Leeds United will have to go through the play-offs this month to secure an instant return to the Premier League at the first time of asking this season.
The Whites narrowly missed out on automatic promotion, finishing in third place in the Championship, and will take on Daniel Farke's former club Norwich City, with the first leg at Carrow Road on Sunday.
Their attempts to get out of the second tier come after they were relegated from the top-flight at the end of last season, having spent three years at the top level.
Following promotion under Marcelo Bielsa in 2020, Leeds survived two seasons in the Premier League before facing the drop at the third attempt.
In those three seasons, former Whites sporting director Victor Orta was not afraid to splash the cash to break the club's transfer record on multiple occasions.
Victor Orta's record-breaking signings
In the summer of 2020, the Leeds chief decided to open the purse strings to bolster Bielsa's squad ahead of their first season in the Premier League under the Argentine manager, with Rodrigo brought in from Valencia for a club-record fee.
Sky Sports reported that the club paid a mouth-watering fee of £27m to secure the Spain international's signature, which made him the most expensive player in the team's history.
The forward scored seven goals and provided two assists in 26 Premier League matches in his debut season at Elland Road, to help the team to avoid relegation, which was followed up with six goals and one assist in 31 league games the following term.
His best year for goals came in the club's relegation season during the 2022/23 campaign, as Rodrigo racked up 13 goals and one assist in 31 top-flight appearances, before a permanent move to Al-Rayyan last summer.
Orta broke Leeds' transfer record again in January 2023 with a big-money swoop to sign France U21 international Georginio Rutter from Hoffenheim.
Sky Sports reported that the Spanish sporting director splashed out a fee of £35.5m to sign the attacking midfielder, who can also play as a centre-forward, from Germany.
Rutter only managed one assist, with zero goals, in 11 Premier League appearances but has caught the eye in the Championship under Farke this season.
The 22-year-old magician has produced six goals and 15 assists in 45 second tier outings for the Yorkshire-based side, to go along with 22 'big chances' created in total.
He was recently named in the Championship Team of the Season for his efforts, which speaks to how highly the star is rated by his peers in the division.
The jury is, therefore, still out on whether or not Rutter was value for money at £35.5m as he has proven himself to be a fantastic player in the second tier but is yet to prove his quality in the Premier League.
Whilst he is technically the most expensive signing in the club's history, other players have been more expensive than Rutter when you adjust for the inflation of football transfer fees over the years.
How much Leeds paid for Lee Sharpe
In the summer of 1996, Leeds swooped to sign midfielder Lee Sharpe from rivals Manchester United for a fee Totally Money have at around £6m at the time.
Totally Money have taken the 100 most expensive transfers of all time across each season since 1992 in Europe's top five leagues. Armed with plenty of historical financial data they have calculated what footballers of yesteryear would be worth in the present day after taking into account the remarkable rate of inflation.
Whilst that is almost £30m less than what the club paid for Rutter last year, the £6m they spent on the English whiz would be worth around £44m in today's (2024) money, per Totally Money's index.
Brian Deane
1993
£3.9m
£60.6m
Rio Ferdinand
2000
£23.4m
£59.7m
Lee Sharpe
1996
£6m
£44.4m
Carlton Palmer
1994
£2.8m
£40.3m
Harry Kewell
2003
£9m
£37.8m
As you can see in the table above, Sharpe would rank as the third most expensive signing in Leeds history if you adjust for the inflation of football transfer fees, whilst Rutter would not make the top five.
The talented midfielder came up through the academy system at Old Trafford and had racked up 246 appearances for the club in all competitions by the time he joined the Whites.
Sharpe, who predominantly played on the left flank, produced 34 goals and 29 assists for the Red Devils, and hit nine goals in the Premier League during the 1993/94 campaign.
Before his big-money switch to Elland Road in 1996, the England international scored six goals and assisted five in 39 matches in all competitions for Manchester United in his last season at Old Trafford.
Lee Sharpe's time with Leeds
The experienced Premier League campaigner enjoyed a decent, but not outstanding, first season with Leeds as he scored five goals in 26 top-flight appearances for the club.
Sharpe then suffered a knee injury ahead of the 1997/98 campaign that caused him to miss the entire season, and that essentially ended his career with the Whites.
The midfielder, after he had retired, looked back on that time and criticised manager George Graham's treatment of the injured players at that time, claiming that it was made to be an "awkward" time for those not fit due to the boss demanding that they come in earlier than the rest of the group.
He only made seven more appearances in all competitions in the first half of the following term before a loan move to Serie A side Sampdoria, managed by David Platt, and then Bradford towards the end of the season.
By the summer of 1999, Leeds decided to cash in on the former Manchester United dynamo and sold him to Bradford on a permanent deal for a fee of £250k – per his own website.
Totally Money have the original fee at £270k and their index has it being worth just £930k in 2024 money – even less if the original fee was £20k less – and that means the Whites took a gigantic hit on the midfielder.
Whilst the cruciate knee injury played a big role in Sharpe being a flop at Elland Road, the England international's form was hardly outstanding prior to his injury to justify his mega transfer fee, and he never returned to being a regular after his time away from the pitch.
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Therefore, the Yorkshire-based side had a howler with the Red Devils academy graduate as they splashed the cash on a player who did not stand out on the field and who then went on to leave for considerably less than they paid for him.