New update on ‘Serious’ Leeds talks to sign centre-forward today as club chief speaks out
Stuttgart’s sporting director Sven Mislintat has confirmed that Leeds United had a “serious” interest in signing striker Nicolas Gonzalez.
The Daily Star had reported that Leeds were plotting an £18million move for Gonzalez, 22, as, according to the Mirror, Marcelo Bielsa felt he would be able to take the Premier League by storm next season.
However, it seems as though Leeds’ pursuit of the Argentina international has reached a dead-end, based on Mislintat’s latest update.
“I don’t see [a departure] coming for now,” said Mislintat today [Monday], as quoted by the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“We had a lot of rumours in the beginning. It was very serious with Leeds. But at no point it was really convincing for him or for us.”
Of course, just because Misintlat has said that, doesn’t mean that Leeds’ hopes of signing Gonzalez are completely dashed because Calciomercato.it has reported that the striker is keen on the idea of playing for Marcelo Bielsa next season.
It sounds as though the financial aspects of the deal are not there yet and, with several weeks left of the summer transfer window, there is time for that to change.
However, Leeds are going to want to push through their key signings sooner rather than later because we know that Bielsa likes his players to be well-versed with his tactics and fully up to his fitness standards.
The later new signings arrive, the less of an impact they will have in Leeds’ season with Bielsa placing a lot of importance on pre-season training.
Gonzalez scored 15 goals last season to help Stuttgart win promotion and has been compared to Real Madrid legend Raul.
But he will get fewer chances to show his goalscoring prowess or why he’s likened to one of Spain’s best ever forwards at Leeds unless a deal is reached soon.