Everton eye swoop for £15m Leeds ace - sources

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Published on:

22 Mar 2017, 10:54 am

By Alex Stevens

Everton are keeping close tabs on in-form Leeds striker Chris Wood, Football Insider sources understand.

The cash-rich Premier League club have turned their sights on the Championship's leading scorer as they assess how to overhaul their front line this summer amid doubts over the futures of four of their current forwards.

A well-placed recruitment source has told Football Insider that Wood's prolific goalscoring and dramatic improvement under Garry Monk and his coaching staff has caught the eye of Everton scouts.

The Merseysiders are aware that Leeds could be vulnerable to losing the 25-year-old if they fail to secure promotion to the Premier League this season.

The New Zealand international is rated in the £15million bracket by the Yorkshire giants even though he has spent most of his career in the Championship and only scored one Premier League goal.

Wood has spearheaded Leeds' promotion push with 24 league goals from 36 matches, supplemented by three cup strikes to lift his total tally to 27 from 40 appearances.

The 46-times international joined Leeds from Leicester in the summer of 2015 for £3million and has a contract that runs until 2019.

Everton will be in the market for new forwards this summer amid considerable doubt over whether Romelu Lukaku will still be at the club next season after he delivered the bombshell last week that he will not sign a new contract.

In addition, Enner Valencia's loan from West Ham expires at the end of the season, Arouna Kone is out of contract in the summer and Gerard Deulofeu is loaned out to AC Milan after struggling to win the favour of manager Ronald Koeman.

In other Leeds transfer news, the Yorkshire giants are in shock talks to sign a Liverpool attacking player.

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