'Top quality' - What Wolves boss said on Jorgen Strand Larsen this month amid Leeds United transfer bid
Leeds United tabled a formal bid for the in-demand Wolves striker this week.
Leeds United stepped up their interest in Jorgen Strand Larsen this week after making an official offer for the Wolves striker.
The Telegraph first reported on the offer on Friday morning and the YEP understands Leeds remain in talks with Wolves over a possible deal. Interest in Strand Larsen emerged earlier this month and while there remains plenty of competition and financial hurdles to clear, Elland Road chiefs have clearly been encouraged enough to lodge a formal bid.
That bid has not been immediately accepted by the Midlands club but Leeds remain active in their pursuit of the Norwegian, who is also on the radar of Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest. Should the 25-year-old join Daniel Farke’s squad, it would be a real statement of intent.
Strand Larsen has been the subject of regular transfer speculation since the end of last season, when he scored 14 goals in 34 Premier League games, and Newcastle saw bids worth up to £60m knocked back in the summer. Molineux exit talk intensified this month but speaking as the window opened, Wolves boss Rob Edwards spoke glowingly of his in-demand striker's attitude.
“His attitude has been brilliant,” Edwards said of the striker ahead of Wolves’ 3-0 win against West Ham earlier this month. “He is working extremely hard, and there is no concerns about that.
“Because of the position we’re in, we have some good players, so there is going to be speculation about them, not just him. I am not concerned about it because the attitude is good.”
Strand Larsen hasn’t been able to replicate last season’s form and at times, has been dropped from the Wolves starting-XI entirely. But his quality was on show in a 6-1 FA Cup third-round thrashing of Shrewsbury Town a couple of weeks ago.
Jorgen Strand Larsen praised after brilliant hat-trick
The Norwegian scored a brilliant hat-trick inside 58 minutes, producing three varied and brilliant finishes to put Wolves into the fourth round. And after the achievement, Edwards again heaped praise on the Leeds target.
“It was amazing for him. I’m really pleased,” he told Wolves’ website. “He’s been working so hard and it’s been a difficult time for him, personally as well, but we all go through this. We all have to take criticism when we’re in this job and in this industry, but it’s about how you can come back from that, and he’s been really good.
“He is a top quality player. I know goalscorers are judged by their goals, and number nines are judged by their goals, but he really has been. We see him every day, and that’s why we pick what we pick, and we make the decisions we do. He’s been really good for us.
“Around the training ground, with the messages that he’s saying, he’s been a big part of why we’ve been able to start turning this around. He’s showing the right things, and he’s a great guy. He works very, very hard, so it’s nice today that he’s been rewarded with the goals, nice that he got a really good reception when he was coming off, which is another thing that’s really pleased me today.”