Marcelo Bielsa draws comparisons with Tammy Abraham as Eddie Nketiah joins Leeds United on season-long loan from Arsenal

MARCELO BIELSA backed Eddie Nketiah to bring similar features to Leeds United that Tammy Abraham offered Aston Villa after landing the hotshot striker on a season-long loan from Arsenal.
KEY INFLUENCE: Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa hailed the efforts of director of football Victor Orta, right, in bringing Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah, left, to Elland Road on a season long-loan.KEY INFLUENCE: Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa hailed the efforts of director of football Victor Orta, right, in bringing Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah, left, to Elland Road on a season long-loan.
KEY INFLUENCE: Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa hailed the efforts of director of football Victor Orta, right, in bringing Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah, left, to Elland Road on a season long-loan.

The Whites head coach also paid tribute to the work of United director of football Victor Orta in bringing the 20-year-old to Elland Road with a whole host of other clubs interested in his services.

Highly-rated England under-21 international Nketiah finished last season by netting his first Premier League goal for the Gunners in the 3-1 win at Burnley and the forward's progress has continued over the summer.

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The striker netted twice against AFC Fiorentina and also once against Bayern Munich in pre-season friendlies but boss Unai Emery opted to send the forward out on loan this season in a bid to gain more first-team experience.

As many as 25 clubs were interested in taking Nketiah on loan with Fortuna Dusseldorf and Bristol City towards the front of the queue until Leeds joined the race after last season's top scorer Kemar Roofe moved to Anderlecht on Tuesday evening.

Two days later, Leeds had landed their man with Bielsa believing that the Whites loanee could have a similar impact to Chelsea striker Abraham who netted 26 times on loan at Aston Villa last term.

"Nketiah is a young, important player in the English football," said Bielsa.

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"He is a player with a very good reputation talking with other people, football people.

"He can be one of the important players in English football, this is what people are talking about him.

"Always in the Championship you have some important players like for example last year Abraham the striker at Aston Villa and Harry Wilson who came to Derby County from Liverpool and for example Jack Harrison in our case with us.

"We think that this player will have a similar feature in a similar scenario to the previous players we were talking about.

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"I know that a lot of clubs wanted him and it is the same case as with Ben White in that he is a player who came from Victor Orta.

"He arrives to the club when it is something that was not easy and we have to link the arrival of the player with Victor Orta too and of course the dimension Leeds United has as a club."