Leeds United have a couple of players whose contracts are set to expire next summer.
One of them is Ilia Gruev. You would imagine the Bulgarian will only be offered a new deal if he plays a substantial number of minutes for us this season.
The other player out of contract in the summer is Lukas Nmecha.
However, according to the latest reports, the striker is already beginning to plan his Elland Road exit.
Lukas Nmecha happy to leave Leeds United on a free next summer
Last week, reports emerged stating that Leeds were looking to bring in another striker next summer.
Naturally, this would mean Nmecha would be demoted to being our third-choice forward. I certainly wouldn’t mind keeping Nmecha as a squad option. However, I always felt as though the 27-year-old would want to leave to play more regularly whilst he is in his prime years.
Now, Football Insider are reporting that the forward is open to a move back to the Bundesliga. FC Köln are reportedly interested in signing Nmecha in January.
However, the German is said to be looking favourably on the possibility of signing a pre-contract agreement in January before moving on a free in the summer.
Whether you put much stock in this report or not, it is a pretty likely scenario. I even hypothesised this just last week too regarding Nmecha returning to the Bundesliga as a free agent.
However, whether Nmecha plans to leave as a free agent or not, United should not be drawn into a transfer merry-go-round in January.
Leeds should not entertain selling Lukas Nmecha in January
Unless Köln, or another team, makes an extortionate offer we have to accept, we should keep Nmecha. Let him leave as a free agent if he wants to move on.
He signed for us as a free agent following our promotion. So if Nmecha left for nothing, it’s not like we’d be making a major loss on the books.
The main reason why I’d keep him for the remainder of the season, even if he does plan on leaving, is to avoid the transfer merry-go-round in January.
We know how hard it can be to find value in the market in January. We also know the 49ers tend to avoid conducting much business whatsoever in the winter window.
So to negotiate a sale for Nmecha and bring in an adequate replacement in January would be a tough task.
If Nmecha left and we didn’t bring in a replacement before the end of the window, we’d be left with Dominic Calvert-Lewin as our only senior striker. For obvious reasons, we cannot allow that to happen.
It’s not even worth taking the risk, and it’s one that has the potential to derail our season.
There’s still a chance Nmecha could change his mind between now and the end of the season if the reports surrounding him are true. If he is content to still be a squad player for us, I’d be happy to keep him around.
Equally, I wouldn’t be having sleepless nights if he did leave on a free next summer and we had plenty of time to bring in a replacement.
