Former Elland Road ace Noel Whelan has urged Leeds United to do all they can to keep hold of striker Kemar Roofe.
The 26-year-old – who enters the final year of his deal at Elland Road this summer – was one of the Whites’ key men up front last season and scored 15 Championship goals as Marcelo Bielsa’s men reached the play-off semi-finals.
The attacker is free to agree a pre-contract with another club in January if no progress is made over an extension, and speaking of the hitman, Whelan said that Leeds must propose an offer to keep Roofe around.
“Your top striker is worth his weight in gold,” the pundit said to Football Insider.
“If you want to keep him, you have to make him an attractive offer. He has come to his last year so he is in a strong position and can sign for an overseas club for nothing next January.
“You have to give him something to tease him with. We are talking about a £10million player. When you get into the last two years of a key player’s contract, you should be protecting your asset by adding another two years on. Considering we have no money to spend, are we going to throw £10million away by losing Kemar Roofe?”
OPINION
Whelan makes a good point about Roofe but whether he stays on at Leeds will largely be down to whether Bielsa trusts him to fire the Whites to promotion. Last season, 14 goals were clearly not enough from the striker as the likes of Sheffield United’s Billy Sharp and Norwich City’s Teemu Pukki outscored him and both teams deservedly earned promotion to the Premier League. If Bielsa trusts Roofe to be the man to fire Leeds to the Premier League next season, it would be a big ask. The other option is to cash in on the striker and find someone else. Both options have their pros and cons. If Leeds get rid of Roofe, they will have the money to sign a very good replacement. However, if they do not sign a replacement, their only recognised striker is Patrick Bamford and you definitely need more than one option for the long season ahead. There is no doubt Roofe can improve his goalscoring record for Leeds next season but it remains to be seen if the striker sticks around at Elland Road.