Leeds ready £15m swoop to sign Yorkshire-born player, club could be tempted to sell – report
Leeds United are readying a swoop to re-sign Lewis Cook from Bournemouth for £15million, according to the Daily Star.
The newspaper claims that the Cherries could be tempted to offload the 23-year-old central midfielder after suffering relegation from the Premier League.
Cook is seen as an “ideal candidate” for Leeds as they attempt to strengthen their midfield options ahead of the new Premier League season kicking off next month.
York-born Cook came through the academy at Leeds before being sold to Bournemouth for £6million in 2016.
He has since made 75 Premier League appearances and earned a debut cap for the England national team when Gareth Southgate played him in a friendly against Italy in 2018.
Although Cook’s been a solid member of Bournemouth’s first-team, he made just 14 Premier League starts last season after recovering from a serious knee injury in September.
Can Leeds risk signing players who’ve had such a serious injury like Cook?
Of course, the player is back to full health now and he might not ever suffer a recurrence of that knee injury but Marcelo Bielsa demands a lot from his players and Cook could struggle due to his lack of football in the last couple of years.
Still, a section of Leeds fans made it clear that they want to re-sign Cook last month after Bournemouth were relegated with one supporter even saying that Bielsa would turn the 23-year-old into prime Xavi.
Leeds could do with an extra body in their midfield but at the moment, Bielsa, Victor Orta and Andrea Radrizzani have to be dealing with the more pressing concern that they have just one centre-back available in the first-team squad.
After they sign a centre-back, they need a striker and after they sign a striker, then they can pursue strengthening other areas of the squad.
In other Leeds United news, this midfielder is edging closer to leaving Leeds on loan.