Leeds must do everything to sign £15m PL star, he’d be signing of the summer – opinion

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Leeds United appear to be looking at the addition of a new right-sided centre-back as their next priority this summer.

That is according to Graham Smyth of the Yorkshire Evening Post, who yesterday wrote on Twitter that is where they are currently focusing the majority of their attention on at present.

Leeds are down to just three senior centre-backs ahead of the opening day of the season on Sunday with Robin Koch, Diego Llorente and Max Wober all having left on loan.

Pascal Struijk and Liam Cooper appears to be Daniel Farke’s current first choice partnership, though they are both left-footed and adding a new right sided defender would provide the team with better balance.

Of course, Charlie Cresswell is also an option but it feels like he has plenty of work to do to really force his way into becoming a regular at Elland Road.

Leeds must do everything to sign Harwood-Bellis this summer

With Liverpool’s Nat Phillips having been mentioned as a target throughout the summer, the latest name to be linked is Manchester City’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

As per Alan Nixon, Leeds are set to battle Fulham and West Ham for Harwood-Bellis, with City set to demand a fee of £15 million for his services.

Although he only has 12 months left to run on his deal at City, Harwood-Bellis would be worth every single penny after establishing himself as one of, if not the best centre-back in the league on loan at Burnley last season.

Farke is keen to implement a more possession-based approach at Leeds this term and Harwood-Bellis would help take that build up from the back to the next level thanks to his quality on the ball.

Despite being only 21, Harwood-Bellis has already displayed his ability to be a leader, too, captaining England’s U21s to EUROs success in Georgia last month without conceding a goal.

A trio of Harwood Bellis, Struijk and Ethan Ampadu sat in front would undoubtedly be the best technically in the division and provide Farke with the best platform to implement his tactics.