OPINION
This has not been a good week for Leeds United transfer activity.
Forget the Monday loan capture of Jamal Blackman, the Chelsea goalkeeper. That is a potentially decent signing, albeit only a temporary one.
More pertinently, the Yorkshire giants have lost out to West Brom in their pursuit of formidable ex-loanee Kyle Bartley and now Football Insider reports they have been beaten by Derby County in the race for Brentford winger Floran Jozefzoon even though they had a £2.5million bid accepted last night.
With moves for prolific forward duo Matej Vydra and Abel Hernandez seemingly dead in the water, the club’s recruitment plans are looking in total disarray.
With two weeks until the start of the new Championship season, the only reinforcements to a squad that limped to a 13th place finish last season are loan rangers Blackman and Lewis Baker.
To say Leeds fans are frustrated would be the understatement of the century.
They might be ready to explode when they learned that recruitment chief Victor Orta’s latest transfer target is an 18-year-old centre-back who has played just nine first-team matches.
Football Insider, which is an excellent source of Leeds news, explain that Leeds are battling Premier League trio Everton, Burnley and Brighton for Oldham defender Tom Hamer and a bid is set to be tabled imminently.
Certainly, United need a polished centre-back, given that new boss Marcelo Bielsa intends to field three of them in his system in the new season.
But a teenage rookie, however promising, is not the answer to the need for a quality defensive partner for Pontus Jansson and company.
Leeds made some smart youth acquisitions last summer and in January, which laid the foundations for much-improved performances at Under-23s and Under-18s level.
But plenty of fans will be ready to explode that Orta’s focus is on a teenager when the first team’s needs are so painfully obvious.
Leeds need to concentrate on the here and now, the 2018-19 season, and not some possible date long in the future.