Leeds United journalist Conor McGilligan has been sharing his thoughts on the possibility of the Yorkshire club signing Huddersfield Town midfielder Lewis O’Brien during the current summer transfer window.
This comes after McGilligan appeared in a recent video from the One Leeds Fan Channel on YouTube, where he spoke about the latest news topics surrounding the club.
After it was recently reported by the Sunday Mirror (via MOT Leeds News) that while Huddersfield are willing to sell O’Brien, the two clubs are yet to agree on a fee for the midfielder, who the Championship club value at £8 million, McGilligan had this to say on the matter.
He said: “We talk about three or four years ago, £8 million would have been a major transfer fee for Leeds United but now, I just think the second season in the Premier League, to sign a midfielder, who, in a lot of respects is what we need, needs a bit of development, but only 22 years of age, there’s serious potential there.
“He can play in the six, can play in the eight, could be moulded to even play as a 10, I believe, by Marcelo Bielsa – and someone who could really help us in that role going forward in terms of when Kalvin Phillips is out.
“He just could be the complete midfielder, I thoroughly believe that, and if he wants to come to Leeds, which has been reported… You can’t imagine it’s going to be anything more than £10 million, but for Leeds not to be stumping that up, it does fill me with a little bit of annoyance, really, because that is a deal that could be done and it’s not really that expensive, to be honest with you.”
TIF Thoughts on Conor McGilligan’s comments on O’Brien and a potential transfer to Leeds…
In our view, given how Leeds have already spent a total sum of £26.82 million on incoming signings this summer including £13.5 million for Junior Firpo and £11.52 million on Jack Harrison, it’s understandable why McGilligan and possibly other Leeds fans are frustrated that the club are apparently not willing to pay the reported fee of £8 million for O’Brien.
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Moving forward, if Leeds are keen on adding O’Brien to their squad, then they will just need to pay the fee that Huddersfield are wanting for him and they then can move on from the matter, or else they could risk missing out on him.
However, with Bielsa currently having the likes of Jamie Shackleton, Mateusz Klich, Robbie Gotts and Adam Forshaw in their squad that predominantly play in the central-midfield position, it does make us question just whether or not the club needs to sign O’Brien in the first place, regardless of his apparently low price tag.
In other news: ‘Seriously?’, ‘Sounds nasty’ – Many Leeds fans ‘worried’ as update emerges