Although El-Hadji Diouf was treated to his first appearance since October in yesterday’s defeat by Leicester City, Brian McDermott is still prepared to let him leave if the Senegalese gets a suitable offer from another club.
During his time at Elland Road has often seemed to be class above some of his journeymen colleagues, but has had a difficult time so far this season. He’s made a couple of trips to Africa for various reasons, and injury has also restricted the amount of time he’s been able to spend on the training ground.
So it’s inevitable that he’s not been able to reach the levels of fitness that our manager would like to see, and at the age of 33 he’s not going to get any quicker on the field. So McDermott has told him he can move on if he gets another opportunity during the current transfer window, even though Diouf still has six months left to run on his current contract. McDermott told Sky Sports "I told him I'm trying to build something here. If there's an opportunity that's right for him then, yes, he can go. But if not, then he's here."
With the number of players that McDermott has been able to sign the squad is becoming quite large, so it’s understandable that he is looking to let some of the fringe players move on. And Diouf is reported to be one of the larger earners, and the manager might want to trim the wage bill to release funds that could be used for further signings.
And McDermott told Radio Leeds that he is in the process of trying to make another signing. "I met with a player on Friday but I cannot go into details about it because it is quite complicated but we are trying to do a deal. We want it to go through and we are working hard to complete it." He didn’t name the player, or say what the hold-up was, but hopefully it’s not down to the endless process of completing the latest take-over.
If Diouf does leave we’ll wish him the best for rest of his career and thank him for his efforts in a white shirt, but Leeds need to build for the future.