According to Sun journalist Alan Nixon on his personal Twitter feed (below), and written about elsewhere on The72, Leeds United are late entrants into to the race to loan exciting England youth striker Lucas Nmecha.
This interest in Nmecha is not unexpected, as it builds on news from late-June that Nmecha was interesting Leeds United. This ‘news’ came from another Sun source, reporter Daniel Cutts mentioning it in his piece and saying that Lukas Nmecha, plus Brahim Diaz and Tosin Adarabioyo were “names on his [Bielsa’s] list of targets” from Manchester City.
With news now coming from Nixon (above) that Leeds United are ready to enter a loan race for Nmecha, the question really remains whether they should be looking to bring him in or not.
Goals were as rare as hens teeth at Leeds United last season, a definite drop in volume from the previous season and Chris Wood’s 27-goal Sky Bet Championship haul. Goals are one thing that the young Manchester City forward has in his armoury. He is a striker who definitely can be regarded as something of a hotshot – the 19-year-old scoring 15 goals in just 11 games for the Citizens’ Under-23 side in the Premier League 2 competition last season.
That impressive haul includes two hat-tricks against Derby County Under-23s and a further one against Tottenham Hotspur . In total, across his Etihad career, he’s featured in 65 games for Manchester City’s youth sides, scoring 50 goals and adding eight assists. 50 goals, 65 games…let that sink in for a moment.
Yes you will get naysayers pointing the finger and saying that Premier League 2 is a reserve competition, look at the teams entered in the Checkatrade Trophy etc etc ad nauseum. To be fair to these doubters, they have a point. There were no doubt similar things said about Tammy Abraham when he joined Bristol City from Chelsea on loan.
They’ll have said things such as “He’ll not cope” or “He’s a kid, big Championship defenders will knock him out of his game.” Well if those things were said, his performances and goals rammed the doubts back down the doubter’s throats.
Strikers have goals in them, Abraham did, Nmecha does. Like a heavyweight boxer with a knock-out punch, strikers of class tend not to lose that goal touch. Now I’m not saying that Nmecha would waltz into Elland Road, announce himself with a hat-trick flourish and do a handstand on the centre-circle at the full-time whistle.
That would be taking things a bit too far. But the current three-cap England Under-21 international is a quality player. In total he has 30 England youth international caps at all age levels – scoring seven goals for his country.
With Leeds United looking for goals, and Pep Guardiola looking to explore loan options for his rated youngsters, Leeds United could do worse than to take a stab at bringing in the exciting Nmecha.
