As our turbulent close season rumbles on, the latest is that Aidy White is reported to be unlikely to sign a new contract, while Snoddy could be cast into the outer darkness after some frank comments about our beloved chairman. Oh, and Ross McCormack could be on his way as well.
Aidy White has a year left on his deal but is unlikely to agree an extension, so the club is likely to cash in while he still has some transfer value. And he’s not short of options as where to go next, with Celtic among the clubs showing interest, offering him the prospect of Champions League football and a guaranteed SPL winners medal at the end of next season.
Neil Warnock told the official site "We've heard nothing back from Aidy other than I don't expect that he will accept the offer from what I was told by his advisors. It's difficult but there's nothing you can do really." So far in his career White has yet to fully realise his potential, being injury prone and looking a bit lightweight, but he could have a bright future in the game if he fills out a bit.
And the constant frustration of seeing our best players depart is obviously getting to Snodgrass, who wants to play in the Premier League, and has now come out and openly expressed his doubts over whether Ken Bates has the ambition to get us there. Our captain has yet to sign a new deal and he might have been a bit too open and honest when he spoke to the Daily Mail today.
“The chairman is trying to put a bit of pressure on me and he's telling me what plans he has for the club. But they told me the same type of plans the season before and it didn’t work out so it's hard to buy into these things again.” He also revealed that Neil Warnock has promised the Scot can leave Elland Road next summer if Leeds don’t get promoted, but even that guarantee hasn’t persuaded Snoddy to extend his contract.
“He [Warnock]has already said he won’t be sticking around much longer. Who knows whether he has one or two more years left at Leeds? 'It's all right for him to say he could get me a move but if he leaves the people above him in the football club are not going to worry about what he said. My future doesn’t lie in the hands of Neil Warnock, it's in the hands of Robert Snodgrass.”
So you have to fear that Snoddy might have played his last game for the club as no dissent is allowed under the autocratic regime of Ken Bates, as the board of LUST have already found out. Ben Parker was swiftly packed off to the Siberian gulag (or Carlisle, as it’s also known) for speaking out last season, and it’s likely that Snodgrass will go the same way. I can see the contract offer being swiftly withdrawn while the club accepts the first offer from a Premiership club.
And in other news Ross McCormack is yet another player who has yet to accept a new deal with only one year left on his existing contract. Warnock said “It’s unlikely he’ll sign. We’ve offered Ross an increase but his representatives made it clear that they’re looking for a more significant increase after the season he’s had. We’ve agreed to play it by ear and see where things go from here but he’s going into his last year and it might be that people come in for him now.”
But at least the club are claiming Tom Lees is close to agreeing to commit himself to Leeds for another couple of year. Despite that one piece of good news, we have to wonder what sort of squad we’ll left with at the start of 2012/3, after Neil Warnock told half the squad they were surplus to requirements, only to find that a good few players he wanted to keep would be leaving the club as well.
When Warnock sat down with Bates a month ago to discuss the plans for the coming season, our Monaco-based supremo promised that the manager would have the backing he needed to build a squad to challenge for promotion. It all seemed too good to be true, but now is the time for the chairman to put his money where his mouth is, if we’re not to face yet another season of frustrating under-achievement in the lower reaches of the Championship.