Little good news appears at Leeds this season in the Premier League. The whites managed to return, but Bielsa’s former pupils are suffering this year in order to maintain the category. The last victory against a direct rival like Norwich (2-1) gives them oxygen and four points away with relegation.
March appeared on the bench at Elland Road after Bielsa left and the three points arrived with a lot of tension. Rodrigo Moreno, formerly of Valencia among others, made it 1-0, but Kenny McLean tried to annoy the locals with the 1-1 in added time. Joe Gelhardt scored the winning goal after a fancy move by Raphinha in the last minute of extra time. The winger stepped in front of Tim Krul, sat him down with a dribble, and passed the ball to his teammate for the three-pointer.
The maneuver was one of the great highlights of the day of a player who is one of the stars of Leeds and that Barcelona watches. Fabrizio Romano, an expert journalist in the transfer market, announced that Barcelona is attentive to Raphinha’s situation. The culés are on the list of teams that follow the player along with Liverpool and also a Chelsea that, affected by the sanctions on its owner Roman Abramovich, remains on stand-by with respect to the market.
Barcelona would have been talking about the situation with his agent, who is none other than Deco. The former culé soccer player who also works as a scout in South America for the club, would have had a conversation with the club about his player’s situation. They add that Barça has not yet contacted Leeds and that they will not put a price on the player until they know if they continue in the Premier League next season.
As AS learned, Raphinha is interesting, but it is not a priority signing for next summer to reinforce the Blaugrana attack.
The one from Porto Alegre is experiencing a good moment of form even though his team is suffering in the Premier League. In 27 games he has accumulated nine goals and also three assists. This has been a permanent fixture for both Bielsa and Jesse March, thus accumulating 2,295 minutes at this point in the season. Although he has not yet been appraised by Leeds, his market value is 40 million euros and he has a contract with the English until 2024.
