Former Spurs striker turned football pundit Darren Bent has claimed on TalkSport that Leeds United striker Eddie Nketiah could leave the club in January.
Bent has showered praise on Nketiah saying the 20-year-old has excellent positional awareness and has a killer instinct quality which many Premier League strikers do not have.
However, the football pundit believes that Nketiah needs to play regularly at Leeds in order for him to prove his worth.
Nketiah, who joined Leeds on loan from Arsenal this summer, has impressed in whatever opportunities he has been given.
He is in terrific form for club and country, but with Marcelo Bielsa sticking with Patrick Bamford upfront, the youngster has struggled for regular games.
In fact, he is yet to make a start in the Championship this season. Nketiah has recently voiced his frustration that he is unhappy at his current role at Elland Road.
Now, Bent thinks that Nketiah could leave the Yorkshire club in January if his situation doesn’t improve.
“What I like about him is that he always picks up positions on the pitch where he is going to score,” Bent told TalkSport. “And people might say ‘but he’s only scoring tap-ins’ – he always seems to find that two or three-yard space. You can’t coach that.
“I spoke about before about strikers currently playing in the Premier League not having that killer instinct. Well, this kid certainly has that. He always puts himself in positions where you are thinking ‘where is he?’ – and then he sticks the ball into the back of the net.
“He needs to be playing games, you look at Saido Berahino and his England U21 record, as good as anyone and he couldn’t nail it down in the league. – Arsenal are probably looking at this situation [of Nketiah not starting], we really believe in this kid but he needs to be playing games – he’s not going get the chance to [play for Arsenal] if he’s not playing games, so he may need to look in January to play somewhere else.”
Nketiah has scored four goals for Leeds, and he has every right to feel frustrated for not getting regular chances at the club.
Marcelo Bielsa is very stubborn with his management, but surely he will not want to see Nketiah leave between the season.
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