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MOT View: Leeds stance makes little sense after reported £4m feedback from PL striker approach
It is going to cost Leeds United around £4million if they want to sign Andre Gray on loan for the rest of the season after being told of Watford’s demands for the striker.
According to Football Insider, Leeds approached Watford with an enquiry about Gray, 28, and have been told they must pay a £2million loan fee plus all of his £80,000-a-week wages.
However the Whites’ stance is that they will not match those demands and will now look elsewhere as they aim to bolster their striker options before the January transfer window closes.
Although £4million sounds like a lot for a half-season loan, it does not make a lot of sense as to why Leeds won’t press forward with the deal.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side are in a good position at the moment.
Although their form has dropped in recent weeks, they remain second in the Championship table.
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We all know what happened last season but the Yorkshire giants are in a much better position now than they were this time last term and the signing of a top-class striker – such as Gray – could go a long way in securing a return to the top-flight.
Gray has been one of the best strikers to grace the Championship in recent years.
Although he has hardly been prolific in the Premier League, the Wolverhampton-born striker scored 41 goals in his 88 Championship appearances during his spells at Brentford and Burnley.
Stats by transfermarkt show that when Gray played for Brentford and Burnley in the second-tier, no other player scored more goals than him in the Championship during that period.
Watford have essentially told Leeds that it will cost them £4million to sign a top-class Championship striker to have in their squad until the summer.
That £4million could be the difference between winning promotion or yet another drop into the play-offs and yet more disappointment.
And let’s face it, if the Whites spend that £4million, achieve promotion and earn themselves a slice of the Premier League’s lucrative television deal, that fee is going to seem so insignificant.
Yes, it’s a risk. But it might be about time that Leeds take the plunge and really go for it in this transfer window.
In other Leeds United news, Luke Ayling has been raving about this Premier League forward.