footballfancast.com

Farke hit the jackpot with "dangerous" Leeds star who's worth more than Solomon - opinion

Leeds United are currently competing to land promotion from the Championship back to the Premier League at the second time of asking this season.

The Whites are two points clear at the top of the table and four points ahead of Burnley in third place, which means that they have a good grasp on an automatic promotion spot.

Daniel Farke's side fell just short of promotion in the 2023/24 campaign when they lost 1-0 to Southampton in the play-off final, having finished third in the second tier.

daniel farke

The West Yorkshire outfit beat Millwall 2-0 on Wednesday night to put themselves clear of Sheffield United and Burnley, who were both held to draws on Tuesday night.

Manor Solomon forced an own goal from Jake Cooper in the third minute of the match, before Ao Tanaka wrapped up the three points with five minutes of normal time to go.

Whilst it may not go down as a goal or an assist, it was another contribution to a goal for Tottenham Hotspur loanee Manor Solomon, who has been in terrific form this season.

Manor Solomon's form this season

The Whites swooped to bring the Israel international to Elland Road last summer after the likes of Georginio Rutter and Crysencio Summerville were sold, as their departures left the team needing to find goals and assists from elsewhere.

Solomon had a fairly quiet start to life with the Championship side, with zero goals and one assist in eight appearances, but has now emerged as a reliable performer for Leeds on the left flank.

manor-solomon-leeds-championship

The 25-year-old winger has started 21 of his 30 appearances in the second tier for the Whites, which shows how much Farke has trusted him, and has recorded seven goals and seven assists in that time.

Solomon is also, somewhat, unfortunate to have only recorded seven assists because he has created 12 'big chances'. This suggests that his teammates have let him down at times with their wasteful finishing, as they have not made the most of the high-quality opportunities that the Spurs loanee has created for them.

24/25 Championship Manor Solomon (per 90) Percentile rank vs att. mids & wingers

Non-penalty goals 0.34 Top 14%

Assists 0.34 Top 7%

Expected Assisted Goals 0.34 Top 1%

Shot-creating actions 5.10 Top 1%

Successful take-ons 2.60 Top 3%

Progressive carries 4.80 Top 6%

Stats via FBref

As you can see in the table above, the former Fulham man ranks incredibly highly among his positional peers in the Championship in a host of key attacking metrics.

These statistics illustrate how productive the Leeds star is in the final third and as a dribbler who can get his team up the pitch, which also may be why the club are reportedly interested in signing him permanently.

Leeds interested in signing Manor Solomon

The Whites currently have Solomon on a season-long loan deal that is due to expire in the summer, and they do not have an option to make it permanent ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

Journalist Ben Jacobs recently confirmed, however, that the club do want to sign the Israel international on a permanent basis if they get promoted to the Premier League this year.

manor-Solomon

He told GIVEMESPORT: "The priority is to get promotion and then assess what targets are possible. Leeds are more focused on finding a playmaker and trying to buy Manor Solomon, while Cameron Archer remains on their radar."

Jacobs has revealed that they will try to buy him, as well as Southampton centre-forward Cameron Archer, but they must first focus on landing automatic promotion out of the Championship in the next two months.

The Tottenham forward is currently valued at €9m (£7.5m) by Transfermarkt, but it remains to be seen exactly how much Leeds will need to pay to land the exciting forward this summer.

Farke, meanwhile, has already hit the jackpot with another Leeds attacker who is already worth even more than the £7.5m that Solomon is valued at - Joel Piroe.

Leeds struck gold with Joel Piroe

The German head coach arrived at Elland Road in the summer of 2023 and immediately decided to recruit a new centre-forward to bolster his squad.

Market Movers

Market Movers

Leeds eventually swooped to sign Dutch number nine Joel Piroe from Championship rivals Swansea for a reported fee of at least £10m ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, after he had scored 19 goals in the league in the previous season.

The Dutchman, however, made 23 of his starts as an attacking midfielder for Leeds last season, compared to 14 as a striker, and contributed with 14 goals and three assists in all competitions across both positions.

joel-piroe-championship-leeds

This term, Farke has relied on him as the go-to centre-forward option for the club, in his natural position, and his output at the top end of the pitch has improved as a result of that decision.

Piroe, who was described as "dangerous" by journalist Josh Bunting, has racked up 15 goals and six assists in all competitions for the West Yorkshire outfit, which means that he has already produced more goals and more assists - with two months of the season to go - than he did in the 2023/24 campaign as an attacking midfielder.

The left-footed star's market value has increased as a result of his impressive form on the pitch for Leeds in the last two years, and his improvement in the current campaign, as it has soared beyond the £10m that was initially paid for him in 2023.

At the time of writing (14/03/2025), Transfermarkt values Piroe at €14m (£11.7m) and this means that his value has gone up since Farke brought him to Elland Road from Swansea last year, and that he is worth significantly more than Solomon.

piroe-leeds

The Whites have, therefore, hit the jackpot with the 25-year-old star because he has been a terrific performer on the pitch, whilst his value has soared off it.

At the age of 25, Piroe also still has plenty of time left to develop and improve over the years to come, which means that there is time for his value to skyrocket during the remainder of his spell in Yorkshire.

Kalvin-Phillips-Leeds Related

[Forget re-signing Phillips: Farke must unleash "exciting" Leeds prodigy](https://www.footballfancast.com/forget-re-signing-phillips-farke-must-unleash-leeds-darko-gyabi/ "Forget re-signing Phillips: Farke must unleash "exciting" Leeds prodigy")

Leeds United can forget about landing Kalvin Phillips by unleashing a young talent.

He is already worth even more than Solomon is at the moment and could be worth millions more, potentially, if Leeds are promoted to the Premier League and he can translate his goalscoring form over to the top-flight.

Read full news in source page