Leeds United are lacking a potent striker in their ranks who can fire in the crucial goals that would see them get over the line at the top of the Championship, securing promotion comfortably straight back to the Premier League off the back of a talisman constantly delivering.
Patrick Bamford was the main man up top for a period of time, helping himself to seven goals in the league before his prolific nature fell to the wayside in the middle of March and has never been recaptured again.
Back when Leeds were a mainstay in the top flight in the early noughties, the Whites never really had this issue that one of their centre-forwards would suddenly experience a barren run of form in front of goal.
This signing to bolster their centre-forward positions in 2000 ended up becoming an all-time great at Elland Road, going down as a beloved figure who was renowned for his deadly finishing ability.
Mark Viduka’s time at Leeds
Purchased for £6m just after the turn of the millennium, Mark Viduka would go on to prove himself as a masterstroke of a buy with his name still very much present in the Leeds hall-of-fame to this day.
The confident Australian forward is still Leeds’ all-time Premier League top-scorer with 59 strikes from 130 games, including this stunner away at Highbury against Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal in 2003.
Viduka’s former Whites teammate Danny Mills would even go as far as to label the 6 foot 2 striker “unplayable”, when talking to FootballFanCast about some of the best players he’s ever lined up alongside recently.
Leeds would have been disappointed when Viduka departed for Middlesbrough in 2004, but those four years the menacing marksman had at Leeds were special looking back when you then consider the poor strikers that have followed after.
This fantastic deal in today’s inflated market would still be considered a steal, with Totally Football’s Transfer Index revealing how much Viduka would cost in 2024 if the same golden move took place now.
