This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
January is just around the corner, and that means that it’s the start of bizarre transfer story season.
Of course, Leeds aren’t safe from these types of stories as last summer they were linked with a move for Gianluigi Buffon (Corriere della Sera, via SportWitness), but another ridiculous story has now formulated.
Indeed, CalcioMercato have reported that Leeds are amongst the clubs interested in Cagliari midfielder Nahitan Nandez alongside the likes of Inter, Napoli and PSG.
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The Uruguayan is valued at £19.8m by Transfermarkt, and with Victor Orta recently admitting that it’s going to be a quiet January window, and Angus Kinnear’s previous updates on Leeds’ precarious FFP position, it’s fair to say that this one simply isn’t going to happen.
However, if we lived in a world where Leeds had the cash to get this deal done they still wouldn’t be making the right choice in signing Nandez.
When you look at his stats it’s clear to see that he doesn’t really offer much of what Marcelo Bielsa requires from his midfielders as his pass success rate of 76.7% is lower than both Mateusz Klich’s and Adam Forshaw’s.
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Of course, that would be fine if it was offset by assists and key passes, but the 23-year-old has only two assists to his name this season while averaging just 1.1 key passes per game.
Defensively he isn’t much to shout about either as he averages just 1.5 tackles per game with just 0.5 interceptions per match.
Serie A is obviously a higher standard than the Championship, but Nandez doesn’t seem to excel in any of the areas Bielsa requires, so not only is this deal seemingly an impossible one, but it’s the wrong one for Leeds.
In other news, one Leeds star has been praising Marcelo Bielsa’s “carnage” training strategy…
