Joel Piroe has left Leeds United in a loan move that will become permanent if West Ham United win promotion to the Championship.
The Surinamese striker was a key part in the Whites winning promotion from the Championship, but doubts remain about his ability in the top-flight. It is ironic, then, that his new club getting there is one of the triggers which will make the season-long loan permanent.
His departure increases the pressure on Leeds to add another centre-forward after a summer which has seen three big, targeted signings made but left a couple of key positions still to be addressed between now and September 1.
The early part of Piroe's debut season after joining from Swansea City in August 2023 was dominated by talk about whether he should lead the line or play off that striker in the hole of manager Daniel Farke's 4-2-3-1 formation. Initially, Farke was doggedly in favour of the first but he became more flexible in his thinking over time.
LEAVING: Joel Piroe (Image: Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)placeholder image
LEAVING: Joel Piroe (Image: Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)
Despite that, he was able to continue the form of the 19-goal season with Swansea which had caught Leeds' eye, and he scored 35 times in 101 appearances.
Leeds reached the Championship play-off in season one, and won the title in his second year as he claimed the golden boot.
But his 19 goals made him the division's lowest-scoring top-scorer since Andrew Swann found the net 18 times for Barnsley in 1900–01. Nevertheless, he was an important cog in a unit which scored 95 Championship goals that season.
But Farke's reservations about Piroe as a Premier League striker were obvious from the off. Just two of the 66 league starts he made for the Whites came in the Premier League, in the opening two matches of the season as new signing Dominic Calvert-Lewin found his match fitness.
Farke’s tweaked style of play in the division demanded a more physical and isolated centre-forward in the Premier League than the Championship, where the team dominated possession far more often than not.
Although they were supplemented by 14 substitute appearances, it was the first season of Piroe’s career since his days as a youngster making his way in Holland's second tier in which he field to score in.
But his credentials at Championship level remain strong, so like Leeds three years ago, West Ham have dipped into their parachute payment in the hope Piroe can score the goals lost by this summer's departures of Callum Wilson and former Leeds winger Crysencio Summerville - plus more on top.
The fee the Hammers will pay if Piroe moves permanently has not been disclosed but it is understood that it, plus the loan fee the Hammers are paying this season, will more than recoup the £12m fee Leeds paid Swansea.
It leaves the Whites with only Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha as specialist senior centre-forwards. Along with left-back, where their only specialist - Gabriel Gudmundsson - is out injured, it is their top priority in the remainder of the transfer window.