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Phil Hay: Leeds United unwilling to pay £20m up front for Rangers ace Ryan Kent
Leeds United are not willing to pay £20million up front to sign Rangers forward Ryan Kent, according to Phil Hay.
However, The Athletic’s Leeds correspondent suggests that an “incentivised” deal could be on the cards for the 24-year-old if the Whites do make a move to sign him.
Rangers were knocked out of the Champions League this week, meaning the Scottish champions won’t make as much money this year as they hoped.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Phil Hay Show podcast on The Athletic’s website, Hay said: “Our Rangers writer Jordan Campbell thinks they will sell now and they will sell players to try and get money in, minus their Champions League earnings.
“Kent is an obvious one to go. The one thing Leeds won’t do is meet Rangers’ valuation, which is about £20million.
“They certainly wouldn’t pay a massive chunk of that up front, they would want it to be incentivised.”
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Late summer swoop?
Ever since we signed Junior Firpo to address the left-back situation at Elland Road, it’s always been the same. Leeds are strongly linked with signing a new central midfielder and if the right type of winger comes along, they’ll try to sign him.
It happened last summer when Raphinha suddenly left Rennes to join the Whites. None of us saw that coming a week or so before it was completed.
With Kent, he’s someone who’s been linked with Leeds for a long time so we understand why fans might roll their eyes at this.
But it’s clear that Marcelo Bielsa and Victor Orta have continued to track the former Liverpool attacker and this summer, now that Rangers are out of the Champions League, could be big opportunity to finally sign him.
Kent is predominantly a left-sided winger who’s got at staying out wide and getting crosses into the box while he also likes to cut inside and get shots off at goal on his right foot.
He can play behind a striker too or on the right-hand side of the attack – we all know how Bielsa loves his versatile players.
We don’t see Kent joining just now but something could develop in the coming days or weeks that will see the Rangers man become available.
In other Leeds United news, Stan Collymore has predicted the result of Leeds’ clash against Manchester United.