Leeds United must ensure that most important signing is yet to come - David Prutton

Leeds United have already secured the deal to sign Brenden Aaronson this summer and there are suggestions that Aaronson’s former RB Salzburg team-mate Rasmus Kristensen will be the next player in.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

If that proves the case then it’s a good start to United’s summer transfer activity, that’s the most positive way to look at it.

There is a hint of risk with any signing as to that element of what they could bring.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But Leeds have absolutely got to learn the lessons of last season getting to the point where the squad was so bare.

GOOD START: Leeds United are spending £25m to sign USA international midfielder Brenden Aaronson, left, from RB Salzburg, but David Prutton says the Whites must make an even more important purchase this summer.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images.GOOD START: Leeds United are spending £25m to sign USA international midfielder Brenden Aaronson, left, from RB Salzburg, but David Prutton says the Whites must make an even more important purchase this summer.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images.
GOOD START: Leeds United are spending £25m to sign USA international midfielder Brenden Aaronson, left, from RB Salzburg, but David Prutton says the Whites must make an even more important purchase this summer. Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images.

You can always have seasons where there are lots of injuries to contend with.

But Leeds seem to have them more than most so, if they are in a position where they can spend money wisely, then great and, obviously, there are the financial benefits of staying in the Premier League.

Consequently, you are perhaps less paranoid about putting the proverbial hand in the pocket and the activity so far is a good start from the sounds of the ages of the players and the lineage of the players.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There will be some very thorough research going into all of this and I hope this stands Leeds in good stead because the Whites were sailing way, way, way too close to the wind come the end of last season before sealing final-day survival.

Kristensen is a Danish international right-back and there are reports of Leeds getting him for around £10m.

That standard of a player, an international player, is absolutely imperative.

If you are looking to upgrade what your squad is then looking at full internationals is definitely the type of pool that Leeds have got to be swimming in.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There are also reports that Leeds are looking to sign another striker on the back of last season’s struggle for goals, which was just ridiculous.

With Patrick Bamford spending so much of the season out, the perennial struggle of getting anywhere near the amount of goals needed to stay in the Premier League was United’s biggest problem along with discipline and defending, all of which are key components to what it takes to be good in a football match. Other than that they were all right.

We all know that good strikers cost a lot of money but it sounds like Leeds are prepared to spend money and quite rightly so because maybe and hopefully they are looking at last season as the most cautionary tale of how close they were to going down.

Aaronson has already been signed and, hopefully, Kristensen will follow but I definitely feel that the signing of a striker is the most important one. But it’s got to be the right one too.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It’s got to be one that can hit the ground running and that can shoulder the responsibility in every single way that is needed to play that position for Leeds United.

It feels like that responsibility is shouldered even more with a centre-forward as opposed to any other player because it is a hallowed position.

The centre-forward is very important for any team that knows they need to get the sheer amount of goals required to help them stay in the division.

From what we have seen so far, it looks as though Leeds will be in a position where they can tool up.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It’s just making sure that whoever does come in the door is absolutely the right fit and maybe it will be someone slightly different given how Jesse Marsch is going to go about coaching the side.

There’s now a bit more time to be able to blood certain types of players in and not just think that Marcelo Bielsa had a certain way of doing stuff and that no one else could do it.

Considering the type of footballer that Patrick Bamford is and what he has meant to Leeds then, when he is fit, he is first-choice striker.

But, given the natural selection of what football teams are, if someone comes in and does better and scores more goals then he goes back down the pecking order.

I think we all kind of buy into that as players.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

We all kind of know that that’s the case and it’s been a long, long season where, for the majority of it, Patrick has been unavailable.

That’s not me pointing fingers or casting aspersions on Patrick because we have discussed him at length on many occasions.

He has just had a run of injuries which sometimes a footballer does stumble across.

I don’t think there’s any questions about preparations or what he does or anything off the field that makes it untoward or anything.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He’s just had bad luck with injuries but a season is a long time given the immediacy of what football is.

If he is not going to be fit for all of next season or the majority of it then, at some stage, you have to be looking at a replacement although I still think that a fully fit Patrick Bamford is the man for Leeds.

There’s just that element of collectively learning as a team and as a player from what we have seen this season that hopefully means that he has an injury-free season next term.