Leeds have received offers of £7m from West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace for Charlie Taylor, but Garry Monk is adamant he won’t be sold in the current transfer window.
This does of course mean that we will risk losing him for nothing in the summer when Taylor’s contract expires, and the player has already submitted one transfer request. But Monk has told the Guardian that he won’t be selling any of our best players when we still have a promotion battle to fight.
"We do not have to sell anyone and we won’t be selling anyone. It’ll only be incomings. There will be no one leaving in this window.” Taylor would still have the option of staying at Leeds in the summer if we got promoted, when the club would be able to offer him a new improved contract and the prospect of Premier League.
And it could be that we are stalling at the moment in the hope that at least one of the three clubs mentioned will come back with an even better offer, but if that is the plan we would need to do the deal with some of the transfer window remaining so we still have time to re-invest the cash.
Personally I would be tempted to pick up the cash rather than keep an unsettled player at the club, as £7m strikes me as a lot of money to lose. Provided that every penny of the transfer fee was made available to Monk to go towards strengthening the squad. If we did sell Taylor, who could we buy with the money, apart from converting the loan deals of Bartley and Jansson into permanent transfers?
The first priority would be to sign a replacement left back, as Tyler Denton would be left as the only player in that position if Taylor departed. Apart from that, Garry Monk is believed to want to have another striker in the squad, and West Ham’s Ashley Fletcher is one name that keeps cropping up in various publications.
The ever-reliable Daily Mirror have claimed that we’re one of several Championship clubs interested in 29-year-old Bournemouth forward Lewis Grabban, though the £7m valuation suggested seems a bit excessive for a player who has only made three substitute appearances in the Premier League this season. Yet he does have a reasonable scoring record at our level, so he could be one to consider.
We could also do with some more cover in central defence, and the Glasgow Evening Times has linked us with Partick Thistle’s 21 year-old Liam Lindsay. The 6ft 3in centre back has made 24 appearances for the Scottish Premiership side this season, and his goals prove he obviously has his qualities at the other end of the field.
But Birmingham City have also been mentioned as possible rivals for his signature, and Lindsay has hinted that he wants to move to a club where he will be the first choice, rather than having to bide his time on the bench.
In other news, we could be offloading Toumani Diagouraga to Rotherham, a club where he had a spell earlier in his season. The big man was a mainstay in our midfield under Steve Evans, but under Garry Monk he hasn’t had a look-in after a disappointing performance on the opening day of the season at QPR.
The Miller’s interim manager Paul Warne told the Yorkshire Post he is admirer of Diagouraga, so it could be that Leeds will be taking the opportunity to get at least one player off the books.