Simon Grayson has denied making a bid for Hamilton Academicals midfielder James McArthur, on the same day that Tom Elliott headed out of the club to join Rotherham United on loan.

Earlier in the day there were reports that Leeds were willing to pay £750,000 for the 22-year-old, which would be enough to see off competition from Wigan, but Grayson said “There is no deal in place. We know about the player – he is a good player – but a deal is a long way off even if we decide to go down that line. We are linked with players all the time and that doesn’t surprise me because so many of them want to play for us. Some clubs (but not necessarily McArthur’s) use Leeds United maybe to increase the price of players they want to sell.”

After brining several new players into the club in the last few weeks, Grayson may have to prune the squad a little, and he has decided to allow Tom Elliott to join Rotherham on a six-month loan deal. The 19 year-old striker made his first team debut at Norwich three years ago, but has never managed to establish himself as a contender for a regular starting place. The youngster went on loan to Bury and Macclesfield last season, and once again has had to move elsewhere to gain some first team experience.

And it also seems unlikely that Grayson will pursue his interest in Slovakian trialists Tomas Brusko and Marian Jarabica. Both men played in the opening 45 minutes against Rzomberok this week, but neither managed to achieve anything out of the ordinary. Leeds play the second and final game of the short visit to the Eastern European country tomorrow night at MFK Kosice, and Grayson will again give most of the squad a run-out at some stage of the game.

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