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Last year’s breakout star of the Leeds United Championship campaign had to be New Zealand international Chris Wood. He scored 30 goals for the club in all competitions, and with such a fantastic goal scoring record, the rumors were bound to come flying in this offseason.
West Ham United and Stoke City are the latest clubs to be in the rumor mill for the services of the big Kiwi, but West Ham is linked to like every striker in the known universe every off-season, no matter how unlikely, and Stoke City is a candidate to go down almost every season, and just signed controversial striker Berahino last January from West Bromwich Albion. These links are par for the silly season course, with players linked to moves in the summer transfer window that rarely pan out.
The rumor that almost all Leeds United fans found hard to stomach, however, was the rumor that Wood was headed across West Yorkshire to Huddersfield Town. Not only had the, ahem, Terriers gotten into the Premier League before Leeds made it back to their rightful place in the top flight of England, but to nab the Whites star striker? It is all too much.
Am told Huddersfield are not in for Leeds' striker Chris Wood. But Stoke and West Ham are keen on the prolific Kiwi striker.
— David Anderson (@MirrorAnderson) June 12, 2017
Thankfully, it now appears that a move for Wood is unlikely from the club down the road. And to be perfectly frank, letting Wood leave for £15 million pounds would be a huge mistake. Yeah, it’s easy to assume that Leeds would be able to sign another forward with the money that a sale of Wood could bring, but the club needs to be adding players to push for promotion, not selling pieces off to the highest bidder. And while Wood had the season of a lifetime last year and may not be able to replicate those goal scoring numbers, it would be a short-sighted move in terms of investment. While £15 million is nothing to sneeze at, the amount of money that can be earned by a last place finish in the Premier League is massive. Not selling Wood now will keep Leeds on the promotion pace, and if he’s not good enough for the Premier League, deal with that when Leeds gets there.
So please, don’t sell Wood. Especially not to Huddersfield Town.