Leeds still open to new midfielder at the right price – with all eyes on Ounahi and McKennie - The Athletic 26/1/23

By Phil Hay

The transfer deadline is on the horizon and Leeds United think their core boxes are ticked. A left-back and a striker were their priorities for January and, after a fashion, both have arrived. All that remains as time runs out is the biannual question of whether the club have something else up their sleeve.

After a fashion is another way of saying neither of the players signed by Leeds, Max Wober and Georginio Rutter, can be strictly pigeonholed. Wober is a centre-back as well as a left-back and Rutter has the capacity to occupy wider attacking positions as well as the central lane but, in buying them, the club have covered the areas they had planned to. And in committing £40million ($49.4m) to those two signings combined, Leeds expect the difference they make to be swift and tangible.

Throughout the month, though, there has been the lingering suggestion of one more in the pipeline, and a central midfielder specifically. That conversation was encouraged by Leeds releasing Mateusz Klich and allowing him to go to MLS’ DC United, but at least two of the options Leeds have been linked with, Angers’ Azzedine Ounahi and Juventus’ Weston McKennie, are players they are known to have monitored in previous windows. Both are of interest and either would be welcome at Elland Road, provided the price was right.

Ounahi’s value has changed markedly in the past few months, which might explain why Victor Orta, Leeds’ director of football, said in an interview with Spanish media before Christmas that the 22-year-old’s stellar performances for Morocco at the World Cup had been a surprise to many in recruitment circles, not least him. Ounahi was good but it had taken the tournament in Qatar to suggest he was that good. Whereas Angers were talking about a fee of around £10million in the summer window, the price now would be closer to £20million, if not slightly higher. Faced with that valuation, Leeds have not progressed talks with Angers or Ounahi’s camp to an advanced stage yet.

McKennie, 24, is also someone Leeds have had a speculative eye on over the years. They considered trying to sign him while his star was rising at Schalke in Germany, although Juventus took him in 2020, on loan initially, then as part of a permanent package costing £15million. McKennie has made 70 Serie A appearances and has further experience in the Champions League, featuring this season in a side who are possession-based and patient in their play, very different in style to Jesse Marsch’s team at Leeds. He can play box-to-box or in a deeper midfield role and, like Ounahi, Leeds see ways in which he would slot into their line-up.

Signing McKennie would be the third time in a little over seven months that Leeds had spent heavily in recruiting a regular member of the US men’s national team, following on from investing £20m-plus each on Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams. Though he is far from out of the picture at Juve, the Italian club are in a bad way, emerging from an investigation into alleged financial irregularities which has had consequences for former executives of the club and a punitive sporting sanction in the form of a 15-point deduction in Serie A.

Juve will look to regain their balance now and the noise around McKennie indicates that trimming him from the wage bill and pulling in a fee for him would suit the ownership in Turin. Leeds, at this point, remain sceptical about Juve agreeing to a price they can afford, with Juve rating him at over £20million. A loan with an obligation to make the transfer permanent when the season ends would be one way of making the move more affordable.

Personal terms would not be a major obstacle, however, and Leeds are ruling neither Ounahi nor McKennie out, aware the final week of the window is when circumstances often change rapidly. But with less than a week before the deadline, they are some distance away from meeting either Angers’ or Juve’s valuation and it is possible that interest in the pair will have to lie dormant until a future window. Leeds are more confident about one other deal in the pipeline, a bid for Diogo Monteiro, the young Portuguese centre-back at Servette in Switzerland who is about to turn 18, but a new and proven midfielder is more of a moveable feast.

Much of this rests on money and the way in which transfer funding is sourced at Leeds. The club are in the middle of a process which should end with control of the boardroom passing from current majority shareholder Andrea Radrizzani to 49ers Enterprises, and each signing at Elland Road is preceded by discussions about who pays the initial instalment and how future structured payments will look. An agreement was reached at executive level over the £10million purchase of Wober from Red Bull Salzburg and a deal for Rutter which broke the transfer record and could ultimately earn Hoffenheim £35million. In order to finance Ounahi or McKennie, another injection would be needed — unless, like last summer when Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha moved on, cash was to be raised by selling a member of the existing squad.

Earlier this week, Leicester City were credited with an interest in Jack Harrison, which is not the first time they have been linked with the winger. Leeds received contact about him over the summer but were so resistant to losing him that they placed a valuation in excess of £30million on him.

Harrison, though, is 18 months away from the end of his deal and yet to sign an extension. Leeds’ preference is to tie him to a new deal and keep him longer term, with talks planned for after the end of the window. As far as Leicester’s admiration of him goes, there is resistance at Elland Road to the idea of allowing him to join a club around them in the lower reaches of the Premier League. Newcastle United were one of the sides who looked at him in August and if their current work on a deal for Everton’s Anthony Gordon comes to nothing, there is a chance Eddie Howe reignites his interest in Harrison.

As a whole, the squad at Elland Road has altered substantially since the end of last season, to the extent that almost half of Marsch’s line-up against Brentford on Sunday was made up of new signings completed after its conclusion.

A midfielder like Ounahi or McKennie on top of Wober and Rutter would make this window another moment of broad change, even though Leeds feel their most necessary business is complete.

It might be that January at Elland Road is done. But never say never as the deadline draws near.