Leeds United are “doing everything in their power” to retain Pascal Struijk this summer, but sources at Football Insider that Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Newcastle United are among a host of Premier League clubs ready to pounce for the 26-year-old centre-back.
The situation is being shaped largely by what happens in the final weeks of the Championship season.
If Leeds stay up, sources indicate the club are “confident” of keeping Struijk. But if Daniel Farke’s side drop back into the second tier, they will be “susceptible” to any serious offers that arrive. That uncertainty is being watched very closely by the clubs monitoring him.
Why Pascal Struijk is attracting so much interest from Premier League clubs?
Struijk has missed just 97 minutes of league action since 23 November, starting 27 of his 28 league appearances this season and being substituted only once in that run. He has been the anchor of Leeds’ back three alongside Jaka Bijol and Joe Rodon, operating on the left side of the defensive unit with the kind of reliability and composure that Premier League clubs at the top of the table covet.
He is a left-footed centre-back who can play out from the back, defend aggressively in one-on-one situations and bring the kind of positional intelligence that took years to develop at Ajax’s academy before emerging fully at Elland Road.
For Tottenham and Newcastle, who both have potential defensive vacancies heading into next season, Struijk at the end of his contract represents exactly the type of asset that a smart transfer operation moves quickly on.
The contract factor that changes everything at Leeds
Struijk enters the final year of his Leeds contract this summer, which fundamentally alters the power dynamic in any negotiation. Leeds’ leverage decreases sharply, and any club willing to move before he reaches free agency would be buying before the price drops further. If Leeds go down, that dynamic becomes even more acute, with Championship clubs rarely able to hold onto players of Struijk’s calibre once Premier League interest becomes concrete.
Leeds are also facing a similar situation with former Tottenham centre-back Joe Rodon, with Football Insider report stating that several Premier League clubs are monitoring the Wales international too.
Keeping both members of that defensive unit this summer is going to require staying in the top flight, and even then, the contract situations will need resolving quickly at Elland Road with Tottenham ready to pounce.
