Leeds United were said to be one of the multiple UK clubs sending scouts to watch Hammarby sensation Bazoumana Toure this season, but Brighton appear to have won the race.
Leeds may be more concerned about consolidating their position in the automatic promotion places this month after a strong start to December, but there should be one eye on January behind-the-scenes.
Daniel Farke has stressed that he wishes for a quiet month in the new year, but that doesn’t mean the club shouldn’t be scouring Europe for potential attacking solutions.
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Leeds named in scouting hunt for Hammarby’s Bazoumana Toure
Back in October, Leeds were one of multiple English clubs reported to have sent scouts to keep tabs on winger Bazoumana Toure.
The 18-year-old has nine goals and four assists for Swedish club Hammarby this season and is already attracting significant interest from the top two divisions in England – per The Boot Room.
It was also claimed that a £5million fee would be required to land the teenager, who has also been on the radar of Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Tottenham, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Wolves, Sheffield United and Celtic.
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Brighton to win race for Bazoumana Toure ahead of Leeds and others
As seems to be the recurring trend at the moment with youth recruitment, a report from Fotboll Direkt shares that Brighton are the current standout favourites to land Toure this season.
Described as one of the league’s biggest transfers in history, Toure’s exit from Hammarby and likely move to Brighton is “only growing stronger”.
Talks are said to be ongoing between the two clubs, and now the asking price appears to have moved up to 100million SEK (£7.2million).
Can Leeds compete with Brighton on transfer dealings right now? Probably not
The fact Brighton managed to poach one of our best players from us for £40million in the summer does underline the gulf in stature between the two clubs as things stand.
So if we’re to be tussling alongside them for such a player, you would imagine that there’s only going to be one outcome.
For Toure, there is the argument that he’d come to Leeds and play much sooner than a Premier League club, but Brighton is such a platform that any young talent wouldn’t think twice about moving there.