Why Leeds United Should Think Twice Before Going For This Double Raid on Aston Villa
During what has already been a busy transfer window for Leeds United, manager Thomas Christiansen is still working behind the scenes to bring in new faces with his side’s play-off place, once again, under threat. Leeds are now down to ninth in the division, having lost three of their last four games and it seems now that the West Yorkshire side are ready to embark on a double raid on Aston Villa for Ross McCormack and Tommy Elphick.
Leeds still feel that they need a striker with McCormack high on Christiansen’s list, although the Villa man would cost around £4.5million.
The Scottish International forward is currently on loan at Melbourne City but he is due back this week from Australia. McCormack has managed 14 goals in just 17 league games since moving to the Southern hemisphere and he is already a firm favourite with Leeds fans.
Now 31, McCormack netted 53 goals in his four-year stint at Elland Road before heading off to Fulham back in 2014. Centre-back Tommy Elphick is also reported to be on Leeds’ transfer list. The 30-year-old signed for Villa in 2016 but without quite impressing as much as had been expected.
He may be available for just £2.5million, which would be a great value and he could certainly do a job for Leeds in their current predicament. I can see exactly why they would spend such a sum to bring in a player who obviously has some talent.
In McCormack’s case though, he is scoring goals in a league which is substandard compared to the Championship. He doesn’t look in the greatest shape in all honestly and if Leeds fans are expecting the same player who left for Fulham, they would be in for a shock.
We’ve written before on these pages about the basics of football in terms of taking players who are surplus to requirements elsewhere. Villa have now risen to the sort of position Leeds believed they would be in, so in the most simple terms why would Leeds want to take their cast-offs?
I still don’t understand why clubs feel that taking players deemed not good enough for a club in the top three, would, in turn, help to get them into the top three. It doesn’t make sense. With Elphick, he would fill a gap in the Leeds squad and may be capable of better than what he has shown at Villa but McCormack is frankly a player who is going backwards and there is no telling where that regression stops.
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