Football League World
·20 August 2024
Leeds United submit enquiries for Portuguese and Dutch wingers
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·20 August 2024
Leeds are looking to make additions in wide areas.
Dutch top division wingers Carlos Forbs and Calvin Stengs are two players that Leeds United have enquired about.
The Whites want to sign some players to reinforce their now weakened wing options, according to HITC, and the Eredivisie pair are two of the players that they are said to be considering.
The loss of Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter has hugely hurt Leeds in an attacking sense. Between the two of them, last season, they racked up 49 combined goals and assists.
Their absence from Daniel Farke's team has left a big gap that will need to be filled if Leeds want to feel confident about winning promotion this time round.
He's already admitted that there are a lot of positions on the pitch that need to be added to. "We need cover at full-back, a midfielder, a winger or offensive player and after Georgi (departs) a second offensive player," said Farke, via Leeds Live.
Luckily for him, no departure for Wilfried Gnonto looks imminent, and they have received a boost in their reported pursuit of Austrian midfielder Dejan Ljubicic, who is reported to want to move to Elland Road.
They've not left themselves with much time to address these issues, but they have moved quickly to identify players who could specifically try and replace West Ham United's new Dutch winger.
The two wide players, who play in the top division in the Netherlands, are reported to have been enquired about by Leeds.
Forbs, 20, was previously part of Manchester City's esteemed youth setup before transferring to Ajax last summer for £17.3 million, as per the BBC. West Ham, Summerville's new club, were said to be in for him at the time too.
Man City included a 20% sell-on clause in the deal that saw him move to Amsterdam, which could bump up the price of him a bit. They will certainly have to pay a fee near to, if not more than, £20 million, if they want him permanently, given what Ajax paid for him and the four years left on his deal.
Stengs is a bit more experienced than the Portuguese Forbs, and can play as a central attacking midfielder too. He was fantastic for Feyenoord last season under new Liverpool manager Arne Slot, racking up 18 goals and assists.
He has started the new campaign on the right foot too, with a goal and two assists in Feyenoord's league curtain jerker.
Leeds' chances of getting either player don't seem to be brilliant. HITC stated that both Ajax and Feyenoord had snubbed loan proposals from United. Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Joe Donnohue has also said that Stengs is flatly unavailable.
They do have other options that they are looking at, including Jonathan Rowe and Manuel Benson. Again, though, a deal for either of them won't be easy due to the other teams looking to grab them before the Whites do.
The trio of large sales that the club have made this summer has netted them £105 million, according to The Athletic. In fact, no club in the world has made more money than they have from player sales this summer.
Of course, going out and actually securing a move is much easier said than done, but the point is that they no longer have the excuse that they did earlier in the summer of having restrictions on what they can spend.