Late on Tuesday, a story emerged in Russia that Leeds United had made a ‘specific’ offer for Spartak Moscow’s Zé Luis, claimed to be around €12m.
Championat were the ones reporting it, and the website went on to explain the amount wasn’t enough as the Russian side wouldn’t let their goalscorer go for less than €20m.
As they put it, ‘so far, they have no plans to lower the price tag’.
News of Leeds’ bid continued to spread around the European media, and former Spartak Moscow player Valeriy Reingold weighed in on the situation.
Relayed by SportBox, he said: “It’s not worth selling Adriano and Zé Luis, you have to leave them. I absolutely do not see the point of selling. They themselves do not want to leave the club. I don’t know how much they earn there, but everything seems to suit them.
“The most important thing for them is to understand that Spartak is their team. I already said when Promes went to Sevilla that he’d regret it. He’s already asking to come back. He lost everything he had. He went to Sevilla and lost everything.”
The Dutch winger, who swapped Moscow for Spain last summer, hasn’t hit the ground running, especially in the league, where he’s failed to score or assist in 17 appearances so far.
Whether that would apply to Zé Luis with a move to Elland Road is unknown as every transfer is a gamble, but with seven goals in 14 games so far in the Russian Premier Liga, you can see why Marcelo Bielsa is interested.
If Leeds did bid €12m, however, it means they are serious, but going up to €20m seems unlikely, at least at this stage of the season.
Should they clinch promotion to the Premier League at the end of the campaign, however, well… nearly anything is possible then.
