‘Bielsa likes him’ – Phil Hay shares Leeds-Leon Bailey update after reported bid tabled
Leeds United are not pursuing a deal to sign Bayer Leverkusen attacker Leon Bailey this summer, according to The Athletic journalist Phil Hay.
French journalist Manu Lonjons, who has previously worked for EuroSport, reported last week that Leeds made an offer for the 23-year-old Bundesliga star.
While Hay has reported that Marcelo Bielsa is a fan of the Jamaica international, he adds that signing him would simply be too expensive for the newly-promoted Premier League club.
“You will have seen Leeds linked with Leon Bailey at Leverkusen last week,” said the former Yorkshire Evening Post journalist on the Phil Hay Show podcast.
“That hasn’t been on the cards. That hasn’t been planned. And that, financially, would put a huge dent in the budget and would have been very problematic in terms of getting other players in.
“It goes without saying that Bielsa likes him because that is the starting point of any transfer process at Leeds.
“They’ve long since reached the view that it’s pointless chasing any player he isn’t sure about or any player who doesn’t quite tick all the boxes because the end-game with that tends to be Bielsa looks at it and turns his nose up and says ‘no’.”
It is a shame that Leeds are not seriously pursuing Bailey but we cannot say that it’s not expected.
Leeds are set to sign Rodrigo from Valencia in a deal widely reported to be worth around £30million while the Whites also have their sights set on a £20million swoop for Freiburg centre-back Robin Koch [The Sun].
Signing a new striker and a new centre-back are Leeds’ top priorities before the start of the season and while Bielsa would like to add another winger to his squad, Bailey is likely to be too expensive after the huge splurges on a striker and centre-back are completed.
Sky Sports reported in July that Bailey “could be available for a fee of between £20m and £30m”.
While that is a potentially modest fee for someone so highly-rated and dubbed as the ‘heir to Arjen Robben‘, Leeds are just unlikely to have that sort of money left to spend on that area of the squad.
The Sun has recently reported that the Yorkshire giants are set to step up their pursuit of Rangers’ Ryan Kent and make a £14million offer for him.
While we would all prefer to see Bailey arrive at Elland Road over Kent, the former Liverpool winger is a far more realistic target in terms of the financial side of any potential transfer.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites are in talks to sign this £12million-rated English defender.