OPINION
Leeds United must get rid of Caleb Ekuban anyway they can before the end of the month after it was confirmed that Albanian club Flamurtati Vlore has tabled an offer for the centre-forward.
Ekuban, 24, was signed by the Whites from Chievo last summer off the back of a good season out on loan at Albanian club FK Partizani.
And it looks as though the Ghanaian made such an impact in the Balkan nation that he is once again attracting attention from there, with Flamutari chief Sinan Idrizi confirming that an offer is on the table for him.
“To be honest, we have offered three very quality players and one of them is Caleb Ekuban. However, during this period we did not want to make a noise. We sent the player [an offer] through his agent and expect a final answer. Ekuban must come to Vlora to see specifically our offer. We hope he is to be part of the team, but without something concrete I can not say more,” said Idrizi, as quoted by Albanian news outlet Panorama.
It could be quite tempting for Ekuban to return to Albania as his form there previously was very good, but the chances of someone quitting the Championship for a league with such a low reputation are slim to say the least.
However Marcelo Bielsa clearly doesn’t have the forward in his plans at Elland Road, even though he was a regular in the first team in 2017/17 as he made 21 appearances across all competitions around a couple of lengthy injury spells.
Panorama adds that Flamurtari’s offer for Ekuban is a loan one and they will try to pay just half of his wages, with Leeds picking up the other half.
Even though that is not ideal, it is probably as good as Leeds are going to get for someone who scored just two goals for them last term and Victor Orta should really be accepting this approach.