Lucrative new contract on the cards for Leeds star amid club chief fears – report
Leeds United are planning to hold talks with Patrick Bamford’s advisors over a new “lucrative” contract, according to a report by The Sun.
The newspaper claims that Bamford, 27, is currently earning £35,000-a-week on his deal at Elland Road but the Whites are fearful of losing the striker due to his superb form in the Premier League this season.
Bamford has scored 10 times in 17 top-flight appearances and with the ex-Chelsea man in the final 18 months of his existing contract, Leeds chiefs are reportedly concerned that rival clubs will make a move.
Bamford transformation like no other
Marcelo Bielsa has done a wonderful job of improving Leeds’ players since taking charge of the club in 2018.
Kalvin Phillips’ transformation has arguably been the best with him being once on the fringes of a mid-table Championship squad to a leading Premier League defensive midfielder who’s been capped by England.
However, Bamford’s transformation since winning promotion from the Championship has been like no other.
Bamford was completely written off by certain fans and pundits after Leeds won the Championship title and secured their long-awaited return to the Premier League.
Even Leeds themselves seemed as though they wanted to upgrade their striker options by landing Spain number nine Rodrigo in a club-record deal from Valencia in the summer.
However, Bamford has either kept Rodrigo on the bench or kept the Spain international playing in a midfield role due to his stranglehold on the starting striker spot in Bielsa’s squad.
According to stats by Wyscout, Bamford has the highest xG (expected goals) out of any other player in Europe’s top-five leagues [12.26]. Lionel Messi is second with an xG of 11.66.
He’s currently joint-sixth in the race to win the Premier League Golden Boot with 10 goals this term, which suggests he isn’t scoring as many goals as he should.
But Leeds create so many chances that Bamford can afford to miss chances.
There’s such a massive difference this season to last though with the Englishman netting more consistently and taking advantage of big opportunities even against some of the top-flight’s best teams.
Who seriously would have thought Bamford would have been this good this season?
Let’s hope he gets that new contract because he definitely deserves it.
In other Leeds United news, Ian Wright delivered his verdict on Bamford’s latest display versus Tottenham.