Leeds fans should shudder if Chris Wood does join Burnley

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Burnley targeting Chris Wood and if he does leave, Leeds are completely unprepared to replace him in attack.

Speculation surrounding the future of Chris Wood as a Leeds United player continues to rumble on, with the Daily Star claiming the striker wants the club to lower their valuation so he can join Burnley.

Leeds have already rejected a £12m offer from the Clarets for the 2016/17 Championship topscorer and are looking for closer to £20m – with the Lancashire side said to not want to go higher than £15m.

Chris Wood of Leeds celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Sky Bet Championship match against Derby County.

Yet say an agreement is met and Wood gets his move to the Premier League, are the Whites prepared for that eventuality? Well it would seem not at all.

Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Fulham was the second league game running that the Yorkshire outfit failed to find the back of the net and their star forward struggled in front of goal.

Yet with 27 strikes last season in the English second tier, if Wood does stay then that will likely change – with constant talk about the New Zealand international leaving Elland Road probably also having an effect in any case.

If the 25-year-old does go, however, then head coach Thomas Christiansen does not seem to have an effective contingency plan. Despite a change of regime, the Dane is playing a similar system to former manager Garry Monk in which Wood is the focal point of the attack and the main source of goals.

If he doesn’t score, often the team doesn’t – as has been seen against Preston North End and the Cottagers already this term.

The only other player to occupy the number nine role at any time for Leeds this campaign is new signing Caleb Ekuban, who although scored during his Carabao Cup outing, it was against League Two’s Port Vale.

Ross McCormack of Aston Villa celebrates scoring his side’s first goal.

While the Express reports Christiansen is interested in Pierre-Michel Lasogga of Hamburg and bringing back Ross McCormack from Aston Villa, both on loan, that would be to support Wood rather than replace him.

Basically it seems like the club are praying on the fact that the New Zealander stays, which with time running out in the transfer window could be a risky stance to take.