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Ornstein: Leeds in hunt for left-sided Spurs ace, cost £24m last year – he's 'expected to leave'
Athletic journalist David Ornstein has said that Tottenham star Ryan Sessegnon is “expected to leave” on loan, with Leeds United in the mix for his signature.
Ornstein said that Brighton, Southampton and Hertha Berlin are also in the hunt for the player.
One hitch is that he claims most parties want an option to buy built into the deal, with Spurs not keen to do that.
Ornstein claimed that Tottenham also want a loan fee and all of his wages – reported to be £15k-a-week – paid.
Sessegnon a squad player for Leeds
We’re slightly surprised by this. Not by the Leeds’ interest – Sessegnon would offer good options on the left, either at left-back or further forward – but that Spurs would want to loan him out.
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They put in a protracted chase for his signature and paid a lot of money for him – £24.3m last year.
He arrived injured and hasn’t troubled the Spurs first-team much, with just 12 appearances where he’s scored one goal and added one assist.
However, he’s only 20 and Jose Mourinho obviously feels that he would develop better elsewhere.
Leeds have been burned by this sort of situation before, turning Ben White into a world-class defender and then missing out on the chance to sign him permanently as Brighton wouldn’t put an option in the loan deal.
We think they’d be reluctant to do that again for a player who would be a regular first-team star. However, we’re not convinced that’s Sessegnon, though. Leeds might not have a natural left-back but Stuart Dallas played brilliantly for Leeds on Sunday, albeit in a slightly free-er role.
Sessegnon wouldn’t walk into the Leeds side and we’d see him as more of a squad player. Would Mourinho be happy with that? We doubt it and therefore don’t think this one is likely to happen.
As a squad player, we’d love him though.
In other Leeds United news, ‘Wow’, ‘Bielsa will make him even more of a beast’: Some Leeds fans react to major transfer news