Leeds United must walk away from signing Dominic Calvert-Lewin this summer, here’s why — Leeds United News 26/6/25

Adam Elliott

Leeds United need a striker capable of scoring goals in the Premier League next season.

The 49ers and Daniel Farke are gearing up for Leeds United’s return to the Premier League by securing key targets and bolstering the squad.

The first arrival was Lukas Nmecha joining Leeds from Wolfsburg on a free transfer, and then Jaka Bijol was snapped up by Leeds for £15million from Italian side Udinese.

Now, they are eyeing an oven-ready top flight striker to spearhead their attack ahead of Nmecha, Patrick Bamford, Joel Piroe, and Mateo Joseph.

The Dominic Calvert-Lewin link to Leeds has major red flags

In many ways, Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s profile makes sense for Leeds. Which is why news that Leeds have made contact with Everton’s Calvert-Lewin will be received well by some.

Physically impressive and a real focal point to the attack, Calvert-Lewin was once one of the most exciting strikers in English football back around 2020.

That said, Leeds Live report that he is not currently a player Leeds are pursuing but, at his best, the Englishman is a real handful. Marcelo Bielsa’s verdict on Calvert-Lewin said as much previously.

However, there is an obvious red flag regarding the centre-forward. He has only broken past 26 appearances once in the last four seasons in all competitions.

That includes two seasons where Calvert-Lewin made just 18 appearances for Everton. Simply put, it’s not reliable enough availability for Leeds to pin their survival hopes on him as the primary striker.

Even if his all-round striker play is more than positive, Leeds cannot take that chance. Considering that two of their other options are also injury-prone, it would be a potential issue.

Piroe cannot lead the line in the Premier League. His availability is exceptional but he doesn’t possess the attributes of Nmecha, Bamford, or Calvert-Lewin to be the focal point and alleviate pressure on Leeds’ defence to turn that into sustained attacks.

As Farke already has injury worries about Bamford, Leeds simply cannot have three of those at once with Piroe as the fallback. They have to sign a reliable and consistent striker who also rarely gets injured.

Nmecha was a calculated risk as a backup option but the main nine cannot be a risk and Calvert-Lewin would be a major problem for Leeds in that sense, even if he can recapture his excellent form of four-to-six years ago.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin reflects on injuries and added pressure

Jermaine Beckford was a striker who knew where the net was in his playing days and Beckford likes the idea of Leeds signing Calvert-Lewin.

But, by Calvert-Lewin’s own admission, his injury woes have been an issue and meant he has suffered emotionally as well as physically due to added pressure he places on his own shoulders.

Reflecting on this period on the High Performance Podcast, he said: “That feeling, I’ll never be able to describe it. It was the weight of my own pressure, the football club.

“I am quite an emotional person so I put that responsibility on my shoulders. I thought, ‘It’s my responsibility to save everybody, save people’s jobs.’ So when I scored that goal it was a relief. The biggest relief ever.

“On my birthday, which would have been 4/5 weeks before I scored that goal, that was a low point for me. I can’t remember why, I think it was built-up emotion, I ended up crying. I was on my own on my birthday, crying on my bedroom floor for whatever reason, feeling a little bit sorry for myself.

“I think it was not knowing how to express what I was feeling in that moment, that feeling things were getting away from me, feeling you have all the pressure of the football club on your shoulders and you just want to go out there and play.

“And at that moment I couldn’t play because I had picked up another injury and it was overwhelming. But I remember thinking to myself, ‘This is a rock bottom moment.’ In my mind I was thinking it doesn’t get worse than this, you need to pick yourself up and go again.

“So that was a catalyst for me because I felt better after I cried. I let out that emotion, all that pressure I had put on myself, and thought — I am going to save Everton Football Club. I ended up scoring the winning goal.”

It’s fair to say that Calvert-Lewin would make a good backup option to have had Leeds not already brought in Nmecha. But, unfortunately (or fortunately), they did.