'In awe' - Jonathan Rowe's Elland Road 'dream' admission amid £7m Leeds United transfer links

Elland Road so often proves a major pull when players sign for Leeds United and, should interest progress into a successful bid and then some, Jonathan Rowe will be no different.

Leeds want to make Rowe their latest summer signing after identifying him as Crysencio Summerville’s potential successor, with the Dutchman’s £25million-plus move to West Ham United confirmed on Saturday evening. Reports on Monday claimed a bid in the region of £7million was imminent and while it is expected to fall short of Norwich City’s valuation, the matter is far from over.

Those in charge at Leeds are unlikely to call it quits after one rejected bid, and the allure of playing for title favourites and likely promotion challengers proved enough to pull Jayden Bogle away from Sheffield United. But they also have a trump card when selling the project to targets, with new arrivals almost always citing the Elland Road atmosphere as a key deciding factor.

Rowe is not yet a new arrival, and nor is he close as things stand, but if Leeds are to make a concerted effort towards signing the forward then Elland Road will be front and centre of their pitch. It’s a ground Rowe admits he is in awe of every time he visits.

"Those three (Anfield, Elland Road and Old Trafford) are probably the main ones that stood out to me," Rowe told Football Daily earlier this year. "Anfield is Anfield, it was a fortress and has been for the last few years. That club has a lot of weight, and Old Trafford was just huge. Elland Road had the most noise that I can remember. That I was a crazy game. Even though we lost I was just in awe of the atmosphere.

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"I couldn't believe it, this was what my dream was literally about. Even though we lost, it was just like, 'wow'. Imagine being on the opposite side to that. I feel like that's a feeling that I always chase. Those kinds of moments, they kind of keep you motivated and hungry for trying to make yourself feel that emotion in the future."

Rowe has only played inside Elland Road three times but arguably been there for two of its greatest occasions in recent memory - and both for very different reasons. The forward was most recently a helpless onlooker as his Norwich side were thumped 4-0 by a rampant Leeds in the second-leg of last season’s play-off semi-final, a night in which Daniel Farke’s side fed off the atmosphere to run riot.

But he also felt the ground shake in a March 2022 relegation six-pointer, witnessing Joe Gelhardt snatch a 94th-minute winner, to scenes of absolute bedlam, having seen Kenny McLean equalise just a few moments before. A very different Leeds side to Farke’s Championship title challengers but, equally, one dragged through by the 36,000-plus inside.

Bogle described Elland Road as ‘crazy’ during his first interview as a Leeds player, while Joe Rothwell admitted it was in LS11 that he first felt a stadium ‘vibrate when a goal went in’. Joe Rodon cited the support he received from fans as a key reason behind turning down Premier League football to make his loan deal permanent.

Just about every player to sign for the Whites did so in part because of the atmosphere on offer every other week. Rowe has already made clear his love for Elland Road, and Leeds will hope he can experience it in a white shirt this season.