United have today bolstered their midfield ranks with the capture of Adam Forshaw.
Leeds United have today confirmed the signing of 26-year-old midfielder Adam Forshaw, who moves to Elland Road from divisional rivals Middlesbrough.
Forshaw, who has acceeded to a four-and-a-half year contract with the Whites that shall expire in 2022, had merely been a peripheral figure at the Riverside Stadium in the present campaign, having started on only five occasions for Middlesbrough since their mortifying relegation from the Premier League last season.
The midfielder, who began his professional career with Everton, arrives in West Yorkshire with copious experience to his name. Two years with Brentford yielded 100 appearances, 11 goals and a momentous promotion to the Championship; less than one with Wigan saw him feature on 17 occasions, scoring once, before he moved to Middlesbrough in January 2015; his time in North Yorkshire proved infinitely more fruitful, with the Liverpudlian appearing in no less than 103 matches for Boro in addition to aiding the club to promotion to the Premier League in the 2015-16 season.
Forshaw had been coveted by multifarious teams, including Neil Warnock's Cardiff City, but United have affirmed their ambition and commitment to promotion by paying to Middlesbrough a reputed fee of £4,500,000 to secure his signature.
Forshaw is United's third first-team signing of the January transfer window, following in the footsteps of 21-year-old Japanese midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi (Gamba Osaka) and resilient 26-year-old left-back Laurens De Bock (Club Brugge). He has been allocated the number four shirt, and could make his debut for Leeds on Saturday when the Whites play host to Millwall in a three o'clock kick-off.
Analysis: Forshaw, Adam is an astute capture for the Whites
The exigency for reinforcements in the midfield area at Elland Road may have been starkly accentuated by Eunan O'Kane's vacuity last week away to Ipswich Town, but United have been in desperate need of a metronomic passer for many months.
Kalvin Phillips and Ronaldo Vieira are indefatigable, industrious midfielders who are strong in the challenge, but neither of the two possess, yet, the extremely valuable faculty for dictating the tempo of matches.
Adam Forshaw's average pass completion rate for the last three seasons has been 86.96% - higher than that of any of Leeds' midfielders in the present campaign. The United management, with the judicious Victor Orta at its vanguard, has, prima facie, secured for the club an experienced and consummate Championship professional for a contextually modest sum.