Report: Leeds told club may be open to deal as contact made over new £12m-rated striker target
Leeds United have been told that Celtic may be open to selling striker Leigh Griffiths in the next week and rate him between £10-£12m.
However, Neil Lennon won’t entertain a loan and that could rule Leeds out of the potential deal.
Football Insider have said that contact has been made “through intermediaries” as Leeds look to solve their striker problem.
Griffiths has suffered from mental health issues at Celtic and took a break from the game in December, 2018.
He’s since returned to action but has fallen out of favour at the Scottish giants.
In our opinion, there are plenty of reasons why a deal for Griffiths won’t be a consideration.
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For starters, Leeds are putting all their efforts into securing either a loan, or a loan with an option/obligation to buy in the summer.
Even if they had the money for a permanent transfer in January, they have to stay within Profit & Sustainability levels.
If they were to spend and gamble with getting in the Premier League (and out of the reach of EFL sanctions), we don’t think it would be for a player who has only played just over 600 minutes of first-team football this season.
Marcelo Bielsa has already stressed the need to sign a player who’s been playing regularly.
Griffiths has been reduced to bit-part appearances for Celtic, with just one start in the league this season.
The 29-year-old striker is also completely untested at Championship level, with his only experience in England being in League One.
He has got a pretty stellar record for Celtic, with 108 goals in 222 games, but would that translate to success for Leeds? There’s a huge doubt over that.
If we were Victor Orta we’d be saying, “Thanks but no thanks” to Celtic.
In other Leeds United news, MotD pundit urges Leeds to sign £40k/wk man over Adams & Gray