Leeds United avoided relegation back down to the Championship by the skin of their teeth as they achieved survival in the 2021/22 campaign.

The Whites sacked Marcelo Bielsa and brought in American head coach Jesse Marsch to lead them to safety as they finished three points clear of the bottom three.

A consistent issue for the club throughout the season was their struggles in front of goal as they ended on 42 goals in 38 Premier League matches.

Raphinha, who has since left to join Barcelona, was the only player who reached double figures for goals and one of three attackers with more than four strikes.

Leeds felt the impact of Patrick Bamford's absence as injury problems left him out of action for the majority of the campaign - starting seven matches in total.

This came after he produced an exceptional 17 goals and seven assists in 38 outings the year before that, having scored 16 goals in the Championship in 2019/20.

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Victor Orta must now land the club their next Bamford by securing a deal to sign Ben Brereton Diaz from Blackburn this summer, with the Whites reportedly interested in £20m attacker.

Jaquob Crooke once labelled him a "superstar" and his former manager - Tony Mowbray - previously heaped praise on his talent, saying:

"You saw what I saw today; Brereton with the ball at his feet is an extraordinary talent. He's a wonderful footballer who can dribble with both feet, take people out of the game.

"Yes they want to see you dribble, score and shoot, but they want to see you fight. He has to learn that, but he still is only 20. He's still a boy, but he has wonderful ability and wonderful talent."

The Chile international enjoyed a fantastic season in the Championship with Rovers as he plundered 22 goals and three assists in 34 starts, whilst also scoring three goals in seven games for his country in 2022.

He has shown that he can be a prolific scorer in the second tier, just like Bamford was for Leeds, and now deserves the chance to show what he can do in the top-flight.

At the age of 23, he is still developing as a player and, therefore, has the potential to make the step up to the Premier League as he has time on his hand to hone his skills and become a complete centre-forward.

Orta must now sign the Blackburn star to be the club's next Bamford in the hope that he can carry his goalscoring form over to a higher division and be the consistent scorer that they lacked last term.

AND in other news, "Leeds are interested..": Journo drops big transfer update, supporters will be buzzing...