Ibrox side Glasgow Rangers missed out on Tyler Roberts, who joined Leeds United.
Leeds United edged out Rangers to sign highly-rated striker Tyler Roberts on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old joins Leeds in a £2.5 million deal which could, according to The Express and Star, rise to around £4 million in the future.
The former West Bromwich Albion starlet had a number of options, such is his potential, but rejecting Rangers for the Championship club might just prove to be the smart move.
Like any young British talent, Roberts presumably has designs on plying his trade in the Premier League at some point and the truth is that impressing in the Championship is far more likely to aid that ambition.
Tearing up the Scottish Premiership at Rangers is nothing to be sniffed at, but unless you’re truly a prodigious talent – like, say, a Moussa Dembele – then scoring bags of goals North of the border is realistically only going to alert Championship clubs, not Premier League ones.
In addition to Chinese outfits, five English clubs were linked with an interest in Alfredo Morelos according to The Scotsman – but they’re all in the Championship.
By joining Leeds, Roberts has taken something of a shortcut and given himself a platform by where Premier League clubs will take notice if he does the business, whereas top-flight clubs are less likely to be as impressed by dazzling in Scotland.
If his long-term ambition is to be a big player in the Premier League, be it at Leeds or someone else, then a Championship move is certainly a quicker way to get there, though it will be tough and time will tell how Roberts – who scored five goals in 17 League One games on loan at Walsall – does in the second tier.
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