Late last night, the MailOnline’s Amitai Winehouse broke an article saying that Leeds United’s patience with trying to broker a deal for Liam Bridcutt was coming to an end and that the Whites were looking elsewhere, in particular the Bundesliga and mentioning an agent meeting had taken place.
In the article, according to Winehouse, Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino has already met up with the agent of a Bundesliga midfielder who the MailOnline say “can play in the same role,” with the Leeds owner saying that the player in question is similar in playing style and skill-set to Liam Bridcutt.
As with anything, rumours need to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt; in fact a pinch so hefty that it would floor an elephant. Clubs are linked with players all the time and often in an ‘unnamed player’ sense but it doesn’t take long for a certain sense of logic tinged with speculation to come to the fore and a name to be put forward as ‘the target’ in question. True to this chain of thinking and deduction, the name being speculatively bandied around the Twittersphere is that of Swede Albin Ekdal.
Whilst the name of the player obviously hasn’t been divulged, the talk across Twitter between some Leeds fans is that it could be Ekdal, but at the moment that is pure conjecture. What is more solid is that Cellino hopes to have the deal “sealed on Monday if negotiations are successful,” according to the MailOnline article.
It has been reported in other sources that Leeds head coach Garry Monk has hinted at signings coming early next week, the teaser being thrown out in the usual ‘one or two’ manner. The signing of this ‘mystery‘ German-based midfielder, should it come to fruition, would be transfer number seven at Elland Road during this transfer window.
5 things Leeds fans would need to know about Albin Ekdal
1. Ekdal has footballing pedigree with transfer fees across his career totting up at the £10m mark. His last move, from Italian side Cagliari (Massimo Cellino’s old side) to German Bundesliga side Hamburg was during last July’s transfer window and for the sum of £3.8m. Ekdal was brought into continental European football by Italian giants Juventus in a £510,000 deal from Swedish Division 1 Norra (third tier) side Brommapojkarna.
2. Ekdal didn’t feature much for Juventus, making only four appearances for the Serie A giants in his time with La Vecchia Signora. A series of placements elsewhere saw Ekdal pick up valuable game time before a move in late August 2011 saw Ekdal swap Turin for Sardinia, moving from Juventus to Cagliari for the sum of £2.5m. In his four seasons at Cagliari, central midfielder Ekdal made 122 appearances, scoring eight goals and providing five assists.
3. Ekdal is a 25-cap full Swedish international and appeared in all his countries group games in the recent Euro 2016 Championships. He played 4 minutes as a substitute in the 1-1 draw against Ireland, 79 minutes in the 1-0 loss to Italy and the full 90 minutes in the 1-0 loss to Belgium. His first full international appearance for Sweden was a 30 minute showing in a 1-0 friendly win over Ukraine in August 2011.
4. Last season at Hamburg Ekdal only made 14 Bundesliga appearances with various injuries taking their toll on his season. The most serious of these injuries was an ankle injury that saw him miss 10 games between November 1 2015 and February 7 2016. According to WhoScored data, Ekdal’s typical 90 minute output is 37 accurate passes from 48 attempts (77% accuracy). In a defensive sense, 26-year-old Ekdal has a total of 8.1 defensive actions with his 2.1 tackles and 3.3 interceptions over the course of a typical 90 minutes standing out. He is also a tidy player, only losing possession 1.2 times in a typical 90 minutes – only being dispossessed 0.6 times.
5. In the 2008/09 Juventus side where Ekdal made three appearances under then manager Claudio Ranieri, the Swede played alongside some better known and familiar names such as: Alex Manninger, Olof Melberg and Christian Poulsen. Also in the same Juventus side was Italian/Brazilian striker Amauri who arrived from US Palermo for a fee of £19.4m.
