Leeds are close to completing the signing of Brazilian goalkeeper Lucas Perri, and we are reported to have increased our offer for his compatriot, the winger Igor Paixao.

With Meslier still out of favour after making a few mistakes too many last season, a new goalkeeper was always going to be towards the top of our list of priorities, as Darlow isn’t sufficiently highly regarded to be the first choice for a Premier League season. And the Athletic are reporting that it won’t be too long before we have a new keeper in the squad.

Lucas Perri’s transfer to Leeds are. The goalkeeper the team’s training camp in Germany last night, and was expected to have completed a medical today. We have agreed a fee of £13.9m plus a possible £1.7m in add-ons with the financially challenged French club Lyon. At 6ft 5in the Brazilian has managed the difficult feat of being the tallest of our summer signings, but only just.

Our new keeper has spent most of his career to date in his home country, with São Paulo and then Botafogo, though he did have a loan spell at Crystal Palace in 2019 without getting a first team game. The 27-year-old moved to Lyon a year ago, and made 33 appearances for the French club. He has also represented Brazil at under 20 and under 23 level, but is still waiting for his first full cap.

So for the time being we have three senior goalkeepers in the squad, but it must now be quite likely that Meslier will be moving on. The French goalkeeper is still quite highly regarded in his native land for all his travails in England, and almost all of a transfer fee would be profit, which would help towards the dreaded PSR calculations. Transfermarkt seem to think he’s currently worth 16m Euros.

Meanwhile, The Athletic have also reported today that we have increased our bid for Feyenoord winger Igor Paixao to more than €30million. We face competition for his signature from Marseille, who can offer Champions League football in the coming season, but the French club have yet to agree a deal with Paixao’s current club.

The 25-year-old scored 16 goals and provided 10 assists in his 34 appearances in last season’s Eredivisie, and Leeds have been talking to Feyenoord and the player’s representatives since last week. Paixao plays on the left, so is presumably the replacement for last season’s loan star Manor Solomon, who seems likely to be staying at Tottenham for the time being.

Should we be successful in signing Paixao we will have five senior wingers in the squad, which may well lead to at least one of them moving on in search of first-team football. Jack Harrison is probably the most likely departure, which would delight his critics on social media, even if he has looked keen during our pre-season friendlies so far.

And again, a transfer fee received for Harrison would mostly be profit, though his former loan club Everton only seem to want to sign him if they can have him for nothing! Watch this space.

Reuters

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