A Bijol repeat: Leeds make one of the “best in the world” a priority target
Elland Road will no doubt be packed to the rafters when Everton travel across West Yorkshire for Leeds United’s hotly anticipated Premier League opener.
Plenty of new faces are likely to line up for Daniel Farke’s men to get the top-flight season underway, with Jaka Bijol aiming to impress in pre-season to seal a starting spot, alongside fellow fresh signing Lukas Nmecha.
Plenty more purchases are surely in the works ahead of Leeds bravely venturing up a league.
Leeds make £12m star a top priority target
It’s safe to say the Whites haven’t had it all their own way in the transfer window so far with key midfield target Habib Diarra heading to Sunderland instead with a club-record £30m wrapped up.
So, with that fresh blow still fresh in their mind, they could return to Ligue 1 to seal a different signing.
Indeed, as per a new report from French outlet L’Equipe, Leeds are very interested in securing the cut-price services of Lyon goalkeeper Lucas Perri this summer.
Lyon will be raided for all of their top assets off the back of the French giants being relegated to Ligue 2 following financial problems and the Whites have now made the Brazilian stopper a top priority target in a bid to improve their goalkeeper options up a division.
Leeds might well have an upper hand in the race to land the Brazilian if they are adamant he’s their desired man in between the sticks, with Saudi outfit Neom also keen on the 27-year-old ‘keeper amid rumours of a £12m bid potentially being put on the table.
Farke and Co. would happily fork out such an amount, with Bijol only costing £3m more to obtain from Udinese, as the newly promoted side continues to shop in Europe to land some gems.
How Perri could be Bijol 2.0
After all, this isn’t a transfer strategy that has just come from out of the blue for Leeds, with Raphinha once purchased for a mere £17m when leaving Rennes behind in 2020.
Obviously, the rest ended up being history for the Brazilian from that point on, with Bijol hopeful he can arrive on English shores and explode into life in a similar way to Raphinha by becoming a confident and assured performer in the deep-end of the Premier League.
His numbers when excelling in the Serie A indicate that he will be a hit at Elland Road, as seen in the Slovenian brute winning an imperious 4.8 duels on average last season in the Italian top-flight, on top of collecting eight clean sheets.
Therefore, landing the 26-year-old’s services for £15m might go down as a future steal if he is a rip-roaring success story in West Yorkshire, with the extra addition of Perri to the building potentially shoring up Farke and Co even more ahead of a daunting season.
Much like Bijol, Perri was a consistent top performer in a top-five league all through last season, even as off-field turbulence threatened to derail the on-field situation, with a glowing number of +6.05 goals being prevented across his 33 league encounters.
To rubberstamp how much of an upgrade he would be, Illan Meslier’s tally in that department fell victim to -2.73 goals being prevented.
Even lauded as “the best goalkeeper in the world” by his manager Paolo Fonseca earlier this campaign, it feels like a no-brainer on Leeds’ end to try and capitalise on Lyon’s financial woes and land Perri as an upgrade on the shaky Meslier.
Of course, both of these deals could unfortunately go the other way, with the defensive duo finding their new terrain to be too extreme.
But, when assessing how well they’ve done in some tough European leagues to date, snapping up both Bijol and Perri might actually be heralded as a pair of genius deals down the line.
About The Author
