Leeds United fans would have accepted the odd departure here or there this summer, knowing that it was a likely outcome that their squad could be picked off bit by bit after not winning promotion to the Premier League.
Yet, with Georginio Rutter now expected to head for the exit door for £40m to move to Brighton and Hove Albion, Daniel Farke's men are set to lose Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and their sensational Frenchman all in the space of the same catastrophic transfer window.
This might well have been an easier reality to stomach from the point of view of the Championship promotion challengers if they all moved on gradually over time, but the sudden nature of all of their top talents leaving the building will be a hard one to take if you're an ardent Leeds fan.
The latest on Rutter's future at Leeds
The 2023 signing featured during Leeds' dismal League Cup defeat to Middlesbrough on Wednesday evening but that is likely to be the last we see of him at Elland Road.
Just hours after the game had finished, reports emerged that Brighton had activated Rutter's £40m release clause, an exit fee that was due to expire at midnight on Thursday.
Since then, Farke has all but confirmed the attacker will be on his way out, with the player saying his goodbyes to the club.
Despite this setback, the Whites have bounced back from bigger departures in the past and will strive to do the same here, with Raphinha's exit to Barcelona in 2022 another soul-sapping loss of personnel at the time.
Raphinha's time at Leeds
The entertaining South American attacker would swap Rennes for Leeds before the 2020/21 season, becoming a statement capture after Marcelo Bielsa's Whites had finally returned to the promised land of the Premier League.
He would be an instant success wearing Leeds white, with six goals and nine assists registered during his debut campaign, before taking it up a notch during his second, and final season with 11 goals fired in from 35 games, even as his side tried to keep their heads above water at the foot of the league.
That would signal the end of Raphinha's fleeting, but meaningful, love affair with the West Yorkshire titans, with a bumper move to Barcelona sealed that summer.
The Whites finally suffered relegation without their Brazilian "magician" – as he was labelled by former Leeds teammate Daniel James – when the pair played alongside each other at Elland Road.
Leeds didn't let their star man exit without getting a pretty penny out of the Catalonian giants first, however, with £55m sent the way of his former employers, making him the most expensive sale in the club's history.
Archie Gray's sale of £30m to Tottenham Hotspur this summer feels miniscule in comparison, whilst those at Leeds will be cursing the decision-making of those formerly trusted with overseeing proceedings that allowed a £40m release clause to be placed above Rutter's head, that now sees him set to move away to the Seagulls.
Raphinha's transfer value in 2024
Leeds will hope that they end up winning in terms of the major move, as £40m is still a sizeable amount of money to work with when it comes to luring new incomings through the door.
Moreover, Raphinha has struggled to settle in Spain since exiting Elland Road, so it could be said that the Championship outfit cashed in at the best possible time in that regard, instead of allowing his value to potentially deteriorate if he wasn't let go in his prime.
Therefore, the same could be true for Rutter, who might well be a flash-in-the-pan signing by Brighton, considering his past woes in the division with the Whites.
23/24
37
10
13
22/23
50
10
12
Finding himself in and out of the Barca first team ranks owing to recurring injury issues last season in LaLiga, Raphinha could now welcome a return back to England according to reports, with Transfermarkt speculating that his valuation for a club to snap him up would still be in the region of £42m.
That's £2m more than what Leeds are managing to get out of Rutter, despite the former TSG 1899 Hoffenheim attacker setting the second alight last campaign with six goals and 15 assists collected from 45 contests.
Leeds will just hope Rutter doesn't go on to become an established top performer moving on up a league, resulting in his value going up and up, way above the £40m that has resulted in the 22-year-old star departing Elland Road prematurely.
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Leeds United fans wouldn’t be too sad to see the back of this dud away from Georginio Rutter’s expected exit.
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