Phil Hay: Leeds United to step up interest in Charles De Ketelaere once Raphinha exit confirmed
Leeds United are ready to step up their efforts to sign Club Brugges star Charles De Ketelaere even more once Raphinha is sold, according to Phil Hay.
The Athletic journalist has reported that Barcelona made significant progress with talks over the weekend for the Brazilian, and that move is getting closer.
Once that is done, it is said that Leeds will go in for their top target, with a £30million offer ready to go as they look to finalise their summer plans with a new striker.
Writing in his latest piece for The Athletic, Hay shared what the plans are for once Raphinha finally seals his long-awaited exit in the coming days and weeks.
“Leeds intend to step up their interest in Club Bruges’ Charles De Ketelaere when the sale of Raphinha goes through,” he wrote.
“De Ketelaere, who Leeds are ready to pay around £30 million for, is the club’s top target as they look to recruit a new forward.”
Here We Go.
Reports are consistently coming from Italy that Leeds are giving up on their pursuit of De Ketelaere after putting massive money on the table for his signature.
That doesn’t appear to be the case whatsoever, with no bid yet being reported by Hay, who is always the main source to look out for in cases such as these.
Leeds selling Raphinha gives them more than £50million to play with if they can push Barcelona into paying much more upfront than they want to, and that looks like the case.
With that edging closer, Leeds have much more money available to them than AC Milan do and if Club Brugge wants more money for their Belgian wonder, then they may turn down the Italians if favour of the Whites.
There is a war chest of funds coming to West Yorkshire this week, and it looks as though we are ready to start throwing them around already.
Bring it on.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites now want to sign this striker with a rival set to kickstart a major £30million+ transfer battle