Leeds United wanted Kelechi Iheanacho on deadline day and he responded by scoring inside a minute for Leicester City today.
The Whites were in the market for a striker late in the window having seen Rodrigo go down with a shoulder injury against Everton.
Leeds considered a number of options in attack and ended up signing a youngster with Wilfried Gnonto arriving from Zurich.
Gnonto can not only play up front but also out wide, helping to cover for Daniel James’ loan move to Fulham.
That’s very appealing to Leeds, but they have now seen one of their late targets show off his goalscoring ability.
Leeds United wanted Kelechi Iheanacho
One name Leeds were interested in is Kelechi Iheanacho, with The Athletic reporting that the Whites fancied a deal for the Nigerian.
Leeds ultimately felt that Iheanacho was out of their reach though and backed away from him, instead signing Gnonto.
Iheanacho still has two years left on his Leicester deal so the Foxes are under no immediate pressure to sell.
Leeds may keep Iheanacho on their radar for January or next summer but he made an instant impact for Leicester today.
Brendan Rodgers decided to leave Jamie Vardy on the bench and go with Iheanacho up front alongside Patson Daka for the trip to Brighton and Hove Albion.
With just about 50 seconds on the clock, Daka broke down the left and picked out Iheanacho for a tap-in.
Sadly for Leicester, that’s about as good as it got as Brighton ran riot, claiming a 5-2 thrashing over the struggling Foxes.
Iheanacho didn’t get many more opportunities in front of goal but that early strike showed off his predatory instincts.
Iheanacho will hope that he did enough to land some regular first-team football with that performance, but you can be sure that Leeds will be watching his progress just in case a deal for the 25-year-old becomes possible down the line.
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