Leeds United reportedly interested in Preston striker Jordan Hugill

Leeds United are reportedly interested in Preston North End striker Jordan Hugill, joining both Birmingham City and Reading FC in bidding for the player.

The Birmingham Mail is reporting that after two bids from Birmingham have failed to land Hugill from Preston, Reading and Leeds are also now rumored to be interested in the striker and are attempting to beat the Blues to Hugill’s signature. The 25 year-old has been at Preston since 2014, having joined them from Port Vale. And while his Preston career started off slow, having spent two separate loan spells in 2015 to both Tranmere Rovers and Hartlepool United. With previous manager Simon Grayson, who brought Hugill to Preston, having left to take up the post at Sunderland, it is easy to connect the dots and think that he might be open to a move away from Deepdale.

We here at Through It All Together think that Hugill would be an excellent addition to the club. He scored 13 goals for Preston last season, and is a similar to Chris Wood. And while Preston is a fine club, they’re not going to be in the frame to gain promotion this season, and Hugill might want to be take Wood’s place in the lineup at Elland Road.

However, the links to Hugill are fairly flimsy. Leeds have already put in a bid for Middlesbrough’s Rudy Gestede and are also looking at landing Dutch starlet Jay-Roy Grot from NEC, with the latter apparently having a medical in the very near future with a fee rumored to be around £1.5 million already agreed for the teenager. And while Hugill may be a known quantity in the Championship, Leeds Director of Football Victor Orta has largely been trying to bring in new players from overseas, where the rapid inflation in transfer fees hasn’t hit yet.

The other problem with the link to Hugill is that while he was productive last season at Preston, his style of play might not be compatible with how Christiansen has Leeds currently playing football. Hugill is a target man and goal poacher, and with all of emphasis on pace and movement currently in the squad, Hugill might be a fish out of water in the lineup.

So will Jordan Hugill be in frame for a move to Elland Road? While it might be nice to replace Chris Wood with a player of similar style, this team doesn’t play the same way that Garry Monk had the team playing last year, and there is no guarantee that Hugill will be able to repeat the success he had last season. He only scored 3 goals in 29 league appearances during the 2015-16 season for Preston, and maybe last season’s 13 goals was a flash-in-the-pan.