Orta plotting Leeds bid for "underrated" £40m sensation, he "will play for England" - opinion

Leeds United have been dealt a blow in their bid to bring Ivan Toney to Elland Road this summer.

That’s according to a report by iNews, who claim that, despite the centre-forward being linked with a move to all of Leeds, Manchester United, Newcastle United and West Ham United in recent weeks, Brentford are reluctant to part with the 26-year-old ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

However, the report does goes on to state that, should an offer of £40m be submitted for the former Peterborough United striker this summer, the Bees’ owner, Matthew Benham, could be tempted into cashing in on the Northampton-born hitman in the current transfer window.

Considering just how impressive Toney was for Brentford last season, it is not difficult to why Victor Orta would be keen to bring the forward to Elland Road this summer, nor it is hard to understand why Thomas Frank is desperate to retain the services of the 26-year-old ahead of the new season.

Indeed, over his 33 Premier League appearances in 2021/22, the £31.5m-rated talent was in devastating form for the Bees, scoring 12 goals, registering five assists and creating ten big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.7 shots, making 1.3 key passes and winning 8.6 duels – at a success rate of 53% – per game.

These returns saw the £21k-per-week striker who Rob Blanchette labelled “underrated” and Layth Yousif claimed “will play for England” average a quite astonishing SofaScore match rating of 7.31, not only ranking him as Brentford’s second-best performer in the league but also as the 15th-best player in the top flight has a whole last time out.

As such, while £40m is undoubtedly an extremely large fee to pay for a striker with just one full Premier League campaign