Leeds United are interested in a deal to bring Moses Simon to Elland Road in the summer transfer window.
What's the talk?
That's according to a recent report by French publication RMC Sport (via Sport Witness), who claim that, with Raphinha looking set to join Chelsea in a £60m deal, Victor Orta has now turned his attention in the transfer market to sourcing a replacement for the winger - with the FC Nantes forward believed to be one of the Spaniard's primary targets.
The report goes on to state that OGC Nice have already agreed a deal with Nantes for the 26-year-old, while the Canaries CEO, Franck Kita, has handed any other suitor a green light, saying that the Nigeria international will be sold "if there are very interesting offers" submitted for his services this summer - with €15m (£13m) reported to be enough to get a deal for the winger over the line.
"Unplayable"
Considering just how impressive Simon was for Nantes last season, it is not difficult to see why Orta has identified the attacker as a replacement for Raphinha in Jesse Marsch's first-team squad.
Indeed, over his 30 Ligue 1 appearances in 2021/22, the £9m-rated talent was in electric form, scoring six goals, registering eight assists and creating 13 big chances for his teammates, as well as making an average of 2.2 key passes, taking 1.4 shots and completing 1.4 dribbles per game.
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These returns saw the £29k-per-week forward who Oma Akatugba dubbed "unplayable, unstoppable and unbelievable" and Jack Collins labelled "absolutely sublime" average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.08, ranking him as Antoine Kombouare's second-best player in the league last time out.
The 26-year-old also stole the show for Nigeria over his four Africa Cup of Nations fixtures earlier this year, scoring one goal, providing one assist and creating one big chance, in addition to taking an average of 2.3 shots, making 1.5 key passes and completing an enormous 4.3 dribbles per outing.
These metrics saw Simon average a simply sensational SofaScore match rating of 7.42, not only ranking him as the Super Eagles' second-best player in the competition but also as the fifth-best outfielder in the tournament as a whole.
As such, with the Nantes sensation quite clearly being a talent who is incredibly deadly in front of goal, exceptional in his progression of the ball and possesses an excellent eye for a killer pass, it would very much appear as if the attacker would make a fantastic replacement for Raphina in Marsch's side - leading us to believe that Orta must do all he can to land the forward ahead of Nice this summer.
AND in other news: "It's understood..": Beren Cross drops big Leeds transfer update, Victor Orta must act