“He did a tackle right in front of the South Stand and the whole place erupted. I was thinking, ‘you’re going to go down well with this club’.”<\/p>\n
Former Leeds United<\/a> boss Simon Grayson is reflecting on the moment new signing Tarik Muharemovic endeared himself to fans on his Elland Road debut in a friendly against RB Leipzig in July.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old defender had just become Leeds<\/a>‘ most expensive defender following a \u00a334.1m move from Italian side Sassuolo, replacing the long-serving Pascal Struijk, who joined Brighton<\/a> for \u00a320m.<\/p>\n At the time, some supporters questioned the fee for a player with only one season under his belt in Europe’s top leagues.<\/p>\n “He’s the right profile but the price is a bit steep,” wrote one<\/a> after the signing of the 6ft 4in left-footed centre-back.<\/p>\n Another added: “Seems like another sensible addition although the fee is eye-watering.”<\/p>\n Three months into a five-year contract<\/a> and talk has quickly turned to how long Leeds<\/a> can keep Muharemovic, such has been his impact since arriving from an impressive World Cup with Bosnia-Herzegovina.<\/p>\n “Muharemovic has done that well that there will already be clubs looking at him, trying to nick him over the next few months,” former Leeds United<\/a> striker Lucy Ward told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n Jonny Buchan, presenter of the BBC’s Don’t Go To Bed Just Yet<\/a> Leeds United<\/a> podcast, added: “There could be a fear he is a one-year wonder with Leeds<\/a> in that he does that well in the Premier League, raises his profile that much, that clubs will come for him.”<\/p>\n There is already reported interest from Barcelona,, external<\/a> Liverpool<\/a>, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in Muharemovic, who has earned praise for his no-nonsense approach to defending as well as his aerial presence at both ends of the pitch.<\/p>\n Grayson, who managed Leeds<\/a> from 2008 to 2012, said he has proved a “rock-like” presence and a prolonged spell at Elland Road will benefit the player in the long run.<\/p>\n “I’m not daft enough to think he doesn’t have aspirations to one day play for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” Grayson told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n “But right now? Sometimes a player is at home with a certain club and I get that feeling with Muharemovic. I get the impression he loves Leeds<\/a>, he loves the city and he loves the supporters.”<\/p>\n The supporters have fallen for him too – and not just because of his passionate performances on the pitch.<\/p>\n After Leeds<\/a> hammered Newcastle<\/a> 4-1 in September, Muharemovic shouted into the TV cameras “United are back, United are back”.<\/p>\n Dubbed ‘The Bosnian Brick Wall’ by fans, he has helped Leeds<\/a> boast the second meanest defence in the Premier League behind defending champions Arsenal<\/a>. <\/p>\n Muharemovic may not be the finished article, but will his name be in the conversation when the time comes to discuss the Premier League signing of the season?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“He did a tackle right in front of the South Stand and the whole place erupted. I was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-898541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}