Phil Hay explains why Bielsa and Leeds are ‘so keen’ on signing Che Adams
Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa was quizzed outright on whether he wanted to sign Southampton’s Che Adams on Thursday.
And, while he didn’t go as far as saying he wanted him, his words all but implied it and he reinforced that he wanted his new hitman “as soon as possible”. [Leeds press conference, Thursday, 12.45pm].
He said, “I don’t like to make reference about options we don’t know if they are going to come” but admitted that he effectively wanted a Bamford clone.
Meanwhile, Bielsa’s counterpart at Southampton was busy repeating himself that Adams was going nowhere.
Talking on The Phil Hay Show on Thursday night, Hay went into more detail about exactly why Leeds are “so keen” to persevere with Adams, who is reportedly keen to join Leeds.
Talking about Eddie Nketiah, Hay said, “It was his first loan move and it seems these first months have shown what Nketiah can do and what he can’t do.
“It seems fairly evident given his height and physique and his style of play that he’s not an out and out centre forward, certainly not for a side like Leeds who need a center forward to scrap and dig in like Bamford does.
“And that’s why they’re so keen on Che Adams. If you watch a lot of footage of him and his strengths, he’s a very similar player to Bamford and he does a lot of the things that Bamford does.
“If you listened to Bielsa earlier he said, ‘yes we do need somebody, a replica of Bamford or a pretty straight swap if Bamford needs to come out of the team’. I think they thought Nketiah could do that but as time went on it became clear he wasn’t really suited to it.”
We know the level of detail that Bielsa goes into so we know that Bielsa will have spent a lot of time looking at strikers who may be available in January.
He’s obviously spent a lot of time looking at Adams and has decided that he’s the man he wants to act as back-up and competition to Bamford.
Other names have been mentioned – Billy Sharp for one – but it will be interesting to see just how far Leeds are prepared to go in January in their pursuit of Adams.
On the podcast, Hay also said that Southampton seem to think a deal could be done – the only sticking point seems to be Hasenhuttl.
Adams is young and could be part of the Leeds future, hopefully in the Premier League and it’s been said that a deal would probably involve some sort of option to buy.
In other Leeds United news, ‘The goal machine we need’, ‘Brilliant’ – Leeds Super Fans react to potential Jan loan deal