Leeds United may have made a mistake not signing Rennes and France forward Martin Terrier.
The club were interested in the 25-year-old this summer, but chose against spending over £30m to bring the attacker to Elland Road this season.
Jesse Marsch’s side instead recruited young Italy forward Wilfried Gnonto from Swiss Super League side FC Zürich so the club could have cover for first-choice centre-forward Patrick Bamford.
But after another successful start to the season for the Frenchman, have the Yorkshire side made a mistake by passing up the opportunity to sign Terrier?
The Armentières-born forward has already scored four goals and provided two assists in ten appearances for the Ligue 1 side this season according to Transfermarkt, suggesting that Rennes star could have added further productivity to Leeds’ front line this season. After Leeds supposedly didn’t think he ticked enough boxes, it must be gutting for fans to then see him go on to produce an impressive two goals and two assists since the window shut.
According to WhoScored, the Frenchman’s performances this season have led to him winning two man of the match awards in Ligue 1, suggesting he has the ability to be the star of the team and to inspire his side to a victory.
The former France U21 international, who has been dubbed as “phenomenal” by Tim Williams, compares favourably with his counterparts on the continent, ranking in the top 2% of attacking midfielders/wingers across Europe’s top five leagues and European competition for non-penalty goals per 90 minutes (0.61) over the last 365 days, according to FBref.
According to the same stats provider the 6 foot striker also makes use of his physical advantage, ranking in the top 3% of attacking midfielders/wingers for aerial duels won per 90 minutes (2.29) over the course of the last year, suggesting he has all the components of being a successful Premier League forward.
And an average SofaScore rating of 7.35 for his Ligue 1 performances rank Rennes’ key man as the top performing player for the club so far domestically this season.
Whilst Marsch’s side have made a decent start to the Premier League campaign, sitting in 11th place despite having played a game less than the majority of the league, we believe that Terrier could have provided them an alternative option for goalscoring, and we think that they may live to regret not paying the fee that Rennes required.
So, with Rodrigo currently out injured and Patrick Bamford struggling with injury already this season, perhaps not signing an established attacker like Terrier now appears to be a mistake.