Heading into the transfer window, Leeds United know that survival in the Premier League is dependent on a number of factors.
Firstly, Leeds United and the 49ers themselves must give Daniel Farke the required squad depth and quality for a top flight campaign via signings in the summer market.
However, they will be casting a keen eye over the business of the teams at the bottom of the division, including Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers among others.
Other examples in the Premier League include Brentford and West Ham United who could be two of the teams they have in mind as sides to catch.
For each of these, they could be dragged in — especially if either sell one or two of their best players and utilise the money acquired poorly.
Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Pep Guardiola and Man City eye Rayan Ait-Nouri deal, Leeds will be delighted
Fulham could be the team for Leeds to emulate in their early seasons of the Premier League, but even they could be potentially caught and each of those clubs can be got at if the Whites nail recruitment.
However, Wolves and Everton are perhaps the primary teams Leeds will be looking to overtake and finish ahead of, as well as the promoted sides in Burnley and Sunderland.
Wolves have already sold Matheus Cunha to Man United but they now look set to lose their other best player to the blue half of Manchester — and it could be pivotal for their survival chances and those of Leeds.
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David Ornstein of The Athletic is reporting that Manchester City are pursuing deal to sign Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves. He states that there are still agreements needing to be reached with the Algeria international but that all parties expect the move to happen.
Despite the fact Wolves will pick up around £100 million from the two deals, it is a promising sign for Leeds that they will be hit with two damaging losses, even if they are well compensated.
There are no guarantees that they will reinvest that money wisely, thus they could be a much weaker team next season off the back of it. Leeds have to hope that Wolves’ recruitment has more misses than hits this summer.
Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images
Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images
Wolves have lost a number of goals and assists from their squad in Cunha and Ait-Nouri
It’s not a simple case that Wolves will definitely be a worse team than Leeds now but they have severely depleted their attacking quality with Cunha and Ait-Nouri leaving.
Player Goals Assists G+A
Matheus Cunha 15 6 21
Jorgen Strand Larsen 14 4 18
Rayan Ait-Nouri 4 7 11
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde 2 7 9
Goncalo Guedes 2 4 6
Wolves’ top five for PL goal involvements
The left-back picked up four goals and seven assists in 37 games and Cunha struck 15 goals in 33 games, with a further six assists on top of that as well.
That’s a lot of output and quality for them to replace in one go. Leeds have to be content with how events have unfolded in that sense. However, they now need to worry about themselves more and start to acquire players.