For just £4.28 million, the Whites might have landed one of the best players in the world…..png)
Due to a lack of a focal point up top, Leeds United has struggled in their first few Championship games, and the small Wilfried Gnonto has occasionally forced to fill in.
The Whites were certainly squandering their chances despite having enough of them, but they needed that imposing front man to bulldoze defenders, open up opportunities for his teammates, and be in the ideal spots to convert his teammates’ opportunities.
Daniel Farke, who acted incisively in the market to bring Joel Piroe in to address their striking problems, clearly recognized this. The Dutchman had scored 19 and 22 goals in his previous two league campaigns with Swansea City, so it was anticipated that he would continue that pace at Elland Road.
The German obviously has other ideas, as he gave the 24-year-old a deeper role in their scoreless stalemate with Sheffield Wednesday.
Despite having a natural striker start for them, they once again struggled with the same problems that marred their previous few games.
It raises questions about what the former Norwich City manager would do if he had one of the top players in the world fill that position and about his ability to follow a similar organizational structure as he tries to lead his current team back into the Premier League.
Erling Haaland of Manchester City came agonizingly close to moving to Elland Road years ago, according to sources, so it’s possible that such a scenario actually occurred. A decision like that would have ensured that the Championship would never once more have been a possibility.
Erling Haaland was on the verge of joining Leeds United.
The Norwegian was already attracting the attention of some of Europe’s leading organizations after catching people’s attention as a teenager in Molde. He was finally going to leave for greater pastures, after all, he was a huge young forward who had scored 20 in 50 in his native country.
His agent, Hayden Evans, told The Athletic’s The Phil Hay Show (via Marca) that although RB Salzburg would be fortunate enough to secure his capture, providing him with the ideal platform to start his eventual journey to the top of the game, things might have turned out quite differently.
“He was at Molde, around 17 [years old], and he was ripping it up but also passionately following Leeds United,” he remarked. We said, “Look, I can bring Erling to Leeds and the rest will be over to you,” in a conversation with Leeds’ sporting director Victor Orta.
“We said we could do it because physically bringing a player into the club is the finest evidence you can have (that a player wants to join). ‘Absolutely, of his age, he’s the top in the world that anyone would want,’ he replied. We’ll take care of the rest if you can just get him to Leeds.'”
Due to his father’s brief involvement with the club as a child and the fact that he was born in Leeds,It appeared like the ideal option for a team still stuck in the Championship after their 2004 relegation during their brief stint there.
The bottom line was that [Molde] wanted roughly four million pounds, which Evans would elaborate on: “It went rather well, we went back, but the financial difficulties at the moment proved to obstruct us in ways far worse than the transactions we were obliged to make. Even if he had talent, he was not going to play for Leeds at that age since they were not in the stable [financial] position they are now.
“We were back at Oulton Hall, everything was fine, but then Alfie opened up and said, ‘I’ll be honest, it was just a step too far for a player at that time who would only play [for the] U23s.We’re heading to Juventus, who want him, with you the next week.
There was a lot of truth in almost everything that happened, but regrettably, money eventually spoke. Because he had a long list of potential future moves and clubs ready for everyone to make fortunes with, [Mino] Raiola entered the scene and offered the family a sizable offer. The rest is history.
Erling Haaland has scored how many goals?
This has already shown to be a disastrous mistake for Orta, who even though he left during the summer, continues to add to his ever-growing unsightly rap sheet given how Haaland’s career has risen ever since his departure to Austria.
He would have cost Leeds £17 million to sign him to Borussia Dortmund, but had they held onto him, they could have sought to monitor his growth and instead profited from his precise finishing for themselves.
He scored 86 goals and provided 23 assists in his 89 appearances for the die Schwarzgelben during his two years in Germany, demonstrating to the rest of the world that he was prepared to advance to the elite level.Such success did not come cheap, but Pep Guardiola’s £51 million investment to bring him to Manchester has already paid off. In addition to many other records, the treble-winning number nine broke the record for the most goals scored in a single Premier League season during his rookie season. He has now recorded 68 goal contributions in just 59 appearances for the Sky Blues.
Due to his great play in the top league in Europe, his fee has undoubtedly already increased; the CIES Football Observatory currently values him at a mouthwatering €250m (£215m).
Because of this, the youngster has already drawn comparisons to some of the greatest forwards in the history of the game, according to former Citizens defender Joleon Lescott.already
“I think the generation I played in, against the likes of [Didier] Drogba, [Ruud] van Nistelrooy, [Emmanuel] Adebayor, I think there’s attributes that were probably more familiar because there was more of that type of striker,” he told 90min just before their victory over Inter Milan to claim European glory.I believe he has a special gift that transcends generations. He can score some goals that not many forwards can, which is partly why I’ve drawn comparisons to Zlatan. There are a few items in his catalog that only he tries, reaches, and completes. The closest comparison is that.
“I believe he has a special skill that transcends generations. He can score some goals that not many forwards can, which is partly why I’ve drawn comparisons to Zlatan. There are a few items in his catalog that only he tries, reaches, and completes. The closest comparison is that.
For people like Orta and others around him at the time, the realization that Leeds had Haaland in the building, ready and eager to sign, before having to reject him, would always haunt them. Their financial difficulties at the time were indeed crippling, but this is possibly their biggest failure in modern history and the classic case of the one that got away.