The proven £50m striker Leeds United could sign to turbocharge new Premier League campaign

When Leeds United won the Championship title back in May, there was talk of a £100m transfer fund and the determination to use the summer window to build a squad which wouldn’t just survive in the Premier League, but thrive. It’s all proved to be a little trickier than expected.

While some important new signings have been made in midfield and at the back, signing the attacking players that Daniel Farke wants has proved to be something of a challenge. Deals for Igor Paixão, Franck Honorat and others either fell through or never got going. With less than a fortnight before the start of the season, the situation is starting to look just a little desperate.

There are still a few players whose names are cropping up in the gossip columns, but one name stands out – a striker with plenty of experience and proven quality at the top level, and a player who could score the goals Leeds need to survive. Leeds should likely jump at the chance to sign Aleksandr Mitrović.

Leeds United among sides that could sign Aleksandr Mitrović this summer

Former Fulham and Newcastle United striker Mitrović has spent the last two seasons in the Saudi Pro League, but despite a hugely impressive scoring record it appears that Al-Hilal want a newer, shinier toy to play with and the Serbian seems to be on his way out.

Mitrović scored 28 goals in 28 games in his first season in Saudi Arabia, propelling Al-Hilal to the league title, and followed that up by bagging 19 in 23 games last season. He still shows every sign of being at his peak, but perhaps lack the profitable global profile to make his essential to the true nature of the Pro League project. As it stands, he looks likely to make way for Darwin Núñez.

Al-Hilal’s loss could be a Premier League team’s gain. According to several recent reports, including by TBR Football, Mitrović is being offered to a number of clubs including Leeds United and fellow freshly promoted side Sunderland.

Details of the finances of a prospective deal are scarce, but some sources suggest that he will be available for around half of the reported £50m fee that Al-Hilal paid Fulham two years ago. Wages may prove to be a bigger problem – reports of his exact salary vary, but he is currently earning over £400,000 per week tax free, and no team in the world will match that. Al-Hilal’s preparedness to subsidise a deal will be central to any move that Mitrović makes.

That alone could represent a road block to any deal for a team like Leeds, but if the option is there and if the finances can be worked through, then the Serb’s track record suggests that it’s a deal that Leeds simply must make if they want to maximise their chances of becoming the first team to avoid an immediate return to the Championship in three years.

The stats which suggest that Mitrović would be worth his weigh in gold

Mitrović’s impressive goal-scoring record over the past two years suggests that his performances haven’t slipped since he was at Fulham, for whom he scored 57 times in two years before leaving for Saudi Arabia.

His 14 goals in the 2022/23 season, scored at a rate of nearly two goals for every 90 minutes he was on the pitch, kept Fulham up and paved the way for Marco Silva’s recent consolidation of their position in the top flight. The Cottagers provide a blueprint for Farke and his team to follow over the coming years.

Mitrović’s strength still lies less in the precision of his finishing than in his ability to find half-yards of space in the box to create chances. While full xG stats are not available for the Saudi Pro League through our data providers, he has typically not been a striker who vastly exceeds his expected goals – rather, a striker who puts himself in positions to get a very high xG in the first place.

He still has that strength and bullishness and savvy knack for getting goal-side of a defender, as watching any amount of highlights from his spell with Al-Hilal makes plain, as does his total tally of 68 goals in 79 appearances for his current club in all competitions.

His 14 assists also suggests that he continues to generate more chances for his team-mates than a typical centre-forward thanks to his excellent hold-up play and awareness of the movement of his colleagues around him. Mitrović may not be a great natural technician, but he is a cunning forward who knows how to ensure that the goals keep flowing.

At 30 years old, he may not be a long-term investment, but the best possible investment for Leeds right now is to ensure short-term Premier League survival, and Mitrović seems like the best possible bet on the market to do that.

It may be that the financial hurdles prove insurmountable or that another team gets there first, as happened with Paixão – but as was the case with the Brazilian winger, they would be wrong not to explore the possibility. Mitrović remains a seriously threatening striker who will almost certainly score goals at the top level. Maybe that will be true of Joël Piroe, too, but Leeds would be hedging their bets very wisely if they could get a deal for Mitrović over the line. Promoted teams seldom get the chance to buy truly proven Premier League goalscorers.