Arsenal and Liverpool linked with £83m former Leeds United 'target' as Daniel Farke's Joel Piroe claim backed
Your round-up of the latest Leeds United stories as the dust settles on Saturday’s win in Cardiff.
Leeds United enjoyed an instant return to winning ways on Saturday after beating Cardiff City 2-0 in south Wales, with goals either side of half-time from Largie Ramazani and Joel Piroe ensuring all three points returned to Elland Road. A dominant performance against 10 men could easily have produced a more convincing scoreline but Daniel Farke will be pleased with the win and their rise into sixth place.
It was not a perfect performance from Leeds and there is still plenty to work on ahead of a tricky fixture run, which starts at home to Coventry City on Saturday. Farke and his staff will already be looking ahead to that meeting and the YEP has rounded up some of the latest stories surrounding the club in the meantime.
Gyokeres links
Leeds might be kicking themselves for not pursuing reported interest in Viktor Gyokeres with recent reports now linking him to some of the world’s top clubs. TEAMtalk claim that after an incredible start to the 2024/25 campaign, Gyokeres is now a target for Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.
Leeds were one of several Premier League clubs linked with Gyokeres during a 2022/23 campaign in which he was bagging goals for Championship side Coventry City, but a move to Elland Road never materialised and he eventually joined Sporting for around £20m that summer. Since then, the 26-year-old has been in unstoppable form, scoring 54 goals in 58 games including 10 in the first six games of this season.
That form has attracted eyes across Europe and there is expected to be serious interest in Gyokeres come January and next summer. Multiple reports have detailed a release clause worth €100million (around £83m) which would need to be activated if the striker is to leave Sporting.
Finishing concern
Former Leeds defender Jon Newsome has echoed calls from Farke for his side to be more clinical in attack, warning that missed chances will be punished against better teams than Cardiff. Farke called on his attackers to be ‘a bit more like Joel Piroe’ after the Dutchman came off the bench to make it 2-0 on Saturday with a typically clinical finish.
“It is something we need to get better at”, Newsome told BBC Radio Leeds.” Our conversion rate has to be better because they are all not going to be as easy as Cardiff were today.
“I don’t want to reiterate but Cardiff were poor; down to ten men and there was a real opportunity and we created a number of chances. We can’t go week after week creating lots of chances and not converting.”