Last night France’s premier sports outlet L’Equipe published an article that set Leeds Untied fans’ hearts racing. In it, they said that AS Monaco loanee striker Jean-Kevin Augustin was on the brink of a loan-to-buy move to Elland Road.
With the Whites in the market for a striker, and with domestic names such as Jarrod Bowen, Che Adams and Andre Gray being bandied around, the sudden nature of Augustin’s name being dropped into the mix was enough to get United fans excited.
‘Moves’ for domestic strikers such as the aforementioned are likely to be scrapped with the EFL’s Financial Fair Play regulations hovering like the plague in the background, a dark cloud forcing clubs to be prudent. L’Equipe say that the talented Augustin “should join in the coming hours the English club.”
With fans falling over themselves in a mad scramble to watch YouTube highlights and clips of the youngster in action, there has been a sense of building excitement that the West Yorkshire club are going to end their transfer business with nearly a week to spare.
That excitement might ramp up a little with the following squad news from AS Monaco for tonight’s 7 pm game against Ligue 1 rivals Strasbourg.
📋 Le groupe 🔴⚪️ pour la réception de Strasbourg ce soir au Stade Louis-II 🇲🇨 #ASMRCSA pic.twitter.com/TW0SUxzLoD
— AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) January 25, 2020
Since his arrival at the French glamour club, Augustin has featured for just 262 minutes of Ligue 1 action across 10 appearances. However, he has always been a part of Monaco’s matchday squad in that he’s been an unused substitute for the rest of his time at the club.
Some Leeds United fans are taking his exclusion from the squad to face Strasbourg as further evidence that the talented, young striker is on his way to West Yorkshire. What fans are likely salivating over is his lethal nature in front of goal. He has 20 goals in 67 games for RB Leipzig, his parent club, and has been prolific at youth level with France.
For the young Bleus, August has hit 12 goals in 13 games (Under-19), six goals in six games (under-20) and five goals in nine games (Under-21) and it will be this lethality that Whites fans will be getting excited about as rumours build of his imminent arrival.
