Our next transfer target is reported to be Norwich City striker Steve Morison, although we might face competition for his signature from Blackburn Rovers.
As we’ve sold so many players to Norwich over the last few years it seems only right that Delia should let us have one of theirs in return, and the man in question could be Steve Morison. And he really does spell his name like that, he seems to have lost the second r somewhere and it’s not just my spell-checker playing up.
Norwich signed the 29 year-old striker from Millwall for £2.8million in the summer of 2011, and he has played more than 50 times for the Canaries in the Premier League. But most of his appearances this season have come as a substitute and with Norwich looking for other striking options he could slip even further down the pecking order.
The Carrow Road mob have been linked with Swansea’s Danny Graham and Celtic’s Gary Hooper, though so far they have been knocked back in their pursuit of the second of these two players, with the Glasgow club rejecting their initial offer. So in our quest to bring you the very best investigations of all Leeds prospective signings, I asked my mate in Norwich what he thought of Morison.
“Scored a few good goals last season with head and feet, so not just a battering ram type centre forward. Can look disinterested at times, but often does some decent closing down. Out injured at the moment, so seems unlikely that any transfer is on the cards unless it would be a loan. I doubt Leeds could afford to sign him on a permanent deal anyway without selling Becchioto raise cash first.”
So there you have it. It’s not impossible that we’re thinking of a loan arrangement, as the Berkley signing shows we seem to be persisting with loan deals, so maybe the intention is to take Morison for the second half of the season. But the new board may have the resources to fund a permanent transfer, and if Becchio is allowed to leave they will be under pressure to finance a deal or two in January to show they are serious about investing in the club.
Neil Warnock admitted yesterday to FootballLeague.co.uk that he doesn’t know if Becchio will still be a Leeds player at the end of January, so the manager is urgently looking for a striker to replace him and we may yet see Morison in a Leeds shirt once the transfer window has closed.
Many thanks to Richard Woods for his help with this piece.