Leeds United need a new striker, a goal-getter and net-buster that can hit the target with consistency. That’s what Chris Wood gave the Whites.
However it was more miss than hit last season as United struggled to replace the big Kiwi’s 27 Sky Bet Championship goals from the 2016/17 campaign. Manfully as they tried, neither Kemar Roofe (11) not Pierre-Michel Lasogga (10) stepped close enough to the mark with their combined 21 goals that came in fits and starts.
However, Leeds United fans must have thought that all their birthdays had come at once when they were linked with Uruguayan Abel Hernandez. This excitement would have grown and developed when these fans learned that he had rejected Hull City’s offer of a new deal.
Hitting the free agent market at the end of his contract meant that Leeds United would have avoided having to pay a fee to Hull to acquire him. However, class like Hernandez doesn’t come cheap – but still the Whites were said to be in serious discussions with the 29-cap international.
That was weeks ago, the discussions were said to be ongoing but they eventually stalled. News coming down the Elland Road grapevine seemed to indicate that a Bielsa-led decision had meant the Whites had pulled the plug on the deal.
However, the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) suggested today that the withdrawal of interest by Leeds United could have been even more mundane and prosaic than that – the astronomical financial package that he was expecting. The YEP mentioned that this was above an expected £100,000-per-week.
A figure like that would blow Leeds’ tight wage structure into a new galaxy. That level of outlay can only really be expected in one place in English football – the Premier League. Effectively, with all that, the Leeds United interest dropped quicker than Neymar when a shadow falls across him.
Then this:
If you want something, don´t just wait for it, go get it! Because life is too short to wait pic.twitter.com/rbRRPs7cPF
— Abel Hernández (@abelhernandezok) July 19, 2018
In the wonderful world of ever-increasingly obscure and weird ways that footballers use social media to signal intentions, the question must be asked -why? Why has Hernandez chosen to pose as he has with THAT football?
The football is important, more of that in a moment, but it is made more important with the message that goes alongside it – a message that adds a depth and context to the picture. It reads: “If you want something, don´t just wait for it, go get it! Because life is too short to wait.”
Cryptic, well as cryptic a you’d expect a footballer to post in this post-modern world of social media manipulated reality. Following this vein of though and reasoning though leads to another question – where?
Well at £100,000-per-week then you can count out Elland Road, that’s pretty much a given. That ball, that ball – is it a clue that says more than it’s carefully positioned status is saying? Is that the key to the next destination for a striker once linked heavily to Leeds United and Elland Road?
What Abel Hernandez is holding is a Nike Seitiro Barclays Premier League Hi-Vis Soccer Ball, the official ball of the 2011/12 Barclays Premier League competition. Now, that was well before he signed for Hull City from Palermo – the 27-year-old landing in East Yorkshire at the beginning of September 2014.
Yet, that ball – that yellow ball! Could it be an indication that the “it” that he is going to “get” is in the Premier League? There has been some whispers that newly promoted Cardiff City are interested in acquiring his services.
However, as someone has just said to me, “If I was a pro footballer I’d love to mess around like that on Twitter every transfer window…get your whole fanbase on strings.”
Whatever the thinking behind the very pointed and staged photograph – the answer will come out soon.
