Leeds United secure Marc Roca signing from Bayern Munich for £10m

Leeds United have signed Spanish midfielder, Marc Roca for a reported fee of £10m from Bayern Munich.

The 25-year-old joins on a four-year deal and follows Brenden Aaronson and Rasmus Kristensen through the door at Elland Road this summer.

Roca has struggled for minutes at the German giants since signing on from Espanyol in 2020, managing just 24 appearances in all competitions.

That said, at Espanyol Roca made 121 appearances for Espanyol before they were relegated to the Spanish second division, in which time he primarily operated in holding midfield, scoring three goals and assisting a further six.

According to WhoScored.com, Roca has averaged 1.7 tackles and 0.8 interceptions per game, and 43 passes per game with an 85% accuracy. To compare, Kalvin Phillips averaged 2.4 tackles and 1.3 interceptions per game, completing 45 passes per game with a 79.5% accuracy.

Speaking of, Phil Hay from The Athletic explicitly noted that if Kalvin Phillips were to depart, The Whites would look to replace him with two more players, so Roca is not a replacement for Leeds’ key man as such.

“The Elland Road club will move for another midfielder in the market if Phillips departs in this window. City hope to sign the England international for between £45 million and £50 million.”

It doesn’t seem as though Leeds are done in the transfer market either, with a whole host of new targets hitting the rumour mill earlier this week.

Are you happy with this signing? Who would you like to see Leeds target next? Let us know on Twitter @ThruItAllLUFC.