Tim Sherwood has urged Manchester United to attempt to sign Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu.
The Red Devils sit third in the Premier League table with five matches left – after a revival under interim head coach Michael Carrick – as they look all but set to secure a Champions League spot for next season.
Carrick’s audition for the full-time position in the dugout has been impressive – United have lost just once since his arrival, winning eight matches. However, one of his two defeats in the role came against Leeds at Old Trafford last week.
Ampadu impressed as the anchor of Leeds’ midfield during the 2-1 win, in which Noah Okafor bagged a brace, and former Premier League-winning captain Sherwood now believes that United should be sniffing around the Welshman this summer.
Speaking to BOYLE Sports, who offer the latest Premier League odds, Sherwood said: ‘I think Leeds still need a point [to stay up], maybe a point, but I think that result away at Old Trafford was just immense for them.
‘But when I look through their team, and I see players like Ethan Ampadu, and I look at him, I think at the beginning of the season, if Tottenham said they were going to buy Ethan Ampadu, all their fans would have said no to him joining.
Tim Sherwood says that if he was Man United manager he would sign Leeds’ Ethan Ampadu
‘He’s been a young boy, come through the divisions, but I would have him in a heartbeat. I would take him if I was manager of Man United. He’s good enough. He’s a leader. He’s only a young man.
‘He’s got a lot of experience under his belt, but he knows he picks the right pass at the right time. He defends for his life. Everything he does is for the collective, for the team.
‘He’s got no self-indulgence in him. He is a top-drawer player. And that is where the recruitment of Tottenham’s players has to come under scrutiny.’
Ampadu ran the show from midfield in Manchester last Monday, exposing exactly what United are lacking in the middle of the park.
But Ampadu’s influence stretches beyond the field; he is a standard-setter and a leader and one story neatly captures his influence.
‘There are no metrics on leadership,’ explained one insider to Daily Mail Sport. ‘We can define speed, goal contributions, XG, but there isn’t defined data on leadership.
‘But we wanted to put together a squad that would stick together, show resilience and respond well to adversity. To do that involves a lot of conversations.
‘You can get a sense of who a player is, how they have been shaped by their experiences. How they have reacted to adversity. Did they perform well when times got hard, or were they looking for the exit door?
‘In that summer of 2023 Victor Orta, the director of football, left. He put everything into it but with hindsight he was perhaps too influential.
‘When he left, we had to pretty much start from scratch and it was chaotic but it gave us the chance to build from scratch.’
Ampadu played a starring role in Leeds’ 2-1 win at Old Trafford last Monday
Ampadu joined Leeds in 2023 after the Yorkshire club had been relegated from the Premier League.
He had spent eight years in the Exeter City academy, before moving to Chelsea in 2017 aged 16.
That year he made his international debut for Wales, and has since gone on to make 61 appearances for Craig Bellamy’s side.
But he only made 12 appearances for the Blues and was shipped on loan to Sheffield United, RB Leipzig, Venezia and Spezia during his spell at Stamford Bridge.
