Blackburn Rovers join Swansea City and Wigan Athletic in race for Leeds United player | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers have joined the race to recruit Leeds United striker Joe Gelhardt on loan for the remainder of the season, according to yesterday evening’s report from The Sun.

The 20-year-old has been a regular part of Jesse Marsch’s matchday squads this season, making 15 league appearances and even managing to grab an assist against Aston Villa on Friday evening.

However, a decent number of his starts this term have been in cup competitions, with most of his league displays coming from the bench as the forward continues to find his game time limited at Elland Road despite his first-team breakthrough.

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Real Fake

Joining the Whites in the summer of 2020, he will surely be keen to win more pitch minutes now and there won’t be a shortage of clubs that will be keen to lure him away from West Yorkshire temporarily if his current club are willing to listen to loan offers.

Wigan Athletic could be in the driving seat to secure his signature, with Kolo Toure’s men believed to be interested in recruiting the striker who graduated from the Latics’ academy before moving on to Leeds.

Swansea City are also interested though – and Blackburn are the latest side to enter the race for him as Jon Dahl Tomasson looks to strengthen his side further..

The Verdict:

With George Hirst returning to Leicester City and then being loaned out to Ipswich, it makes sense for Blackburn to target a forward, especially with Ben Brereton-Diaz’s future continuing to remain uncertain.

Although Rovers will be keen to keep the Chilean, there’s a chance a big bid will come in for him and with that, the Lancashire outfit will need to have a contingency plan in place to deal with his potential departure.

And after spending transfer fees on Callum Brittain, Dominic Hyam and Sammie Szmodics in the summer, it would be difficult to see them spending too much during this window so a loan move could be ideal for them.

It remains to be seen whether they will be able to offer a more financially attractive package to Leeds than the likes of Swansea and Wigan could – but you would back them to have a decent chance in the race considering their league position.

The Whites will probably want him to be competing at the top end of the Championship table if he did seal a loan exit, so Rovers should be hopeful of securing his services for the remainder of the campaign.