The step up from the Championship to the Premier League was always going to be a challenging one for Leeds United after they won the second tier title in the 2024/25 campaign.
In the last two seasons, all six of the newly-promoted teams have been instantly relegated from the Premier League after coming up from the Championship, which illustrates how big the gap between the two divisions is.
Daniel Farke and the board knew that the squad would have to undergo some changes during the summer transfer window to give the club a fighting chance of avoiding relegation.
With a haul of eight points after seven matches, it is fair to say that it currently looks like the 49ers did good work in the window by signing the likes of Anton Stach, Sean Longstaff, Gabriel Gudmundsson, and Noah Okafor, among others.
Because of the step up in quality and physicality in the Premier League, some of the players who were instrumental for Farke in the Championship have found themselves falling down the pecking order.
One example of that is central midfielder Ao Tanaka, who is currently out of the starting XI and does not look like breaking into it any time soon.
Why Ao Tanaka is not a starter for Leeds
The Japan international was a star for the West Yorkshire outfit in the Championship in the 2024/25 campaign after his permanent move from Fortuna Düsseldorf in the summer of 2024.
Tanaka nailed down a place in the middle of the park, next to Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rothwell, or Ilia Gruev, to end the campaign with 37 starts in 43 appearances, per Sofascore.
The 27-year-old star was a midfield metronome for the Whites. He ranked within the top 2% of central midfielders in the league for pass accuracy (89.2%) and the top 7% for progressive passes per 90 (7.03), per FBref, which shows that he was incredibly reliable and progressive in possession.
Unfortunately, though, the step up in physicality in the Premier League appears to have been too much for the midfielder to deal with, as he has struggled physically and defensively this season.
Tackles
1
Bottom 4%
Duels won
5
Bottom 6%
Duel success rate
23.8%
Bottom 3%
Fouls committed
2
Bottom 24%
Ball recoveries
10
Bottom 32%
Dribbled past
6x
Bottom 10%
As you can see in the table above, Tanaka ranks among the worst midfielders in the division in a host of physical and defensive statistics, losing a whopping 76.2% of his duels.
Per Capology, though, the Japanese whiz is the third-lowest earner in the senior squad on £25k-per-week, which suggests that the Whites can afford to keep him as a back-up option.
Tanaka, who has started two matches in the Premier League this season, may have to settle for being a rotation player for Farke due to his lack of physicality, but his low wages suggest that the club should not be in a rush to move him on from Elland Road.
Meanwhile, there is a Leeds flop who earns more than the Japan international, despite playing fewer minutes, and should be on borrowed time in West Yorkshire.
Wage Burners
Football FanCast’s Wage Burners series explores the salaries of the modern-day game.
Illan Meslier has not played a single minute of competitive football in the 2025/26 campaign, and could be on his way out of the club in the not-too-distant future.
Why Leeds need to move on from Illan Meslier
Whilst Tanaka has, at least, started two league games and played in five league matches, the French goalkeeper has not made a single appearance for the club in any competition this season.
Per Capology, Meslier earns £30k-per-week at Elland Road. That is as much as Karl Darlow and Jayden Bogle, and more than Tanaka (£25k-per-week) and Ilia Gruev (£15k-per-week).
The left-footed goalkeeper, per Capology, has earned roughly £7m in wages in his Leeds career, which is due to soar to around £8.5m by the end of the current campaign, on top of the £5m fee that the Whites paid Lorient for his services.
This means that the Leeds flop, who was once dubbed a “massive liability” by journalist David Kent, has rinsed the club for £12m to date, and up to £13.5m by next summer.
The 25-year-old dud was the number one between the sticks for four seasons at Elland Road, including three in the Premier League and one in the Championship, but his underlying data shows that the situation was always heading to where it is now.
23/24 (Championship)
40
-3.1
22/23 (Premier League)
67
-12.4
21/22 (Premier League)
79
-16.2
20/21 (Premier League)
52
-3.4
Meslier consistently underperformed as a shot-stopper for the Whites and it finally cost him when Farke dropped him from the side at the end of the 2024/25 campaign to make Darlow the new number one.
The Wales international started the last seven games of the Championship season, after Meslier made three errors that led to goals (Sofascore), and Leeds won promotion to the Premier League with him in net.
The summer transfer window, as aforementioned, provided the club with an opportunity to bolster their squad and they brought Lucas Perri in from Lyon to start between the sticks.
This meant that Meslier started the current season as the third-choice goalkeeper at Elland Road. Although he is currently on the bench behind Darlow, whilst Perri is injured.
The 25-year-old is in no man’s land in West Yorkshire because Farke has clearly decided, by the signing of Perri and his use of Darlow, that the Frenchman is not a part of his plans moving forward.
That is why Meslier, who has already rinsed the club for £12m during his time at Elland Road to date, is on borrowed time at Leeds and should be moved on during the January transfer window.