Daniel Farke has made it clear to The 49ers in public he wants four new signings before the deadline, one of which is likely to be a replacement for Georginio Rutter after his exit.
Rutter became the club’s eighth permanent sale of the summer when he completed a £40m move to Brighton, joining the likes of Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and Glen Kamara in departing the club.
Leeds have other wingers they can turn to replace Summerville in Dan James, Brenden Aaronson and Wilfried Gnonto. They have other midfielders to replace Kamara and Gray with Joe Rothwell signed.
But the lack of no.10 is deeply concerning, exacerbated by Joel Piroe’s woeful showing against West Brom on Saturday. Albeit a good result at The Hawthorns, it is impossible to see Piroe remaining in the 10 role.
Leeds have just made play to sign perfect Rutter placement
Plenty of names are being linked with a move to Elland Road and one of the reports is that Leeds have made an approach to sign Feyenoord star Calvin Stengs, though they have been told he is unavailable.
Nevertheless, the 25-year-old Netherlands international would be the perfect replacement for Rutter simply because, he boasts all the same kind of traits as the French ace, it would be like Rutter never left.
What stood out with Rutter is that at 6ft, he is considerably tall for your average no.10. Stengs is 6ft 2in and he uses that height and strength to his advantage in transition and linking the midfield to the attack.
Rutter and Stengs’ stats last similar were incredibly similar
In losing Rutter, Leeds have lost a player that laid on a huge 16 goals while also scoring eight, something that Rutter has told Brighton’s website “disappointed” him. But Stengs would instantly replace that threat.
Indeed, Stengs scored eight himself like Rutter and laid on 18 goals in eight less games despite playing in Europe and in the Eredivisie. Dean Smith tried to take Stengs to his MLS side Charlotte for a fee of £6.7m.
If the “unpredictable” star is available for anything like that kind of fee then it is an absolute no brainer and Leeds must move quickly. Even if Feyenoord don’t want to sell, he’s the perfect man to replace Rutter.
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