Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v FC Cologne - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - January 24, 2020 Borussia Dortmund's Raphael Guerreiro celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler DFL regulations prohibit any use of photographs as image sequences and/or quasi-video
Leeds United’s reported interest in Borussia Dortmund left-back Raphael Guerreiro doesn’t ‘make sense’, according to Beren Cross of Leeds Live.
The lowdown
Transfer insider Dean Jones told GiveMeSport earlier this week that he had heard Guerreiro’s name mentioned in connection with Leeds.
He suggested that the Portuguese potentially featured on a list of options for Victor Orta and Leeds.
Leeds only have one senior recognised left-back in their squad – Junior Firpo – and have used Pascal Struijk as a makeshift option in their first two games.
The latest
Addressing supporters in a fan Q&A for Leeds Live, Cross seemed baffled by the link to Guerreiro.
He says that it would be a major break from Leeds’ transfer policy, and suggested the player would be unhappy with a likely back-up role behind Junior Firpo.
“I’ve not had any information on Guerreiro specifically, but nothing about that link makes sense,” he said.
“Firpo is their number one left-back, that’s been made abundantly clear to us, so a 28-year-old from Dortmund is not going to come in and sit on the bench or ask for back-up wages.
“It just doesn’t tally with any of the business they’ve done this summer.”
The verdict
You can see where Cross is coming from.
Firpo, the man they seemingly brought in to be the no. 1 option, only earns £42,300 per week, while Guerreiro is on £56,700 at Dortmund.
Even if they could convince him to take a pay cut, they’d have to shell out a hefty sum on a transfer fee for a player who would only play a limited amount of games. Indeed, Transfermarkt value him as high as £22.5million.
And the player will surely have better options on the table, not least staying at Dortmund, where he looks to be first choice and can play Champions League football.
Even if he was to leave, he could potentially join reigning Premier League champions Manchester City, in need of a LB themselves. That would be a step up rather than a step sideways.
This is not a pronouncement on the quality of the player or the veracity of the rumour, but it would definitely be a head-scratcher.
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