 16 appearances in the top-flight, before moving on from Elland Road on a free transfer at the end of that term.
Bielsa and Orta clearly predicted that situation because they swooped to sign his replacement in the summer of 2020, bringing in Rodrigo from Valencia for a reported fee of £30m.
After some thought that he may have come in as a centre-forward to give the team a goalscoring boost, the Spaniard played the majority of his minutes as an attacking midfielder in Hernandez’s place, which was predicted by one former Whites star.
Speaking to Football Insider, ex-Leeds man Noel Whelan said: “He doesn’t always go through the middle, he likes to play behind and drop into that number 10 role. When you have someone like that there’s no point having a number 10 because they’re going to get in each other’s way. He’s a number 10, I always knew from the word go that he was Pablo Hernandez’s successor.”
Rodrigo’s Leeds form
Unfortunately, however, the £27m club-record – at the time – signing failed to live up to his compatriot’s legacy at Elland Road, with a return of seven goals and two assists in 27 matches in his first Premier League season with the club.
The left-footed forward followed that up with just six goals and one assist in 31 appearances in the top-flight during the 2021/22 campaign for the Whites.
Ironically, his best goalscoring form was saved for the year that Leeds were relegated from the Premier League, as Rodrigo scored 13 times in 31 matches.
Thanks to a £3m release clause negotiated by Orta, Qatar-based side Al Rayyan swooped in to sign the Spanish attacker for 10 times less than what the club initially paid for him in 2020.
Leeds career
Pablo Hernandez
Rodrigo
Reported cost
£0
£30m
Appearances
175
97
Goals
36
28
Assists
41
5
Stats via Transfermarkt
As you can see in the table above, Rodrigo moved on from Elland Road with far less to show for his time in West Yorkshire than Pablo Hernandez did in 2021.
Ultimately, Orta’s £30m gamble did not pay off with a successful replacement for the Spanish wizard and the club eventually made a huge loss on the club-record signing, who struggled for form until the season that the Whites were relegated.
Daniel Farke and his team will hope to avoid any similar mistakes if they achieve promotion and get a chance to recruit for a top-flight season in the summer.
🚨EXCLUSIVE :Leeds thought they signed “Pablo Hernandez’s successor” only for him to be sold for 10x less
