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Nathan Bliss

How Football Manager predicts Leeds United would spend a £100m transfer budget

Leeds United may have already made their most important signing of the summer, after extending manager Marcelo Bielsa's contract by a further year.

However, with the club coming so close to promotion last season, you'd expect United to make a number of signings this summer to further strengthen the squad, ahead of promotion challenge next season.

Over the last few weeks, there have been reports that the owners of Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain were interested in investing in Leeds United.

With the club insisting that Andrea Radrizzani remains committed to Leeds and is not looking to sell up, these reports are premature to say the least, but, it got us thinking - what would Leeds do this summer with a massive budget?

Andrea Radrizzani remains committed to the club (Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

And, which players would they sign?

We used Football Manager 2019 to have a bit of fun and find out what would happen.

Leeds United's summer transfers with a £100m transfer budget

To find out who Leeds would sign, we used popular football management simulation game Football Manager 2019 to simulate the 2019/20 summer transfer window.

We went into the Football Manager 2019 editor, fiddled around with Leeds' transfer budget and then skipped ahead to the 2019/20 season to see what happened.

Here are all the transfers that Leeds would complete - according to FM.

Transfers in:

Patrick Bamford (left) and Jack O'Connell battle for the ball during the Championship match at Elland Road on Saturday, March 16, 2019 between Leeds United and Sheffield United (Richard Sellers/PA Wire)

Jack O'Connell (Sheffield United) - £12 million

Niclas Eliasson (Bristol City) - £4.9 million

Lewis Wing (Middlesbrough) - £4.7 million

Onel Hernandez (Norwich City) - £4.5 million

Anwar El Ghazi (Lille) - £4 million

Sam McQueen (Southampton) - £3 million

Kiko Feminia (Watford) - £2.7 million

Ryan Fredericks (West Ham) - £2.6 million

Tim Ream (Fulham) - £1.4 million

Alex Fojticek (Unattached) - Free transfer

Jeff Hendrick (Burnley) - Loan

Oliver Skipp (Tottenham) - Loan

(Football Manager 2019)

Instead of spending big on one player, Leeds used their inflated transfer budget to make a number of impressively cheap signings, strengthening the squad in a variety of positions.

United managed to tempt the likes of O'Connell, Hernandez, Femenia, McQueen, Fredericks, Hendrick and Skipp from Premier League outfits, to play under Bielsa in the Championship.

This is what the United XI looked like at the start of the 2019/20 season, after the summer transfer window.

(Football Manager 2019)

As you can see, Leeds' transfer business had a major impact on their first eleven, with the squad looking like an incredibly strong outfit.

Kiko Casilla, Pontus Jansson, Barry Douglas, Kalvin Phillips and Kemar Roofe remained, but the likes of Niclas Eliasson, Lewis Wing, Femenia, Hernandez and Skipp came straight into the team.

Who would be your money-no-object players this summer? Let us know in the comments below...

For all your latest Leeds United news, opinion, analysis and transfer gossip, click here

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