Leeds United will now 'go for' a striker during the summer window, transfer insider Dean Jones has told GiveMeSport.
The lowdown
Jesse Marsch has already made his first signing as Whites manager, kicking off the club's summer business with a £25m deal for Brenden Aaronson from RB Salzburg.
The 48-year-old already has the likes of Patrick Bamford, Joe Gelhardt and Daniel James available as centre-forward options, but he may be unsure whether he can depend on the former over the course of the season after injury restricted the 28-year-old to just nine Premier League appearances in 2021/22.
Gelhardt may have been deemed too inexperienced to lead the line at this stage, having only turned 20 earlier this month and made just 22 senior appearances for the club; while James might lack the required potency in front of goal, having netted only four times in 37 outings in the most recent campaign.
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The latest
Jones expects three more significant signings to follow Aaronson through the door at Elland Road over the summer, saying that one of those will undoubtedly be a centre-forward.
He told GiveMeSport: "I think, realistically, four good signings is probably what you could expect because of the way the market is going to be in terms of the value of people.
"They're going to go for a striker, there's no doubt about that."
The verdict
Who could the new striker potentially be?
The Athletic's Phil Hay has previously reported that the Whites would like to sign a Premier League marksman, and journalist Pete O'Rourke has suggested that Liverpool's Takumi Minamino and Chelsea's Armando Broja, who spent last season on loan at Southampton, are potential targets.
Marsch may potentially lean towards Minamino because, according to O'Rourke, the Leeds manager 'knows all about him from his time at Salzburg'. Indeed, the current Anfield ace played 22 times under Marsch in Austria, helping himself to 20 goal contributions in that time.
That surely wouldn't be a bad thing for Leeds given that the Japan international bagged another 10 goals this season for Liverpool, impressively averaging one for every 101 minutes of action.
In other news, Leeds are the 'most interested' club in this transfer battle