Phil Hay: Relentless £8m attacker would be ‘very good value’ signing for Leeds
Phil Hay has said that he’s moved from being unsure about Jack Harrison to being convinced that he would make a “very good value” signing for Leeds United in the summer.
Hay said that the Man City loanee “never looks like he’s going to stop” and that his energy would be impossible to replicate in the Leeds side.
This is Harrison’s second season on loan at Leeds and while he’s never quite delivered the attacking returns he should, he’s constantly improving.
Talking on the latest episode of the Phil Hay Show, the Athletic journalist said that at £8m Harrison would represent a very good signing for Leeds and that he would expect him to get even better next season.
“I would love to have seen his running stats from Saturday,” Hay said.
“Unfortunately with WyScout you don’t get the running stats, how far he’s run, how many individual sprints he would have made.
“But the amount of running he does is almost impossible to replicate and it would be a huge challenge for [Ian] Poveda to come in and do what Harrison does.
“Harrison never stops and never looks like he’s going to stop, and never looks like he’s going to run out of energy.
“I’ve gone from last season wondering whether Harrison would be a shrewd investment to thinking that the £8m option they have on him at the end of the season would be very good value.
“He has got better in Bielsa’s second season and he can get better again in his third season.”
Harrison has been at Leeds for as long as Marcelo Bielsa and the manager is obviously a fan of the 23-year-old.
The one criticism of Harrison is his crossing accuracy and lack of goals.
He’s scored nine in 79 games for Leeds and only added 10 assists.
If anything, he’s gone backwards this season with his crossing – making an average of almost five per game and having accuracy stats of 26% this season and 28% last season. [WyScout]
However, as Hay points out, his energy is exactly what Bielsa is looking for in his players.
If Leeds get promoted then we’d expect Harrison to be a permanent Leeds player next season. If they don’t get promoted, we might have to say goodbye to him.
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