The delay, doubt and subsequent panic over the Jerry Mbakogu to Leeds deal is causing quite the stir in the local Italian media, exemplified by Tuesday’s report from Gazzetta di Modena.
An agreement of €1.8m between Carpi and Marcelo Bielsa’s new side was said to have been reached, only for the newspaper to discover it was just ‘verbal’, meaning it didn’t mean much.
Over the duration of the saga, a lot of other strikers have been linked with Leeds United, including Lazio’s Felipe Caicedo, thanks to Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday.
The Ecuadorian striker was signed by the Italian side to act as a backup for Ciro Immobile, and that’s exactly what he’s done, acting as their Europa League group stage striker and mostly coming off the bench in the league.
This isn’t the first time the 29-year-old has been linked with a move to Elland Road this week, as Diario La Grada seemed to think Bielsa wanted the forward with him at Leeds; a move the goalscorer ‘would welcome’.
We did a bit of investigating and came to the conclusion they might have misunderstood an opinion piece from HITC, believing they were actively linking the striker to the Championship side.
Fast forward to today, and Gazzetta explain Lazio would ideally like to sell Caicedo, as they have their eye on Club Brugge’s Wesley, who is eight years younger than the former Manchester City forward.
The Italian newspaper state Leeds ‘want’ him, presenting the Serie A side with an avenue to explore, although that could easily be them just picking up on the various reports stemming from the HITC piece.
They aren’t the only ones, as Il Messaggero also casually throw Marcelo Bielsa’s side into the mix in their Lazio roundup on Wednesday.
It’s a bit of a mess, and until we see more detail in these articles about Leeds’ interest, we’re going to find it hard to believe them.
