Leeds have growing interest in “relentless” £21m star

Leeds United have less than a week to prepare for their opening game of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign against Everton at Elland Road next Monday.

Despite how close the first game is, head coach Daniel Farke is not satisfied with the work that has been done on the attacking areas in the summer transfer window.

The former Norwich City boss clearly wants to bring in more attackers to bolster his options at the top end of the pitch before the deadline at the start of September.

Football Insider reported in May that the Whites are not planning to build their attack around Joel Piroe, despite the fact that he won the Golden Boot in the Championship with 19 goals.

Leeds are in the market, as Farke confirmed, to bring in reinforcements in the final third, and a new centre-forward to compete with the Dutch marksman is on the agenda.

The Championship champions will be hoping that they can find their next successful Premier League number nine, following in the footsteps of the likes of Mark Viduka and Tony Yeboah.

Leeds United’s all-time top scorers in the Premier League

The Whites have not been in the top-flight for a couple of years since they were relegated under Sam Allardyce at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.

From that run of three successive seasons in the Premier League, following their promotion under Marcelo Bielsa in 2020, only one player managed to break into the club’s top ten goalscorers in the history of the division – Rodrigo.

The Spaniard scored 26 goals in 88 matches in three seasons in West Yorkshire after his move from Valencia in the summer of 2020, outscoring Raphinha in that period in the club’s history.

As you can see in the table above, no player has scored more Premier League goals for Leeds than Viduka, who was a battering ram up front for the Whites during his time in West Yorkshire.

The Australian centre-forward mixed physical and technical qualities to be an outstanding number nine for the Whites, as Guardian writer Rob Smyth once noted that he had an “interesting mix of styles” due to his strength and ability on the ball.

Leeds are now being linked with a potential move for a player who could arrive at Elland Road with a similar style of play to the legendary striker.

Leeds have growing interest in Championship star

According to TEAMtalk, Leeds United are one of the teams with a growing interest in a deal for Norwich City centre-forward Josh Sargent before the end of the summer transfer window.

The report claims that both the Whites and Burnley are keen to snap up the USA international, who would like to remain in England, to bolster their options at the top end of the pitch.

It adds that the 25-year-old number nine has already turned down the chance to sign for Wolfsburg after the German club agreed a £21m deal with the Canaries, which shows the kind of money that it will take to do a deal.

TEAMtalk reveals that Farke is a big fan of the American striker, whom he signed for Norwich from Werder Bremen in 2021, and would like to reunite with him this summer.

However, the outlet claims that Leeds and Burnley are not currently willing to pay the asking price for the Championship star, and it remains to be seen where this transfer saga will go next.

Why Leeds should sign Josh Sargent

The natural reaction to this news from supporters may not be the most positive, given that Sargent struggled in the Premier League when he last played there in the 2021/22 campaign. However, he was a 21-year-old playing in England for the first time in a team that got relegated from the division, and the majority of his appearances for Norwich came on the right wing, rather than as a centre-forward.

Since their relegation to the Championship, and Teemu Pukki’s exit from Carrow Road, the USA international has had the chance to establish himself in his favoured position, as a striker, and caught the eye with his excellent performances.

Sargent won Norwich’s Player of the Season award last season, thanks to the goals and assists shown in the video above, and has scored 32 Championship goals since the start of the 2023/24 campaign, as per Sofascore.

That is why supporters should not be put off by a haul of two goals in 26 matches in the Premier League in difficult circumstances over three years ago, as his form since then shows that he has the potential to be Viduka 2.0 for Leeds.

This is not to say that Sargent is guaranteed to score goals as frequently as Viduka did for the Whites, given his exceptional record, but he has the all-round game and finishing capabilities to be Farke’s own version of the striker.

As you can see in the table above, the £21m-rated forward has developed into a talismanic figure for the Canaries in the number nine position, ranking highly among his positional peers in a host of metrics in and out of possession.

Sargent, who Tony Pulis described as “relentless”, has the physical qualities to win duels on the deck and in the air to be a target man for his side, much like Viduka was for Leeds, whilst also being a prolific scorer and creator in front of goal.

These statistics suggest that the potential is there for him to be a Viduka-esque figure up front for Leeds because he is a technically secure target man who finishes chances clinically and creates for others.

It is now down for Sargent, if the Whites strike a deal for him, to show that he can translate that to the Premier League when played in his preferred position at that level.