Bielsa wanted to sign £15m star who’s now worse than Bamford

Leeds United were relegated back down to the Championship earlier this year after a three-year stint at the top table of English football.

The Whites enjoyed a couple of seasons of survival before they failed to avoid the drop at the end of the 2022/23 campaign under Sam Allardyce.

They owe plenty of credit to former head coach Marcelo Bielsa, whose brilliance in the dugout helped to lead the club back to the big time with promotion in the 2019/20 season – during his second year at Elland Road.

Leeds won the Championship title to secure their place in the Premier League for the following term and the Argentine was named the LMA Manager of the Year for his work with the Yorkshire outfit.

Whilst it was a fantastic season that was full of success for the Whites and Bielsa as they earned promotion and a trophy in 2020, the current Uruguay national team boss dodged a disaster during the January transfer window of that campaign; a move for Britt Assombalong.

Were Leeds interested in Britt Assombalonga?

The Mirror reported in January 2020 that the club were interested in a deal to sign Middlesbrough centre-forward Assombalonga to bolster their options at the top end of the pitch.

It was claimed that Bielsa wanted another number nine to compete with and ease the burden on Patrick Bamford, who went on to score 16 league goals that term and proved himself to be a better option than the ex-Watford man would have been.

The Leeds target had 18 months left to run on his contract on Teeside but the report did not state how much it would have taken for Victor Orta and the Argentine boss to secure his services on a permanent basis.

Middlesbrough signed the forward from Nottingham Forest for £15m in the summer of 2017 and, although it remains unclear, they may have wanted a fair chunk of that back to sanction a move.

Ultimately, Leeds opted against a swoop for Assombalonga and they went through the January transfer window without adding a striker to their squad on a permanent basis.

This turned out to be a blessing for the Whites as the DR Congo international’s career has taken a turn for the worse since being linked with a move to Yorkshire in 2020.

Why were Leeds interested in Assombalonga?

Bielsa likely wanted to sign Assombalonga based on his proven track record as a goalscorer for Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest at Championship level.

The marksman joined Forest from Peterborough in the summer of 2014 after an impressive return of 23 goals and three assists in 43 League One outings for the Posh.

He hit the ground running in the Championship with 15 goals and one assist in 29 league matches for the Tricky Trees during his debut campaign at the City Ground, with an average of slightly more than a goal every other game.

Assombalonga then missed a staggering 80 competitive matches with a knee injury between 2014 and 2015 and showed great character to come back and fire home 14 goals in 32 league games during the 2016/17 campaign.

The reliable finisher carried his goalscoring form over to Boro in 2017 with 15 goals and two assists in 44 Championship outings during the 2017/18 season.

That was then followed up by 14 goals in 42 second-tier clashes throughout the following term, as he proved himself to be a consistent scorer at that level over the course of a number of years.

Assombalonga scored six goals and provided two assists in 20 Championship appearances during the first half of the 2019/20 campaign, which led to interest from Leeds in January of that season.

Eddie Nketiah had spent that time on loan at Elland Road from Arsenal and only found the back of the net three times in 17 league outings before his return to The Emirates at the start of 2020.

The Middlesbrough star’s impressive statistics at Championship level suggested that he would have been an excellent addition to compete with Bamford.

Where is Assombalonga now?

The Whites failed to secure a deal for his services and, over three years on from that window, the centre-forward now finds himself playing for Antalyaspor in Turkey.

Assombalonga’s decline started in the 2020/21 campaign as the DR Congo international only managed five goals and zero assists in 31 league matches for Middlesbrough.

His poor form for the English side then led to a free transfer to Super Lig team Adana Demirspor in the summer of 2021, where he went on to score 18 goals in 54 appearances in all competitions.

The former Peterborough star joined Watford on a short-term deal at the start of this year and struggled as he scored two goals and failed to provide a single assist in 11 Championship games for the Hornets.

He returned to Turkey to join Antalyaspor this summer and has failed to score or assist a single goal in his first six matches with the club to date.

How much is Assombalonga worth now?

FootballTransfers rates his Expected Transfer Value (xTV) at just €600k (£500k), illustrating how badly the last few years have gone for the former Leeds target.

He has scored two goals in 17 league games in 2023, for Watford and Antalyaspor combined, and is worth a staggering £14.5m less than what Middlesbrough paid for him in 2017.

Whilst it remains to be seen how much Leeds would have had to pay for his services during the January transfer window, there is little doubt that Bielsa dodged a disaster by missing out on Assombalonga.

His statistics indicate that he would have been a big downgrade on Bamford, who scored 16 Championship goals and then 17 Premier League goals during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns respectively.

He outscored the Middlesbrough ace in the second tier and then proved himself to be capable of dealing with the rigours of top-flight football.

The former Chelsea prospect’s current xTV also sits at €11.7m (£10m), at the age of 30. This suggests that the former England international would not have been usurped by the Whites target, due to his superior goalscoring record and significantly higher market value.