COMMENT
If Andrea Radrizzani is serious about winning promotion with Leeds then he needs to find a striker capable of scoring more than 20 goals in a season.
Sky Sports pundit Danny Mills thinks that man should be Newcastle striker Dwight Gayle and we couldn’t agree more.
Dwight Gayle is the man in the Championship. He’s scored 23 goals in 39 league games this season for West Brom and 23 in 32 games for Newcastle in 16/17 when they went up as champions.
Mills believes he’s exactly what Leeds need next season to win promotion and he’s bang on the money.
The good news for Leeds is that the BBC has reported that West Brom are not making Gayle’s transfer permanent in the summer.
That means he’ll be heading back to Newcastle but Rafa Benitez doesn’t trust him in the Premier League and his stats there show why.
He scored six goals in 35 games for Newcastle in the Premier League in the 17/18 season and he’s never scored more than seven goals in the top-flight.
That means he could well be available for another loan move.
He won’t come cheap. His wages are reported to be £40k-a-week but Radrizzani isn’t going to find someone who is so prolific at Championship level for much less.
Gayle is proven at this level. He will score goals and that’s the missing part of the jigsaw for Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
They didn’t struggle to create chances this season but they did struggle to convert them. Gayle wouldn’t blink.
Talking to Football Insider Danny MIlls said, “Leeds need a striker who can score 20-plus goals. You think of someone like Dwight Gayle, who is far more prolific, and he could make all the difference.
“He’s available as he’s finished his (West Brom) loan and going back to Newcastle, where [Rafael] Benitez doesn’t really fancy him.”
He should be target number one for Victor Orta, Bielsa and Radrizzani.