Better than Wood: Why Leeds must ramp up reported pursuit of Rangers ace
COMMENT By Alex Stevens
The race to prise Martyn Waghorn from Rangers this summer has suddenly got interesting.
Three Championship clubs – Leeds, Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest – have joined a soon-to-be Championship outfit – Sunderland, currently of the Premier League – in what is currently a four-team fight for the striker.
That is according to the Daily Mail, who have a hotline to a recently appointed second-tier director of football, who shall remain nameless.
Leeds’ pursuit of Waghorn is entirely understandable given their need for another striker who knows where the back of the net is, and has a decent track record in British football.
This comes with the caveat that Leeds do not secure promotion. Should they do so, Garry Monk’s summer recruitment plans will take a completely different turn.
Assuming they do not for now, it is without argument that Leeds must reinforce a front line carried singlehandedly by the mighty impressive Wood this season.
The beefy Kiwi is in the form of his life – 27 goals for the campaign, 24 of them in the Championship alone – and is making Premier League clubs sit up and take notice at his massive improvement under Monk and his coaching staff.
But there is no guarantee that Wood will be at Elland Road if they fail to secure promotion and, even if he is, a back-up front man is needed.
Neither Marcus Antonsson and Souleymane Doukara fit the ball. Antonsson lacks the physical attributes needed to succeed in the Championship, and the Senegalese is more effective out wide.
Waghorn would be a sound signing and Leeds must ramp up their pursuit. At the start of the season, you would have found few Leeds fans claiming Wood was a more effective forward than the Rangers spearhead.
Back then, there were sound arguments to claim Waghorn was better than Wood.
Mobile, technically sound, able to play in all three forward positions and with an eye for goal, he had an excellent debut campaign as he spearheaded Rangers’ Championship triumph and return to the top flight with 28 goals, and would have got closer to 40 had he not suffered an injury that curtailed his season.
His stats at Ibrox are impressive – 43 goals and 15 assists in 67 matches since his 2015 move from Wigan – even though he has been less effective this season – 15 in 31 matches – at a standard broadly similar to the English Championship.
But Waghorn is likely to be sold this summer if he does not sign an extension to his Rangers contract, which enters its final year in July.
Talk of a £2million fee has been bandied about, which is affordable for Leeds and might also represent a decent return for the Scottish giants.
It would provide Leeds with much-needed forward back-up and, should the doomsday scenario present itself, someone who could even be Wood’s replacement.
In other Leeds transfer news, one of the club’s midfielders has agreed the terms of a mammoth new deal.
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