Noel Whelan has held Newcastle United up as a warning to Leeds United to make sure they get their signings right in the summer, especially when it comes to snapping up a striker.
Leeds sit top of the Championship table and increasingly look likely to end their lengthy absence from the Premier League.
If they do so then it will be without having a prolific striker in their ranks and Whelan expects the club to move to quickly address that when Premier League cash comes on stream.
However, Whelan is keen for Leeds to make sure they fully do their homework and pointed to Newcastle and how they spent £40m to sign Joelinton as a warning over what can go wrong.
"Next year we're going to have better players. We're going to spend a lot of money that we get from going up", Whelan said on BBC Radio Leeds after the Whites beat Huddersfield Town.
"You need a striker that's going to hit you 20, but look at Villa, look at Newcastle.
"They paid £40m for Joelinton. He can't hit a barn door right now.
"So you've got to really go out there into the market and do your homework on strikers; just because they are Brazilian doesn't mean they are going to bang you 30 goals a season, it's just not right", he added.
Joelinton has found the back of the net just once in 29 Premier League games for Newcastle this season and the Magpies have only scored 25 times in the league in total.
