Leeds United stance on links with £11.6m Jesse Marsch favourite as Brenden Aaronson reunion mooted
Leeds United expect a quiet January but reports of interest are still surfacing.
Leeds United have been linked with a January move for Hoffenheim striker Mergim Berisha.
The mid-season window is almost one week old and it remains quiet in West Yorkshire, with the club not expecting that to change any time soon. Leeds boss Daniel Farke has regularly echoed that sentiment but at no point have incomings been categorically ruled out.
Speculation has not been hard to come by over recent days as reports of interest continue to surface, the most recent concerning Berisha. The Daily Mail claim Leeds have ‘shown interest’ in the 26-year-old, albeit the club have dismissed those reports as speculation and maintain they are expecting a quiet month.
Berisha only joined Hoffenheim 18 months ago for a fee around £11.6million, following an impressive 2022/23 loan spell in which he scored nine goals in 23 Bundesliga appearances for FC Augsburg. But things have not gone to plan at his new home, with injuries an issue and 19 league appearances yielding just one goal.
Leeds links present
Berisha has enjoyed a well-travelled career for someone who is only 26, with spells in Austria and Turkey as well as his native Germany. It was a brief period in the former and four years at RB Salzburg that brought the forward into contact with Jesse Marsch.
During his spell in Salzburg, Berisha also played alongside two current Leeds players in Brenden Aaronson and Max Wober, as well as on-loan Rasmus Kristensen, while fleeting reports even linked the Whites with interest in the forward during Marsch’s tenure. He instead moved to Turkish outfit Fenerbahce in 2021 before returning to Germany.
The two-cap German international enjoyed one his best patches of form at Augsburg but has been unable to replicate that with Hoffenheim, helped in no part by fitness issues. It remains to be seen whether he’d be open to leaving his home country for a spell in the Championship, or if Leeds will even make an approach.
Leeds transfer stance unchanged
For their part, Leeds have dismissed links with Berisha as speculation and maintain they are expecting a quiet January, sentiment Farke has often echoed. The Whites boss did speak about transfers for the first time following Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Hull City, with his one guarantee being the squad will remain ‘relatively young’ whether signings are made or not.
“We have many players playing either their first games on Championship level or first or second season,” he told the YEP. “We know in terms of responsibility, experience and consistency especially they're not the end products and sometimes there are mistakes. I would also prefer we cruise easily but this is also what I was expecting, that it will be a long road.
“We have to keep going developing individually and the whole squad. We've done pretty well, we're top of the league after a busy period, unbeaten for a while and on a really good path. But we don't win 20 in a row and cruise easily. If we do something in January I can guarantee already right now we will still have a relatively young squad, it will be a tight race to the end and we won't be perfect in each and every situation."
Leeds are currently without experienced striker Patrick Bamford, who missed Saturday’s trip to the MKM Stadium with a hamstring injury - the latest in a long line of fitness issues. Out-of-favour Joe Gelhardt is expected to leave on loan this month. It is unclear if Bamford’s latest injury will impact the club’s January transfer plans.