Leeds United are stepping up their interest in one of their transfer targets as they look to hand Daniel Farke a squad capable of promotion back to the Premier League, it has been claimed.
All change for Leeds following playoff defeat
After their defeat in the Championship play-off final against Southampton, it has been a tough summer for Leeds. They have completed just three permanent deals, landing Joe Rodon after a successful loan spell, signing Jadon Bogle from fellow Yorkshire side Sheffield United and goalkeeper Alex Cairns from Salford City. But they have seen a whole host of names depart.
Archie Gray and Glen Kamara have both left the club in deals worth almost a combined £50m, with the sale of teenage Gray to Spurs key to keeping Leeds compliant with financial fair play rules after missing out on promotion back to the Premier League.
Several loanees have also departed on permanent deals, while long-term servant Luke Ayling has left the club as a free agent alongside Jamie Shackleton and Robin Koch.
Now, there are fears that further departures could be coming soon, with Everton reportedly in talks to sign Wilfried Gnonto in a deal worth around £25m. Meanwhile, Championship player of the year Crysencio Summerville is attracting widespread interest, and Fulham are the most recent side to try and prise him away from Yorkshire this summer.
In a perhaps concerning move for the pair’s futures at Elland Road, Leeds are now stepping up interest in a fresh name in attack.
Leeds United chasing 27-goal Championship attacker
That comes with talkSPORT journalist Alex Crook revealing that Leeds and the 49ers Enterprises have “formalised their interest” in Blackburn Rovers forward Sammie Szmodics.
The Irish attacker ended the 2023/24 campaign as the Championship’s top goalscorer, finding the net 27 times in 44 appearances, one of which came at Elland Road in a 1-0 win for Rovers.
He drew no shortage of praise from former manager Jon Dahl Tomasson, who dubbed him “incredible” after a first career hat-trick against Cambridge United.
The development of Sammie is great to see. He’s a team player, he’s a goalscorer. He’s very good in doing all the things we want, then of course scoring that amount of goals and also even getting assists.”
“We always know he can score goals but he’s not used to playing a lot of games at this level first of all, he played with Peterborough but not a lot. The way he’s scoring goals, the confidence he’s playing with and the role he takes as one of the senior players is quite incredible.”
But Szmodics is into the final two years of his £15,000-a-week deal at Ewood Park and could leave this summer as a result, with both Leeds and newly-promoted Ipswich Town thought to be keen on signing him. There is no fee mentioned, but Blackburn have already rejected one bid from Ipswich and are thought to be holding out for around £20m.
With Leeds formalising their interest, could that suggest that a departure from their own frontline is imminent?
