By admin 
Leeds United are on the verge of signing Fortuna Dusseldorf midfielder Ao Tanaka, according to BILD.
The German newspaper reported on Monday (28 August) that Leeds have offered over £2.5million for the 24-year-old Japan international but Fortuna are holding out for a little more as negotiations continue between the two clubs.
It is understood that with Leeds’ bid, Fortuna will triple what they initially paid when signing Tanaka from Kawasaki Frontale last year while the central midfielder’s appearances at the World Cup in Qatar also led to the 2.Bundesliga club receiving payments from FIFA for him.
BILD adds that Tanaka currently earns around £8,200-a-week on his contract in Dusseldorf.
Cheap and cheerful?
It looks as though if Leeds can sign Tanaka from Fortuna Dusseldorf, the Japanese midfielder will be a low-cost addition to Daniel Farke’s squad.
Not only is his transfer value quite low but his wages are around what you’d expect a decent Under-21s player to be earning at Elland Road.
Leeds should have a bit of money to spend after freeing up their wages so drastically this summer thanks to a glut of loan clauses in players’ contracts.
But ultimately, those loan clauses mean that Leeds failed to bring in the money that they could have done upon relegation.
Look at the cash raised by Leicester and Southampton since they went down. They didn’t have these stupid clauses that meant all money that Leeds could get after going down would be deferred by at least a year if they don’t go back up at the first time of asking.
Tanaka’s been playing in Germany’s second tier, which isn’t as good as the Championship.
This seems like a signing to just add some depth to Daniel Farke’s squad.