By Craig Scott

14th Sep, 2020 | 7:35am

£18.4m-rated forward axed from matchday squad y'day with Leeds in hunt to sign him - L'Equipe

Leeds United are in the hunt to sign Dijon forward Mounir Chouiar, according to L’Equipe.

The French newspaper claims that Arsenal and Wolves are also interested in the 21-year-old attacker, who was axed from Dijon’s matchday squad yesterday (Sunday) amid speculation surrounding his future.

Chouiar had started Dijon’s opening two Ligue 1 fixtures before the weekend when he was completely left out of Stéphane Jobard’s squad for the 2-0 defeat to Stade Brest.

L’Equipe reports that the France Under-21 international could soon be on his way out of Dijon and that he is valued up to £18.4million.

Lens, who sold Chouiar to Dijon last year, would be owed 20 per cent of any transfer fee that is paid for the young attacker.

It is widely known that Marcelo Bielsa likes to have plenty of wide options in his squad with Sky Sports journalist Tim Thornton reporting last month that “we could see [Leeds] add another winger” before the transfer window closes.

Ryan Kent, Crysencio Summerville and Harry Wilson are all wide players who’ve been linked with Leeds in recent weeks and you can add Chouiar to that growing list.

Last season, the former Lens attacker scored six goals in 24 appearances across all competitions for Dijon.

According to stats by WhoScored, the Dijon ace averaged 2.2 key passes per Ligue 1 game last season and that ranked him fifth in the entire league, behind the likes of Dimitri Payet, Angel Di Maria and Neymar.

In March, Get French Football News dubbed Chouiar as Ligue 1’s “new dribbling king”.

The French football news website added: “Chouiar’s ability to beat defenders regularly gets the winger into dangerous positions in the final third. Often deployed on the left flank of a trident of attacking midfielders, Chouiar has a tendency to cut inside onto his stronger right foot in efforts to isolate and take on opposing defenders. From there, the French youth international has the ability to either go for goal himself or to create goal-scoring opportunities for his teammates.”

It’s an exciting transfer rumour for Leeds fans to mull over as we enter the final few weeks of the current transfer window.

If Bielsa really does want to add to his attacking options then it does not seem as though he can do much wrong by signing Chouiar.

But that price-tag is something that could put Leeds off with the Whites already doing some big business in the transfer market since last season ended.

In other Leeds United news, Jermaine Jenas was blown away by this player’s display at Liverpool.