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Lee Hendrie has told FLW his verdict on Birmingham City's Mateo Joseph interest amid a £10m asking price

Lee Hendrie has warned that Mateo Joseph will want to be playing every week if he makes the switch to Birmingham City from Leeds United.

It has been reported by Alan Nixon that the Whites have set an asking price of £10 million for the forward amid speculation over his future.

The Blues have been linked with a move for the Spaniard, but they face competition from the likes of Celta Vigo and Real Betis.

Joseph contributed three goals and three assists from 39 appearances in the Championship last season, helping Daniel Farke’s side gain promotion to the Premier League.

Birmingham issued Mateo Joseph warning

Hendrie believes that Joseph possesses bags of potential, and that Leeds are unlikely to budge from their £10 million valuation.

He has also claimed the 21-year-old would make more sense than bringing in Jamie Vardy, but warned that the forward will want to play every week in order to move to St. Andrew’s.

“I think that would be a more likely fee for Birmingham,” Hendrie exclusively told Football League World.

“Obviously, the signing of Mateo Joseph, again bags of potential but he hasn’t really had a real solid run in the Leeds side.

“£10 million I think is a lot of money, there’s no doubt about that, particularly in the Championship.

“But you do feel that there’s always been a lot of talk of what potential this kid has and what he’s got.

“So, it does feel that Leeds will not be letting him go for much shorter than that.

“Yes, I think that would probably be, if you look at the Vardy situation, I think that would probably be more of a goer, particularly age-wise.

“And obviously the fight to get that number nine shirt, if you like, because I do feel that he needs to play football this season to prove that all this talk of him potentially being a very, very good player, which we’ve seen glimpses of.

“I think it would be a great move for Birmingham.

“I think the thing is it’s whether he wants to go and really wants to fight, which that’s the problem.

“I think he’ll want to play football week-in and week-out if he’s moving from Leeds.”

Birmingham will make their return to the Championship on 8 August with a home clash against Ipswich Town.

Birmingham can’t guarantee Joseph regular minutes

Spending £10 million to sign Joseph when Jay Stansfield and Kyogo Furuhashi have also joined the club this and last summer would be a big outlay on the club’s forward options.

Chris Davies can’t guarantee that the Leeds player will be given regular minutes every week with the options already at his disposal.

It would be surprising if they pushed for this deal given the price, but maybe a straight loan deal might be an option that suits everyone for the upcoming campaign.