“The departure hurts” – Manager admits Leeds transfer wasn’t great, now on ‘extremely courageous path’

Red Bull Salzburg manager Matthias Jaissle has admitted it hurt them to lose Max Wöber to Leeds United in the January transfer window.

Wöber departed for Elland Road at the beginning of January, moving to Leeds in a €12m deal as Jesse Marsch looked to bolster his backline.

He became the latest of several transfers between the two sides this season, with Brenden Aaronson and Rasmus Kristensen moving to Leeds in the summer in deals worth €32.84m and €13m respectively.

Like those two, Wöber’s departure from the Austrian side left them with a big hole to fill, with the defender having been a regular for them in recent seasons.

In truth it was a deal Salzburg would have liked to avoid, with their sporting director Christoph Freund admitting that they simply had no arguments to keep the player away from the Premier League side.

Now Jaissle has added to that, admitting it was a transfer that hurt them as it has put them on a more risky path than they previously were.

“The departure hurts, of course, but we are not complaining. With every departure, the opportunity arises for other talents,” Sky Sport Austria report him saying.

“(He was) quite respected in the squad. We have absolutely reached the limit. That is an extremely courageous path.

“We are aware of that and I fully support this path, which is why I am here. It was already courageous in the last few years, but now it’s even more courageous.”