Wrexham AFC eyeing Leeds United transfer - Derby County and Leicester City must be on red alert | OneFootball

Both Derby and Leicester should be looking to hijack Wrexham's potential move for Mateo Joseph

The future of Mateo Joseph will be up in the air in the summer, as it seems like the Spaniard is set to depart Leeds United permanently.

The 22-year-old was mainly an impact substitute last season in Leeds' quest to become Championship champions, finishing the campaign on 100 points in the process.

Joseph would appear 39 times, but only 11 were starts, and eight of those 11 came in the opening eight games of the campaign. He'd end up failing to get off the bench at times towards the tail end of the term, with Daniel Farke favouring Patrick Bamford as his first striker change.

The former Spanish U21 international wasn't keen on riding the bench once more in the Premier League, so he requested a move away and ended up joining La Liga side RCD Mallorca in the summer.

He's played a lot more minutes than he likely would have at Elland Road this season, but he hasn't set the Spanish top flight alight in his 28 games. He's found the back of the net just twice, and those goals came in the same game vs Sevilla back in October.

Reports have suggested that his career looks to be finished at Leeds, and Wrexham were interested in signing him, but only if they were promoted to the Premier League, as Daniel Farke's side are rumoured to be wanting around £7.5 million for his services.

That being said, it's likely that, if his future lay in England, it would be in the Championship, as not many Premier League sides would likely take a chance on him after an underwhelming La Liga campaign. Therefore, here are two other second-tier sides who could be in with a chance at landing Joseph this summer.

Derby County

While Derby County likely doesn't have the desire to spend a healthy figure on Joseph, they may find themselves being offered the 22-year-old this summer, if Leeds' reported interest in Rams striker Patrick Agyemang materialises.

The American frontman only just arrived at Pride Park last summer in a deal which could be worth up to £7.3 million, and it seems likely that Derby could nearly triple that value with a sale this summer to a Premier League side, and Leeds seem to be battling to be first in line for such a move.

Leeds could save a bit of money on their Agyemang bid by including Joseph to sweeten the deal. That way, the Whites don't have to part ways with too much money to bring him in, and Derby gets an immediate replacement who still has the untapped potential to be a top striker in the second-tier and beyond.

Derby have clear promotion ambitions. They're running Southampton and Wrexham close for a place in the top six this year, currently sitting three points behind with seven games remaining.

Even if they don't get in this season, the additional two play-off spots next term will work in their favour, and you'd expect John Eustace's side to be challenging for a place in the top flight next year, which would give Joseph a clear route to a Premier League return, so this could benefit all involved parties.

Leicester City

Right now, the focus at Leicester City is on ensuring that they don't get relegated for the second successive season to League One, which would be absolutely catastrophic.

Regardless of their divisional status next season, though, there needs to be a squad refresh at the King Power Stadium, and especially in the striker department. If they end up overturning the current one-point gap between themselves and safety, they could look at bringing in Joseph if the price is right.

The Foxes had to be careful with finances this past summer, which led them to bring in players exclusively on loans and free transfers, but with parachute payments still available this summer and, ideally, a decent £20 million fee coming in for star man Abdul Fatawu from a top-flight side, there may be more leeway when it comes to paying for players.

Again, Joseph does have the potential to become one of the top frontmen in the Championship next season and make it into the Premier League. While Leicester seem light years away from that currently, bringing in the 22-year-old could help accelerate their return to being a side challenging for promotion.

This ultimately has a lot of factors within it, but if Gary Rowett's side secure safety, and Leeds lower their asking price a little, Leicester could do much worse than Joseph as their new striker next season.