Leeds moves side by side and signs “exceptional” £9 million stars

Leeds United calmly reminded us of a step-up in high quality from the championship to the Premier League, seeing the current switch saga unfold.

Liverpool formally confirmed Florian Wurtz’s everlasting signature from Bayer Leverkusen on Friday at a reported charge that might rise to a UK document of £116 million.

In the meantime, white individuals have by no means spent greater than £35.5 million to signal gamers. Their present document is the £35.5 million he paid to signal Giorginio Rutter from Hoffenheim to start with of 2023.

The rutter accomplished his transition to Brighton & Hove Albion final summer season after scoring eight objectives and offering 18 assists in 66 video games in West Yorkshire outfits.

Leeds is available on the market to signal a central midfielder, with curiosity in Strasbourg’s Habib Diala and Membership Bruges’ Rafael Oniedica.

They present how a lot the highest midfielder within the Premier League goes for, however Arsenal is about to signal Martin Zubimendi from Actual Sociedaddo on the Spanish facet for a reported charge of £56 million.

Leeds United’s present midfield choices

At this second, Ethan Ampadu, Ilia Gruev and Tanaka are Daniel Fark’s solely senior central midfield choices forward of the 2025/26 marketing campaign after Joe Rothwell returns to Bournemouth.

Ampadu is usually used as a centre-back possibility by German head coaches. This might go away Gruev and Tanaka as two midfielders in his 4-2-3-1 system because the Welsh Worldwide Slots enter the again 4.

Nevertheless, there are questions on whether or not the 2 midfielders have the physicality to compete for every week every week of their relegation scraps within the Premier League.

Earlier than every transfer to Elland Street, each Gruev and Tanaka have been in Germany and the Bundesliga 2. He performed within the Bundesliga and confirmed indicators that he won’t be capable of deal with his bodily step-up into the Premier League.

As you may see within the desk above, they each remained a bit as bodily desired in Germany’s prime two divisions, particularly relating to competing in air battles.

This can be why white persons are eager so as to add extra physicality to the midfield by bringing new choices to that space of ​​the park.

Leeds is monitoring Ligue 1 Enforcer contract

In keeping with Givemesport, Leeds United are lined up contracts to signal Stade de Reims defensive midfielder Valentin Atangana through the summer season switch interval.

The report claims that the whites are aiming on the gifted 19-year-old enforcer, who has been relegated to France’s second division this season.

Givemesport provides that Championship champions are eager to do enterprise as quickly as potential, and that the French starlet has emerged as one of many radar choices to pursue a brand new central midfielder.

The outlet says that whites are eager to safe his companies this summer season, after realising that he’s now out there available in the market for his relegation to Raig 2.

It additionally forwards the proposal that gamers may probably be used at a discount value of round £9 million as Reams is making an attempt to rake in cash after he drops out of League One.

The report additionally claims that Leeds is weighing its present state whether or not or not they’ll participate in negotiations over a deal to deliver teenage expertise to West Yorkshire earlier than the tip of the window.

Why ought to Leeds signal Valentin Athangana?

White individuals must method Reims to signal a deal for the 19-year-old star. As a result of he can arrive as a Zubimendi model of Zubimendi, who’s scheduled to hitch Arsenal for £56 million, to boost the physicality of the midfield.

In keeping with FBREF, Spain Worldwide is without doubt one of the gamers most much like Atangana, based mostly on the statistics of League 1 and Lariga respectively over the previous three hundred and sixty five days.

As you may see from the chart above, they’re each glorious in fairly comparable areas of the sport, particularly defensively, with comparable success charges in deal with and air fight.

Zubimendi ended the Lariga season with a 56% success price in floor duel and a 62% success price in air fight, however Atangana gained 53% of his floor duel and 58% of League One air battles.

Celebrated as “distinctive” by U23 scout Antonio Mango, the French U19 Worldwide caught his eye on France’s prime flight from a defensive standpoint regardless of his group being demoted.

He performed for a poor group, so it was their relegation, however nonetheless confirmed his physicality and high quality. An ideal instance is his efficiency in opposition to PSG within the Coupe de France ultimate. He gained seven of 9 duels and accomplished all three dribbles, together with Joao Neves and Vitinha, however his group misplaced 3-0.

As you may see within the desk above, Atangana was extremely ranked amongst his positional friends in lots of key defensive metrics in League One, particularly when he scored Aerial Duells and held again the opposition gamers.

He hardly ever allowed dribblers to recover from him, as demonstrated by his success price in tackles and the way few challenges he misplaced.

The teenage expertise may due to this fact be Zubimendi’s Fark’s personal model as a defensive midfielder who confirmed he might be trusted in bodily contests underneath strain in considered one of Europe’s prime leagues.

It’s a clever transfer by Leeds for simply £9 million to show his high quality on prime flights in France and signal the 19-year-old expertise akin to Zubimendi at £56 million, one thing that have to be pursued within the coming weeks.