Leeds United have the money available to go big for a new striker this summer if the right target crops up in the coming weeks.
This has been suggested by the Whites correspondent for the Yorkshire Evening Post, Lee Sobot, who has been speaking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast.
Jesse Marsch currently has options up top, however, the issue lies in Patrick Bamford being the only senior player with the likes of Joe Gelhardt making up the numbers from the youth sides.
But to date, the American is yet to see another striker come through the doors at Elland Road having seemingly missed out on the Paris Saint-Germain youngster Arnaud Kalimuendo.
With one striker likely to be off Leeds’ shortlist, Sobot has suggested the money is available for Victor Orta to move if he feels the right player is there having failed to land Charles De Ketelaere after bidding €40m (£33.8m) (via Sport Witness):
(14:30) “I mean, that suggested that there’s money there to go and buy that sort of striker, you know, like €40m is a lot of money. As I say, that’d be club record territory.
“So you know, it can be done, but equally, I think, and this is how I read it from Jesse as well, is that what he’s basically saying is that we’re not just going to go out because we’ve got that money in our pocket or whatever. We’re not just going to go out and say, right, let’s just go and buy someone. ”
TIF Thoughts on Sobot’s comments…
This will certainly offer some glimmer of hope for Leeds fans given the Whites have not brought in any players since making their – albeit failed – move for the Belgian.
Do you think Leeds will bring in another striker?
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So it would seem the money should still be there, but then comes the issue of whether Leeds actually have the targets in mind to go after, and Marsch’s latest comments suggest this may be a position which Leeds fans will have to patient over:
“We’ve said for a long time that we’ve been evaluating for the right striker,” the American said.
“We’ve some good young strikers, so a lot of it is also trying to look at it from a profile, what age we want and that we don’t want to suffocate some of them having opportunities moving forward in the next one to three years.”
A lot is currently relying on Bamford remaining fit and finding his form, he failed to score on the weekend and we do wonder whether the pressure will grow on Orta if the Englishman fails to get up and running in the next few games.