Farke may have found Leeds’ biggest talent since Raphinha in pre-season

Leeds United had a difficult decision to make near the start of the summer transfer window when Pascal Struijk made it clear that he wanted to explore a new challenge.

The Dutchman only had 12 months remaining on his contract at Elland Road and the Whites decided to cash in on him instead of taking the risk of him leaving for nothing next year.

Premier League rivals Brighton & Hove Albion swooped in to sign the left-footed defender for a fee of around £20m, over eight years after his free transfer from Ajax.

His sale allowed the club, due to PSR rules, to reinvest in their squad with the £34m signing of Tarik Muharemovic and a £40m deal for James Trafford.

Why Leeds need to get used to selling players

As much as supporters and the club do not want to see good players, like Struijk, leave the club, player trading is a big part of what makes teams successful in the Premier League.

Look at teams like Brighton, Brentford, and Bournemouth. They develop young players and sell them for big profit so that they can constantly reinvest big money in their squads to then compete, which has helped all of them to qualify for European football.

Daniel Farke‘s side will want to emulate the success of those clubs and that is why they need to get used to selling their best players every now and then, so that they can then spend money to find their next top talent.

Raphinha, the club’s current record sale at £55m to Barcelona, is a good example of player trading, because they brought him in from Rennes for £17m and provided him with a platform to showcase his quality in the Premier League.

After two years in West Yorkshire, racking up 17 goals and 12 assists in all competitions, the Brazil international sealed a mega-money move to Spain, banking the club a huge profit.

Leeds are already brewing their biggest talent since Raphinha

Now, after the 4-0 win over Augsburg in their latest pre-season friendly, it looks like Farke is already brewing the club’s biggest talent since Raphinha, and supporters may need to enjoy him whilst they can.

Muharemovic, signed from Sassuolo in the summer transfer window, scored an outrageous overhead kick goal in the win over the German side, acrobatically finding the roof of the net under pressure from several defenders.

It was the fifth pre-season match that the central defender has featured in since making the switch to West Yorkshire, and he was a monster in all of those matches.

He recently started as the left-sided centre-back against Premier League giants Manchester United, showcasing his quality on and off the ball at the back.

The left-footed star showed off his defensive ability and physicality by winning two of his three duels without being dribbled past a single time by any of the Red Devils attackers.

It was his quality in possession that caught the eye, though, as he completed 93% of his attempted passes and only lost the ball three times in 45 minutes, despite constantly driving forward with the ball to progress the play for his team.

His performances in pre-season for Leeds may not come as a surprise to those who decided to sign him, though, because he was superb for Sassuolo in the Serie A last term.

Muharemovic won 64% of his ground duels and 64% of his aerial duels in the Italian top-flight, whilst he also averaged 1.4 tackles and 1.4 interceptions per match.

Reuters/Jason Cairnduff

The 23-year-old talent, who scored two goals and provided two assists in the Serie A, has brought that form over to England with his monstrous displays for Leeds in pre-season.

At such a young age, Muharemovic still has plenty of time left ahead of him to grow and develop, and playing in the Premier League with Leeds will allow him to test himself against the best of the best.

He could go on to become the club’s biggest talent since Raphinha by using Elland Road as a platform to show elite European teams that he is a complete modern-day centre-back who can play at the very top level.