Player traveling to Elland Road as Leeds United beat Wolves to agree deal cancels contract
Leeds ‘close to an agreement’ for third new winter signing, selling club has replacement lined up
Leeds are now “close to an agreement” to sign Werder Bremen attacker Romano Schmid.
Fabrizio Romano has reported that Leeds are in talks over a £13million deal to sign Schmid from the Bundesliga club, a claim that has been refuted by the Yorkshire Evening Post’s Graham Smyth.
However, news from Croatia now suggests that Bremen’s deal to sell Schmid to the Whites is pretty advanced because the Germans are on the verge of signing a replacement for him.
According to 24Sata on Tuesday, Adriano Jagusic is on the verge of leaving Slaven Belupo for Werder Bremen in a deal worth around £5.2m, with the Whites close to striking a deal for Schmid.
And the Croatian newspaper is making it out as though Jagusic is going to the Weser Stadium to fill the void left by supposedly Leeds-bound Schmid.
Where does this leave Leeds and the Romano Schmid rumours?
It’s clearly a tricky one, but none are more clued on developments at Elland Road like Smyth.
He’s adamant that Leeds aren’t going to sign Schmid because while they did hold talks to sign the Austria international earlier this month, Facundo Buonanotte has since completed a loan move to Elland Road from Brighton, so there’s no need to sign 25-year-old Schmid as well.
Leeds also have PSR to think about.
Why sign someone like Schmid in a 10-digit deal when they can have Buonanotte now on loan when he’s already got Premier League experience?
The last thing the 49ers Enterprises will want to do now is risk Leeds getting a points deduction for overspending, so it’s safe to say that this is probably a deal that isn’t going to happen now, even though Daniel Farke could probably do with as many attacking options as he can have in the second half of the Premier League season.
Facundo Buonanotte and Romano Schmid compared
Stats suggest that Buonanotte and Schmid are two different kinds of attacking midfielders.
Firstly, this comparison includes only Buononotte’s performances while on loan at Leicester City in the Premier League last season, because he’s only played once in the league this term while on loan at Chelsea before making the move to Elland Road. As for Schmid, we’ve used his Bundesliga stats from this season.
Their heatmaps, courtesy of Sofascore, show that Buonotte is someone who enjoys most of his possession on the right-hand side of the field, while Schmid’s suggests he’s more comfortable all over third attack, but slightly more to the left.
And then their stats show that while Buonanotte’s goalscoring ability seems to be better, Schmid is much more effective as a creator.
Already this season, he’s created 11 big chances and assisted five goals in the Bundesliga.
Although Leicester were rubbish in the Premier League last term, Buonanotte should have really crafted more than just seven big chances in 31 outings.
Leeds might have themselves a better goal threat in Buonanotte, which is probably about right for Farke, who cannot just rely on Dominic Calvert-Lewin to get on the scoresheet every game.
As for Schmid, he looks like he’d be a good signing – but maybe he’s one for the summer instead.
Joel Piroe has been linked with a move to Celtic over the past week.
Celtic have reportedly held talks over a deal for Piroe, who has always looked likely to leave Leeds this month.
Piroe is understood to want to stay and fight for his place at Elland Road beyond this winter, but he’s so far been unable make much of an impression on Daniel Farke‘s starting XI in the Premier League.
The Dutchman has fallen victim to the excellent form of Dominic Calvert-Lewin as well as the arrival of Lukas Nmecha, whilst Leeds’ signing of Facundo Buonanotte isn’t helping his chances either
Their surprise didn’t arise from the fact that Celtic were keen on Piroe, as the 26-year-old topped the Championship’s scoring charts last season with 19 goals, and could be a top signing for the Glaswegians.
Instead, it was due to the fact that Leeds’ 49ers Enterprises owners also own Celtic’s bitter inter-city rivals Rangers, after taking over at Ibrox in the summer of last year.
As such, they have a vested interest in making sure that Rangers become the dominant force in the city once again, and with a three-way title fight involving Hearts, Rangers and Celtic ongoing, strengthening the Greens’ chances isn’t on their agenda.
