Leeds Could Copy Firpo Disaster With Swoop For £35m "Dagger"
Leeds United need additional recruits, and they need them fast. However, they should not sacrifice speed and quantity over the quality of their potential new signings…
Who are Leeds United signing this summer?
As such, the main goal will to be avoid the expensive mistakes of the past that have led to their miserable relegation. There is a reason why many frustrations surround the tenure of Andrea Radrizzani and Victor Orta.
High-profile signings with clearly little thought process behind them saw the pair often pick a bigger name over a more intelligent acquisition, and it left them in the lurch with a squad unsuitably bolstered.
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Few embody such a failure more than Junior Firpo, who joined from Barcelona in 2021 and has failed to live up to his reputation.
This should mark a cautionary tale for the new ownership and Daniel Farke, and yet reports from earlier in the window did link them with another star from Camp Nou, Abde Ezzalzouli.
Whilst there is every chance the young star would thrive at Elland Road, there is far from enough form to suggest that it would be worth the gamble if they still indeed retain their interest a few months on.
Who is Abde Ezzalzouli?
Having only enjoyed brief stints of senior football, the 21-year-old wide man has shone at times during his short career thus far, earning himself a switch to the Catalan giants.
Whilst that is often a mark of a true talent, there have been plenty of failures to join La Masia and not make it to the top.
However, there is reason to believe that the 5 foot 11 youngster could do, with pace and trickery in abundance. Especially given he added to this four goals and two assists in La Liga last term whilst on loan at Osasuna.
This clearly caught the attention of Xavi too, who handed him 45 minutes in their opening-day score draw with Getafe. The Spanish boss even praised him back in 2021: "Abde is a dagger, a marvel, a surprise. It is great news but I already said that it is also the negative that young people are the ones who stand out the most."
However, Ezzalzouli's career has not been wholly successful, with the 2021/22 season only bringing one La Liga goal all year.
Such an investment could prove disastrous, should he fail to continue his upward trajectory in a similar way that Firpo did not.
The 26-year-old has only spent two years at Elland Road, and neither campaign has been worthy of his £12.8m price tag and £60k-per-week wage.
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His debut term saw the Dominican Republic international post a 6.60 average Sofascore match rating, with the defender emulating such disappointing figures with a 6.55 average rating the following season. Those numbers ensured he ranked as the 22nd-best player in the squad last term and as low as the 23rd-best the season prior.
This was especially frustrating given how highly praised he was, with former teammate Marc Bartra noting: "He is a player who has shown that he has a lot of potential, quality and the ability of being in the right place at the right time."
Pundit Paul Robinson essentially summed up his Leeds career though, lambasting the former Real Betis star for his poor defensive efforts: "Kulusevski picked the ball up in the corner, he was one-on-one with Firpo. All the defender had to do was put in a simple tackle. It is terrible, schoolboy defending. Inexcusable."
Given that Firpo was arguably at a much higher level than Ezzalzouli is currently when he signed, and the failure that has ensued, perhaps Farke could heed this warning issued by Orta's failure and steer clear of the Barcelona outcast if an opportunity emerges to sign him.