Leeds star was becoming the new Augustin, now Phil Hay is raving about him

Leeds United look set to be in the market to sign a new centre-forward when the summer transfer window officially opens for business later this year.

They currently have Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Lukas Nmecha, and Joel Piroe on their books, but Daniel Farke is looking to add more firepower to his attack for next season.

It was recently reported that Feyenoord centre-forward Ayase Ueda is one of the strikers on the club’s radar, after his haul of 25 goals in 30 matches in the Eredivisie thjis term.

Last month, Leeds reportedly made an approach to sign Juventus attacker Lois Openda, who scored 41 goals for RB Leipzig in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 campaigns combined before his move to Italy.

Any new striker arriving at Elland Road this summer will want to be more like Calvert-Lewin than Jean-Kevin Augustin, who endured a nightmare in West Yorkshire.

How Jean-Kevin Augustin’s time at Leeds United unfolded

On 27th January 2020, Leeds confirmed the signing of Augustin on loan from RB Leipzig until the end of the Championship season, as Marcelo Bielsa’s side headed for the league title and promotion to the Premier League.

The French attacker did not do enough in training to convince Bielsa that he was ready to play regular minutes in the second tier, though, as he only played 48 minutes in three appearances as a substitute.

Due to his lack of game time during his loan spell, the Whites did not extend the loan for when the season had to be stopped and re-started after lockdown.

Despite that, Leeds were ordered to sign the striker on a permanent deal as part of an obligation to sign him upon promotion to the Premier League, an obligation that the club tried to fight against due to the circumstances with lockdown.

He joined Nantes on a free transfer in October 2020, as the Whites did not want to keep hold of him, and in 2023 the club were ordered to pay £24.5m in compensation to Augustin for a breach of contract.

Because of that series of unfortunate events, it will be difficult for any signing to be considered a worse piece of business than when the club brought him to the club.

The Leeds United star who was becoming the new Jean-Kevin Augustin

Earlier this season, one of Farke’s summer recruits ahead of the Premier League season looked like he was on course to become the new Augustin at Elland Road.

After signing from Udinese for a fee of £15m in the last summer transfer window, Jaka Bijol got off to a slow start at West Yorkshire as he struggled for game time in the top-flight.

The Slovenia international was an unused substitute for the first seven matches of the Premier League season after his big-money move from Italy, as Pascal Struijk and Joe Rodon were the preferred partnership.

Bijol was quickly becoming the new Augustin for Leeds because it looked like he was completely out of favour under Farke, who did not give him a single minute to showcase his talent in those opening matches.

However, since the German coach decided to switch to a 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2 formation at the start of December, the centre-back has featured in 18 of the club’s 19 matches in the league.

Bijol has been a monster at the back for Leeds since they moved to a back three, winning 65% of his ground duels and 52% of his aerial duels in the division this season.

His performance against Burnley last time out caught the eye of The Athletic’s Phil Hay, who raved about the centre-back’s “banger” of a tackle in the match.

Bijol put in a dominant performance against the Clarets in that 3-1 victory, winning six of his eight duels, and provided an excellent pass to Anton Stach for the opening goal.

The 27-year-old colossus has established himself as a completely undroppable member of Farke’s XI, due to his dominant defensive work, and that did not seem to be a likely outcome after the first seven games of the season.

Bijol has turned his Leeds United career around and now looks set to be a key piece for the club to build around heading into the summer transfer window.