Leeds United defender Liam Cooper has urged Lewie Coyle on Twitter to “smash it” while on loan at Fleetwood.
The Yorkshire giants announced on their official website and social media channels on Tuesday that the 21-year-old has secured a season-long move to the League One club, where he will work under the guidance of ex-United manager Uwe Rosler.
But Elland Road academy product Coyle is still part of the long-term plans at Leeds and, ahead of the announcement of the loan deal, he put pen to paper on a new contract that ties him to the club until 2020. It replaces his previous deal, which was due to expire in 2019.
???? Good luck to Lewie Coyle who heads out on loan to @ftfc after signing a new 3 year deal with #LUFC. Read more at https://t.co/pKAYsK7FYg pic.twitter.com/fjwBPIKOn5
— Leeds United (@LUFC) July 4, 2017
Coyle’s teammate at Leeds, Liam Cooper, took to his personal Twitter account to back the younger man to deliver the goods in the third tier of English football, claiming that Fleetwood have “got themselves some player”.
Good luck to my man @LewieCoyle at @ftfc got themselves some player! Smash it bro! ????????????????
— Liam Cooper (@LiamCooper__) July 4, 2017
Centre-back Cooper joined right-back Coyle at Leeds in 2014 after signing from Chesterfield and was a first-team mainstay until Pontus Jansson and Kyle Bartley were signed on loan last summer and went on to form one of the Championship’s outstanding central defensive partnerships.
Jansson has signed a permanent deal but Bartley is back at parent club Swansea, which means Cooper is now one of only two senior centre-backs at the club.
Coyle is the second full-back heading out of Elland Road as Charlie Taylor will reportedly be confirmed as a new signing of Premier League club Burnley on Thursday after the terms of a deal were agreed.
Coyle has been unable to make quite the same impact at United after following Taylor in graduating from the club’s academy.
The full-back, who made his debut for Leeds back in December 2015 , has accumulated 22 first-team appearances, 10 of which came under ex-manager Garry Monk last season.
He will link up with Rosler at Fleetwood, who finished in fourth place in England’s third tier last season.