Bailey Peacock-Farrell has ended his loan spell at York City to return to Leeds, but our bid for Polish winger Kamil Jozwiak has been turned down.
Peacock-Farrell’s spell at Bootham Crescent came to an end after the Minster men completed the permanent signing of experienced keeper Adam Bartlett. He went to York to be able to play first team football, but his return must tempt Thomas Christiansen to consider giving him a chance at Leeds, due to the dodgy form of the two senior keepers at the club.
But one young player who won’t be coming to Leeds, at least for now is winger Kamil Jozwiak, as his club Lech Poznan have rejected our offer of £180,000, plus a percentage of any future sale. Their president Karol Klimczak told the Daily Mail "I can confirm that we got this offer, but I firmly believe that we are not interested in parting with Kamil in the winter.”
But talks to extend the 19-year-old’s contract haven’t made progress, so Poznan may well need to sell him in the summer, so we may yet get the chance to make another approach. I can’t really see why we need another winger, with several in the squad already, but clearly he’s seen as one for the future.
Another player we’re interested in Norwegian youth international striker Abdul-Basit Agouda, at least according to the Twitter account ‘Scouts in Attendance’, who have established a reputation as a reliable source for information. They say we had a talent spotter an under-18 match between Norway and Finland on Wednesday to watch Agouda, a match in which he scored as Norway won 4-0.
He plays for Stromsgodset in Norway’s top flight, and although has only made four senior appearances he has managed to score two goals in those games. His current contract expires at the end of December and he has turned down two offers to extend it, so unless he has a change of heart we could sign him in January, and only have to pay the compensation due to his age.
Finally, another player who is attracting attention is one who is already on Leeds’ books, albeit currently on loan at Accrington Stanley. According to ‘Football Insider’ Malik Wilks is a target for Everton, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. The latter of course being managed by Garry Monk, who knows Wilks from his time at Leeds, and gave the 18-year-old his debut in that infamous FA cup defeat at Sutton.
But Wilks is under contract at Elland Road until June 2019 after extending his deal in August, so let’s hope that the powers at be at the club will give him a chance at Leeds before the other clubs can tempt him elsewhere.
With Agouda and Wilks both being strikers, they are likely to at least be considered for first team action if either of them find themselves at Leeds in January, given the lack of decent options in that department in the current squad. But no doubt Orta and co are also working to identify more experienced targets for the next window, and so there’ll be plenty more transfer news to come.