Two Replacements For Chris Wood Who Leeds United Can Target
With Chris Wood having joined Burnley for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £15m, Leeds United have lost a major source of goals and the Championship itself will be weakened because of his absence.
For their part, Leeds need to act fast in bringing in a replacement, as the league will be tough enough in what is yet another season of change at Elland Road.
Here are two potential incomings who could at least fill the Wood-shaped void in the squad in the short to medium term:
Pierre-Michel Lasogga (Hamburg)
For whatever unknown reason, Lasogga is out of favour at Hamburg currently and is definitely available for transfer, with Leeds’ Danish boss looking to solve the problem his club being short of strikers.
Lasogga did not take part in Hamburg’s Pokal defeat to Osnabruck last week after being omitted from the squad altogether, thus putting him behind Bobby Wood, Andre Hahn and Luca Waldschmidt at the club to name but three. Leeds are looking to solve that problem for him by taking him on loan for the season, in a deal which will have an option to buy for a low price next summer.
That deal doesn’t seem so attractive to Hamburg who can get bigger money for him right now and get him off their backs for good. As long as there is Premier League interest, the player himself would probably not consider the Championship, especially without a guaranteed start in the XI. With the sale of Wood possibly fetching in around £15million, the Elland Road side can afford to pay a large fee if they want to take a punt on the German.
Nahki Wells (Huddersfield)
The Terriers have spent big and with Steve Mounie now at the club, it’s hard to see Nahki Wells getting too many opportunities.
Wells scored 10 goals in 46 Championship games last season, which doesn’t read that impressively on the face of it. But the team didn’t really set up to feed a single striker and the goals were rather shared around. Things would be different at Leeds in that regard, with the club having relied heavily on a centre-forward before, given the proportion of their goals scored by Wood.
Wells has done better in the past – 22 in 42 in League Two with Bradford and 17 in 44 with Huddersfield in the Championship. So he definitely has ability. Those who know say that he’s decent, so why not give him a go?