Leeds’ £6.5m Baghad Bounedjah links are terrible news for Patrick Bamford

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Patrick Bamford hasn’t scored in eight Championship games for Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United.

The last thing Patrick Bamford needed right now, as the pressure rises and his barren run extends to game number eight, is to wake up on Friday morning and see that Leeds United are being linked with another centre-forward.

According to Competition.dz, Marcelo Bielsa is going head-to-head with his former employers Marseille to sign a striker whose pricentag has tumbled to £6.5 million.

Now, Baghad Bounedjah is hardly a household name in and around West Yorkshire but that could soon change with Qatari outfit Al Sadd apparently open to offers. And, at this precise moment, it’s worth remembering which country Andrea Radrizzani’s supposed investment is coming from. Maybe links with Bounedjah, who the QSI group will certainly be aware off, is all part of a bigger picture.

And considering that Leeds’ Achilles heel has been rather well publicised (17 goals in 13 games is hardly a fitting tally for a genuine title challenger after all), Bounedjah’s remarkable statistics suggests he could be the man to solve Bielsa’s biggest problem.

In five years, the Algerian international has scored a 91 goals in 64 league appearances for Al Sadd. In all competitions, his tally stands at 123 in 111 games. These are numbers that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would be proud of, albeit accumulated in a much less high-profile league in the Middle East.

All the while, Bielsa continues to baffle the Elland Road faithful with his unwavering commitment to a striker who, for all his commendable work rate, falls to pieces quicker than a Jenga tower in a tornado when a chance comes his way.

It’s two months now since the £7 million Bamford found the back of the net and Eddie Nketiah, whose averaged a goal every 73 minutes since arriving on loan from Arsenal, still hasn’t been trusted to start a Championship game despite the ongoing malaise of Leeds’ number nine.

Now, Bounedjah is never going to score at such a remarkable rate in English football but £6.5 million for one of the hottest poachers on the planet is a small price to pay when Premier League football is on the line.