Manchester City have agreed an increased fee with Leeds United for the permanent transfer of Jack Harrison, according to The Athletic’s Phil Hay.
Harrison will spend the 2020/21 season on loan at Elland Road as part of the agreement reached between the two sides, seeing the winger’s time in West Yorkshire stretch into a third campaign after two years playing a crucial role in Marcelo Bielsa’s line-up.
Leeds were in possession of an £8million option to buy Harrison at the end of the current season having negotiated the clause a year ago, however Hay notes that the agreement expired in May and has since been renegotiated.
Newly-crowned Championship title winners Leeds now intend to take up their option-to-buy next summer, but now face paying closer to £10m though not much is believed to have significantly changed from the terms penned a year ago.
Harrison continued to develop during his second year on loan with Leeds, with Bielsa starting the former England U21 in 44 of his 45 second-tier appearances as one of only two players to feature in all of the Whites’ league games heading into the final round of fixtures.
The 23-year-old has played a key role in Leeds’ title success with a team-high eight assists and is their third-top goalscorer with six strikes to his name, only trailing striker Patrick Bamford (16) and talisman midfielder Pablo Hernandez (nine).
Is £10m good value for Harrison?
Yes
No
City will not be too cautious of missing out on Harrison’s rising performances having agreed to a new release clause with Leeds, as the winger’s game is still far from perfect after averaging just 1.0 accurate crosses per Championship fixture this term at a rate of 22% a match, according to data collected by Sofa Score.
The Stoke-on-Trent-born wide man has also been misplacing 40% of his passes per game in Leeds’ half of the pitch, and only finds teammates with 53% (1.4) of his long passes, chipped passes (1.5), makes just 1.8 successful dribbles (59%), wins 4.1 ground duels (45%) and loses possession a whopping 18.0 times.
Harrison has even missed 12 big chances to score this term and has been responsible for one of the Championship-low 35 goals Leeds have conceded, while having his blushes spared for a second error that led to a shot on goal.