It’s a quiet time in the transfer rumour mill. The winter window has slammed shut and the summer window is still struggling to appear on the horizon.
Therefore, any story which can catch the imagination will be grasped, and often turned into something it never was.
A couple of days ago Club Call revealed Southampton had a scout attend Leeds United’s match against Sheffield Wednesday. It was claimed Southampton have ‘rekindled their interest’ in Jansson, having been interested when the player was at Malmo.
In November 2013 Southampton were loosely linked with Jansson, something his agent didn’t want to comment on. The Swedish defender then joined Torino, and having searched through the records there’s no evidence that Southampton continued being interested once Jansson had moved to Italy.
Impressing with Leeds United, Jansson recently made his move to the Yorkshire club a permanent one. Given the player’s performances it would be no surprise if interest from the Premier League materialised.
That said, the Southampton claims are being stretched somewhat. From Club Call simply saying the player was scouted, The Daily Express have taken it to ‘Leeds transfer shock: Premier League club plot raid for star man’ and The Sun claim ‘Southampton set to make bid for Leeds’ cult hero defender Pontus Jansson’.
Both newspapers use Club Call as their basis and both push the story further along than it started. Southampton have scouted Leeds United previously, which at one stage led to claims they wanted Sam Byram, now at West Ham.
Whilst an established Premier League club showing any interest in Jansson is a worry for Leeds United, this story has been quickly turned into something it isn’t. Even the Swedish media haven’t fallen over themselves to hype it, which may be considered odd given they follow Jansson’s Leeds career very closely.
With The Sun and The Express taking things further, with no apparent basis, it will be picked up in Sweden eventually and it would be no surprise to see another ‘no comment’ from the player’s agent.
In the event of an approach, Leeds United will be protected by Jansson having a contract until 2020. With claims in Italy that Massimo Cellino has an outline agreement to sell his remaining Leeds shares to Andrea Radrizzani in the summer, a Jansson exit would be difficult.
Promotion or not, Radrizzani would hardly wish to go up against fans by selling their cult hero. Jansson turned 26 years of age last month, there’s no huge rush, and even without Premier League football another year at Elland Road seems a reasonable scenario.
