OPINION
Leeds United are likely to be faced with a bill of around £6million to keep hold of Kemar Roofe.
That is set to be the cost of tying the United forward and man-of-the-moment down to a new contract in the new year following his outstanding recent displays.
Roofe has emerged as one of the star men in Marcelo Bielsa’s progressive table-topping side and his reputation is soaring after scoring 13 league goals this season, including three in stoppage time in the last two remarkable, last-gasp wins.
A growing issue for Leeds is that the 25-year-old has entered the final 18 months of his contract and will be attracting Premier League suitors.
Yorkshire Evening Post correspondent Hay explained on his new Inside Elland Road podcast how the player will need to be rewarded with a far more lucrative deal to stay.
“Roofe is going up and up in terms of his standard. The need for him to get a new contract seems ever more apparent,” Hay told the Inside Elland Road podcast (13:40). “No talks with him yet. The plan was for them to start in the new year and they are absolutely going to have to get on with that.
“They’re going to have to make him one of the club’s highest earners. They’re going to have to give him something close to parity with Patrick Bamford, because, quite honestly, there is only one of them pushing this season.”
Given that Bamford is said to earn £30,000-a-week from the four-year contract he signed when joining from Middlesbrough last summer, Leeds are looking at stumping up £6million over the course of the four-year deal that Roofe would also expect to be offered.
That is major money by United’s standards, but is not prohibitive, either.
Roofe is delivering when it matters and has made himself one of the first two or three names on the manager’s teamsheet.
Leeds find themselves in a position where they know the player has plenty of bargaining power and the club will have to sign off a mega contract to keep him.