Joel Piroe could almost be classed as the last remnants of the old scouting unit who ran Leeds United’s recruitment until the end of last season.
This time last year, Leeds were shaping up to have a go at signing Piroe, albeit in circumstances where he was far from being top of their shopping list. Deadline day in August 2022 found the club craving a striker and after Cody Gakpo and Bamba Dieng slipped through their fingers, an approach was made to Swansea City for Piroe. It was late, it was desperate, it got nowhere.
Leeds still had Premier League football to dangle in front of targets’ eyes then and Gakpo had been their dream ticket; that is, after a prior attempt to court Charles De Ketelaere also ended in the bin. But relegation in May generated a fresh focus on Piroe — signed on Thursday night in a £10.5million ($13.2m) deal, potentially rising to £16m with add-ons, from Swansea — which was more considered and more serious than 12 months ago.
Piroe’s reputation was that of a Championship goalscorer and he had been at the forefront of Leeds’ mind since the start of the summer — a deal they hoped to do if the pieces fell into place.
Leeds, after all, have not had life go their way in this window.
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Away from the spate of departing players in the wake of them dropping back into English football’s second tier, they pitched for Gustavo Hamer of Coventry City but were priced out by a £15million offer from now-top-flight Sheffield United. They expressed an interest in Cameron Archer of Aston Villa after his prolific Championship loan spell with Middlesbrough last season, but Sheffield United made sure of signing him by repeating the trick and tabling a fee no EFL side would match. They had Max Aarons in the building for a medical, only for the Norwich City full-back to ditch them for a return to the Premier League with Bournemouth.
The risk of an ambush with Piroe was equally real, but this time there was no door waiting to slam in their face.
Piroe, who turned 24 at the start of this month and stands almost 6ft (181cm) tall, is a bona fide No 9 and, as Leeds’ fifth recruit of the summer, he gives new manager Daniel Farke something he was otherwise lacking.
(Alex Burstow/Getty Images)
Farke has other forwards in his squad, players who might regard themselves as direct competition for Piroe, but there are issues with all of them.
Patrick Bamford has not been reliably fit for two years and was injured before this season even began. Georginio Rutter became the club’s record signing last January but at 21 could not pretend to have found his groove in English football yet, nor proven that he is likely to. Mateo Joseph is younger still at 19, raw, and another carrying an injury — a clutch of options that is not what the Championship would class as armed-to-the-teeth.
But Piroe, on paper and in the flesh, is different.
A former PSV Eindhoven junior, his two seasons with Swansea have shown he has the physique and the durability to handle the Championship — a long slog of 46 games, or as many as 49 if the promotion play-offs come into the reckoning. He averaged very close to a goal from every two league appearances for the Welshmen, with 19 last season and 22 the year before.
There were doubts in Swansea about whether the more direct tactical style preferred by their new manager Michael Duff would suit Piroe less than the style of predecessor Russell Martin, who left this summer to lead Southampton after their own relegation from the Premier League. But this was good news for Farke, whose focus on possession should meet with Piroe’s approval. Farke told Leeds during his interview for the manager’s job that it would take 75 goals-plus to get out of the Championship and chasing that total meant a concerted look at what was going on up front.
Piroe has done well for Swansea in more than one way. His sale translates into a good profit on the £1million they paid PSV for his services. For two years in west Wales, he was essentially the 20-goal forward every Championship manager or head coach looks for, but with a year to go on his contract, this week became a natural break-point.
Swansea were offering him a new two-year deal but Piroe was not rushing to accept it. Indications about the wages he was looking for, more than the club could afford, convinced their board that they would have to sell.
Duff kept picking Piroe (he’s started all four games so far, scoring twice) but talked of his form falling short, his mind drifting elsewhere, all the noises that indicate a footballer is unsettled. Swansea could not countenance losing the player on a free next summer and there was not much resistance once Leeds became active in bidding earlier this week.
Strong interest in Bayer Leverkusen’s Nadiem Amiri, a 26-year-old Germany international and a crafty No 10, might lead to a significant addition in behind Piroe that would be a coup for a side in the Championship.
The evidence of Leeds’ first three league games this season is that a finisher and a source of more creativity in the middle of the pitch are two things Farke cannot go without if his team are to compete in a meaningful way. But Piroe alone enhances the clout of a squad which, through a spate of exoduses and five arrivals, is developing a core with more domestic know-how. Ethan Ampadu is the only one of the club’s summer signings so far who has not played in this division before.
What Piroe represents is an obvious signing, a transfer with a thick smear of common sense, and it could be said Leeds have not been open enough to deals of that nature over the past few years.
Piroe is a strong and sharp finisher, evidently, but he is more than a poacher: tidy on the ball, suited to the sort of interplay Farke likes to see and a threat in terms of getting on the end of chances. He is genuinely prolific when it comes to his conversion rate — 2.8 shots per game for Swansea gives an example of how present he was in their attacks and how much of a threat he posed in a side who were never particularly close to winning promotion in either of his two seasons.
Farke, to his credit, has made a good fist of selling a club who have looked under the cosh throughout the summer months to their transfer targets.
That Aarons turned tail on the manager he won two Championship titles under at Norwich for immediate top-flight football with Bournemouth does not change the fact Farke had tempted him to the point of starting a medical and giving the move to Elland Road a chance.
The German has been cautious in promises to the club’s supporters about the potential of the season ahead, but he has persuaded the players signed by Leeds that his project is worth their time; that a player such as Piroe is better off here than hanging on for a move to the lower end of the Premier League in what is left of the window.
On the attacking front, Piroe’s accuracy in front of goal and his volume of shots is a lot for defences to contend with.
He exceeded his expected goals (xG) number in both full seasons with Swansea — by a margin of over nine the first time around. In statistical terms, that ranked him as the 2021-22 Championship’s most clinical finisher.
His tally of 38 non-penalty goals is the best of any player who has featured in the Championship during both of those two years and nine finishes from outside the box show variety in his positioning and shooting. What Leeds should not expect too much of is headed efforts from a player who has only scored two such goals in his 91 games in this league.
In the world of xG, Piroe scores highly, where new team-mate Bamford, as a comparison, has tended to struggle. Bamford has never matched, never mind exceeded, his xG for any single season in the five years he’s been with Leeds.
There is also statistical evidence which indicates Piroe’s build-up work and influence in constructing attacks is the stronger of the two players. His high link-up play rating (set out below, via smarterscout) suggests a tendency to drop close to his midfielders and use sideways passes to help the team find a way through opponents’ low blocks.
His ball retention is impressive and, if it stays that way, will be crucial in Farke succeeding in making Leeds play as he intends.
Swansea were possession-based under Martin, so it is not surprising that, with an average of 20 completed passes per 90 minutes, Piroe was in the top five per cent of centre-forwards to play over 900 minutes in the Championship last season. That will give Farke confidence that the Dutchman is more than happy with the ball at his feet.
What Piroe lacks is outstanding defensive talents and his low defensive intensity is likely to be challenged by Farke’s instructions to press hard — whatever criticism can be aimed at Bamford, his work off the ball was key in helping Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds teams to knit together in the Championship. But Piroe is still on the right side of his professional peak in terms of age and Farke can address any defensive deficiencies as the season goes on.
What matters far more is the arrival of a proven goalscorer, somebody who comes to Leeds in good shape with immediate competitive games behind him.
A proven goalscorer, looking back, was exactly what Leeds required at the same stage of last season, despite their excessive confidence in the group of Bamford, Rodrigo and Joe Gelhardt.
The penny dropped with the club late in that summer window, which explained the final-hours missive to Piroe, a stab in the dark that Swansea resolutely swatted away. This week’s bid was more methodical and tactical, performed with the commitment of a club who knew it had to be done.
Leeds have been waiting for a marquee signing all summer — one which gets the juices flowing properly. Piroe is it.
Additional contributors: Stuart James and Thom Harris
(Top photo: Leeds United)
