Leeds United were drained by this washout, who earned more than Ilia Gruev.
Although Crysencio Summerville and Daniel James have frequently stolen the spotlight at Leeds United this season, there are a number of more understated performers who have allowed Daniel Farke’s side to tick in the Championship away from the more well-known players.
Ilia Gruev falls into the latter group, with the former Werder Bremen player missing Leeds’ poor 2-2 draw away to Watford recently.
As statistics analyst Ben Mattinson remarked earlier this season, the midfield maestro has been a “revelation” since his arrival in the summer, helping to fill the vacuum left by Kalvin Phillips after the Englishman’s departure in 2022.
Earning only £15,000 a week, the 23-year-old’s success story highlights what a colossal flop this signing was in 2017, sucking the Whites dry with forgettable performance after forgettable performance.
Vurnon Anita’s experience at Leeds
Leeds must have felt they had scored a coup when they signed former Newcastle United player Vurnon Anita on a free transfer seven years ago.
The now 35-year-old would be offloaded back to the Netherlands with Willem II on loan after just one season at the club, before leaving Leeds for good after having his contract terminated in 2020 for CSKA Sofia.
Following a good period with the Magpies, in which the 17-time Curaçao international made 153 appearances at St James’ Park before joining the Whites, Leeds simply never got the best out of the seasoned midfielder, much to the disappointment of everyone at Elland Road.
Anita would make an unmemorable 22 appearances for Leeds in his debut season, with the ex-Ajax youth product not helped by the Whites’ underperformance under Thomas Christiansen and then Paul Heckingbottom, who finished 13th in the Championship.
once just one season at Leeds, the now 35-year-old was loaned back to the Netherlands with Willem II before leaving for good once his contract was expired in 2020 to join CSKA Sofia.
Anita’s exorbitant wages at Leeds would have exacerbated the deal’s failure, with the 5 foot 7 dud costing the Whites a total of £1.3 million over one pricey campaign.
Vurnon Anita’s wage in Leeds
The current Al-Orobah FC player would end up earning £25k a week while wearing Leeds white, making him the club’s second-highest earner during the 2017/18 season.
Taking Pierre-Michel Lasogga’s expensive £58k per week pay out of the equation – he was a loanee from Hamburger SV – Anita would have been the highest-paid permanent member of the Whites camp despite failing to kick into gear in West Yorkshire.
Anita would also earn more than Adam Forshaw and Pontus Jansson, both of whom went on to be long-serving Elland Road players, with 211 appearances between them.
In contrast to Farke’s current camp, Anita earned £10k more each week than the aforementioned reliable head of Gruev, and even £5k more than Wilfried Gnonto.
Farke will hope there will have been lessons learnt from this rash approach handing out handsome wages for the sake of it if Leeds do end up winning promotion back up to the Premier League, whilst Anita looks to finish his waning career out in Saudi Arabia as a forgotten former Whites figure.
