Wednesday morning saw Ao Tanaka brought back into the Leeds United rumour mill, after the club explored the chances of signing him in the 2023 summer window.
The Whites were said to have made an offer for the player, and whilst there was confidence a transfer could be done it wasn’t clear what the asking price would be. Tanaka himself was pulled out of training by Fortuna Düsseldorf, with the German media making it very clear that was a club decision and the not the player agitating for a move.
Rheinische Post now report there are ‘many indications’ the midfielder is set to sign for Leeds United in the next few hours.
The potential transfer is seen as great for Fortuna, with RP calling it a ‘stroke of luck’ for the second division German club and stating: ‘Something would have been achieved that no one had thought possible. A buyer would have been found for a real slow-seller.
‘Fortuna would have liked to sell him years ago. But for a variety of reasons, Tanaka has always proved difficult to sell. The constant drama with his consulting agency, the man himself, who has struggled for a long time in a new environment, whose performances at the club have been too inconsistent, who has repeatedly struggled with injury problems. There just hasn’t been a real market for him.’
That’s obviously not very flattering towards Tanaka and potentially worrying for Leeds United and their supporters, but we can hopefully put that down to a little bitterness in Düsseldorf over not getting a bigger fee for the player in an earlier transfer window.
As it stands, Fortuna need to sell to avoid losing Tanaka for free next year, and that pressure should have helped Leeds United in transfer negotiations.
