YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth and Leeds United journalist Joe Donnohue explain what's to come during the next 48 hours as Leeds United approach transfer deadline day without having made a signing this month.
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00:00 We're into the final 48 hours of the January transfer window and a lot of people are wondering,
00:07 many of them Leeds United fans, are Leeds going to do any incoming business this month?
00:12 There's a bit of apprehension and nerves in the fan base, particularly considering the
00:18 departures of Jed Spence, of Luke Ehrling and your peripheral squad figures like Leo
00:23 Yelder, Darko Djebi and the like, that the team are a little bit light now. Yes, Daniel
00:32 Farker has said that they could probably do with strengthening one or two positions without
00:37 going into specifics. But yeah, as we approach deadline day rapidly, Graeme, what can we
00:46 expect from the final 24 hours of this year's January window?
00:51 Well we know that Leeds are trying. We know they've looked at an awful lot of right-backs
00:55 in particular. We know that they were close to one at the weekend in Dike Hashioka, but
01:01 they decided to pull out over injury concerns with that one. The problem of course is that
01:08 when you leave it this late and when you rely on that domino effect of Premier League movement
01:13 leading to potential targets becoming available, you do leave yourself at the risk of coming
01:19 up empty-handed. I suppose as well with the Hashioka one, if he goes on to play 15 games
01:28 without problem between now and the end of the season, then it won't reflect too well
01:33 on you, particularly if you didn't go and get a right-back. But we are expecting them
01:37 still to do some business. The expectation at Leeds is that they will do business. They're
01:43 waiting for a number of situations to shake out and see how things fall. They believe
01:51 they can get something done.
01:54 It's not a question of, 'We've shut up shop and that's us done for the window.' Those
01:59 conversations are ongoing. They are taking place. While it's very, very easy to understand
02:04 the frustration amongst the fans that something hasn't been done in the first 30 days of the
02:09 window, it is still open for another 24 hours. I think we're starting to see now lots of
02:15 teams are actually starting to push the button on signings and departures because ultimately
02:20 business is necessary for clubs to do. It may not be at the optimal price or it might
02:31 not be reflective of the best financial deal that could have been done. But a lot of the
02:37 time clubs play this brinkmanship game with each other that we're not going to try and
02:42 sign this player on the 1st of January because then we're going to be playing a cat and mouse
02:47 game for the rest of the month trying to negotiate this price down.
02:55 The tactic that Leeds were talking about was that they didn't want to go too early on people
03:01 they knew they could get because there were people they preferred that weren't yet available
03:06 but might become available and they didn't want to end up kicking themselves. But that's
03:12 still a possibility. As Leeds have found in the past, they've been burned before, particularly
03:17 in the January deadline day, the Dan James situation that arose. You can end up kicking
03:26 yourself anyway. So it's a risky strategy, particularly when you actually need something.
03:33 Ideally in January what you want to be doing is luxury business, stuff that just strengthens
03:41 your squad and gives you healthier options but not particularly vital business. I think
03:47 it stems back to what we can now say was a mistake in signing Jed Spence that can't really
03:52 be looked upon any other way. It's left them light because they felt that they couldn't
04:00 stand in Ayling's way but they've let both of them go now. What they've got is a situation
04:05 with four full backs, two of whom, Archie Gray and Jamie Shackleton, are midfielders.
04:11 Three of whom, Shackleton, Byram and Firpo, have all had pretty significant injury absences
04:17 this season and in recent seasons. Shackleton's never really had major, major issues but he's
04:22 had lots and lots of niggles, calf strains or thigh strains or glute problems. Junior
04:27 Firpo started the season with a knee injury and sat out. Sam Byram has had multiple hamstring
04:33 strains now. So of your four full backs, only really Archie Gray had been untouched by injury
04:40 and yet he's the one sitting out right now. So going into the rest of the season with
04:45 those four as your full back options would definitely be a risk.
04:49 Yeah, absolutely. But that is the lay of the land at present. It's just a brief update
04:54 from myself and Graeme ahead of deadline day, which is, as we say, we expect there to be
05:00 at least a little bit to report on and Leeds do expect to do some business or at least
05:04 hope to do business. But we'll be across everything on the Yorkshire Evening Post throughout the
05:11 day and fingers crossed that we manage to bring in a new face.
05:16 Yeah, and we're speaking to Daniel Farker today, Wednesday afternoon at Thorpe Arch
05:21 to preview Friday night's game at Bristol. He'll likely say we'll talk about business
05:26 when it's done. He'll likely say they're staying awake in the transfer window and not falling
05:31 asleep and he'll update us on injury news as well. And then tomorrow on deadline day
05:37 we'll record a deadline day edition of the Inside Ellen Road podcast.
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