New Leeds threat for De Paul appears as club president plots 'dream' move – report

Dave is a huge Leeds fan and ardent disciple of Bielsa ball. A career in print magazines that included editing PC Zone, launching PokerPlayer and redesigning The Big Issue has finally led Dave to writing about the love of his life, Leeds United. It’s been a tough 2020 but the single scariest moment was the first quarter of the game against Man City. Rodrigo will be the saviour this season.

Published on:

02 Sep 2020, 1:41 am

Leeds United are tying to sign Rodrigo de Paul from Udinese but they face another threat as Fiorentina have entered the race, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.

Club president Rocco Commisso has said he wants to buy one more "dream" player this window and he's been identified as De Paul.

De Paul won't come cheap – he's valued at £35.8m – and the report claims there are only two ways that Fiorentina could afford him – by selling Federico Chiesa or giving up on bringing Krzysztof Piatek to the club.

The report also claims that Fiorentina know that their hopes of signing De Paul would disappear if Leeds offer the money that Udinese want.

Why Fiorentina?

Fiorentina have tried to land De Paul before and were reported to be close to signing the midfielder last year.

However, the Serie A club finished firmly in mid-table last season and we're not sure why De Paul would move from one mid-table Italian side to another.

Fiorentina can't offer European football, don't offer the thrill of the Premier League and don't have Marcelo Bielsa as their manager.

We think this is more a case of the club president talking a good game.

Lazio and Juventus – two other Serie A clubs that have been credited with an interest – can offer top-tier European football.

However, journalist Clara Albuquerque debunked the Juventus threat in a tweet on Monday that said, "But Juve is not hot [on De Paul] at all. It was never much in truth."

Não tenho essa informação. Mas na Juve não está nada quente. Nunca esteve muito na verdade.
— Clara Albuquerque (@claalbuquerque) August 31, 2020

That's good news for Leeds – it would have been hard to go up against Juventus in a straight fight.

It seems that this one is going to come down to money – if Leeds can meet the asking price it looks like they could persuade De Paul to swap Italy for England.

And we think it would be the signing of the summer for Leeds.

In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay: Leeds will listen to offers for player who made 36 league starts for Bielsa in 19/20

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Rodrigo De Paul