Leeds United face a real battle to sign West Brom star Matheus Pereira this summer as a major transfer update emerges.

What's the story?

Reports from the Daily Express had claimed that Marcelo Bielsa's side are one of the clubs interested in signing the Baggies ace his summer, and that they are set to face significant competition from the likes of RB Leipzig and Leicester.

French publication Foot Mercato have now claimed that the Brazilian's representative has confirmed he has already had contacts with clubs in the Premier League, with Aston Villa and West Ham name-checked.

The report added that there have also been serious advances from clubs in Germany and Italy.

Bielsa will be fuming

Pereira enjoyed a superb Premier League campaign, scoring 11 goals and providing a further six assists in the top flight and almost single-handedly managed to rescue West Brom from the drop - in fact, his last eight games in the competition saw him score six times and set up another three goals.

After a particularly impressive display earlier this year, Match of the Day pundit Jermain Jenas said of the £17m-rated gem: "He’s just silky. When he’s on it, he’s just got that lovely left-foot, (tucked) his penalty away, the delivery into the box for set-pieces was brilliant, and he wanted to showcase his skills."

Meanwhile, former Leeds striker Noel Whelan has backed the Whites to make a swoop for the winger, saying: "It is a mouth-watering prospect. We missed out on certain players last season, and this is a player that excites everybody. I would definitely take him all day long.

"He’s a fantastic player, he’s great on the ball, he can turn people inside out. Pereira’s another option we can use right across that front three and maybe in a number 10 role as well. He’s the right age and he’s the sort of player we should be looking at. Imagine, if you put him alongside Raphinha, Rodrigo, Harrison etc, that’s pretty formidable."

It's exactly why Bielsa will likely be fuming at the thought that other clubs, particularly rival Premier League sides, have seemingly stolen a march on the race to sign Pereira.

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He'll surely want his top targets to be signed pretty early so that he can integrate them into his squad for pre-season, but they news that Leeds could miss out cause they weren't being proactive will not make the manager happy at all.

Meanwhile, Bielsa has taken the first steps towards signing this star...