Another one bites the dust it would appear.
Now whilst I don’t think that the centre forward is as high a priority as the centre back one is for Leeds United this summer, I do think that it is more important than this seemingly never-ending string of wingers that the club is linked with.
Leeds have been handed a much easier task of landing one of their summer targets. According to Turkish outlet Sporx, Caykur Rizespor are now no longer in the running to sign Fenerbache’s Michael Frey. The Swiss international has been linked with Leeds for long parts of the summer and although Frey has reportedly had reservations about playing in the second tier of English football, he may not have much of a choice in the matter if Leeds end up being the last club standing for his services.
Leeds have already got two fine centre forwards in the form of Kemar Roofe & Patrick Bamford who both returned excellent goal hauls last year, and unless there is a drastic change in philosophy in the coming days, Leeds will be carrying on with one man up top next season, either in a 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1 like they did last season, so you don’t need to have a glut of players fighting for that position. It’s not like centre backs where you need enough cover for two people at a time.
However even though you can only play with one at a time, with one on the bench, you need to look at the slightly bigger picture.
Kemar Roofe has come back from the tour in Australia with an injury, and with Patrick Bamford also susceptible to long spells on the side-lines, it might be useful just to get one more name on the depth chart just to be completely safe.
Although Leeds do have the likes of Tyler Roberts in there as well who can be productive in attack when he needs to be if things get really desperate. Can you get through a season with three centre forwards? Possibly but it’s not something I’d be willing to risk. You could make the argument that new academy signing Rafa Mujica could be that fourth forward as a last resort basis, but that could still be incredibly risky given his young age and how rough English football can be.
Going after Michael Frey is not a move that I would make if I was Marcelo Bielsa, but it’s not something that I’m really going to get angry over either. I can see the benefits of having him, but at the same time, I’d rather Bielsa sorted out the centre back shortage first before focusing on another forward.