If you were to look back on the last four years of Leeds United activity, you would notice a spree of successful signings. Given the club spent what felt like two decades making a meal of just about every signing, that is a rare thing indeed for Whites fans. However, one name that definitely goes down in the bust category is that of Jean-Kevin Augustin. The young France striker arrived at Leeds in a bid to turn his career around after a failure of a time at RB Leipzig.

The deal was structured in a way that Leeds would need to buy the player for a set fee in the summer of that year. However, the player barely kicked a bill for Leeds meaning that the £17.6m obligation was unlikely to be fulfilled. The agreement was that if Leeds went up they would sign the player permanently; if they did not, they would not.

A long and challenging dispute involving Leeds and Leipzig has since broken out, with the Yorkshire outfit looking almost certain to lose. From reports, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has agreed with Leipzig and thus Leeds will be on the hop for three payments of around £6.17m each.

This is a major blow for the club, hampering their transfer funds for the next three years. Leeds, though, have precious little room for argument: they did win the Championship that season, and they did refuse to complete the deal for the player. Indeed, the fact the club was promoted means that in the eyes of CAS there is no real room for argument – Leeds owe the agreed settlement.

In hindsight, it might have been better to simply make the payment in the first place. Though the 2020-21 season became confusing as the loan technically ran out before Leeds were promoted, Leipzig appear to have won the case in court.

Regardless of what happens next, this will go down as a learning moment for Leeds. The player came with a warning that he could be a problem for the club; they did not listen, and now they look to have paid a very price for that decision to ignore the red flags.

At least now it can be used as a long-term example of why it is very important that every signing is vetted very closely. A very expensive lesson it is, but it is a lesson all the same for Leeds and for those in charge of running the club.