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).
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.