Former Leeds United star and regular Sky Sports pundit David Prutton has stated that new manager Marcelo Bielsa must secure some new signings immediately to address the urgent issue of his “skeleton of a team”.
The Whites squad have returned to training under the supervision of the Argentinian boss, but despite the disappointing performances of last season there has been just one new arrival at Elland Road in the shape of Lewis Baker, the midfielder joining on a season-long loan from Chelsea.
Prutton believes that his former side are in desperate need of new recruits, and state that deals must be done sooner rather than later to allow them to bed into Bielsa’s style of play.
Writing in a column for the Yorkshire Evening Post, he said: “In terms of the squad he has at his disposal, there’s lean and then there’s painfully thin.
“Bielsa has inherited no more than the skeleton of a team. It needs meat on the bones and with July here, it needs meat on the bones fairly quickly.
“Where I see the need for urgency is with Bielsa’s coaching. If this is going to be the revolution we’ve read about, he needs as many of his signings to be here at an early stage to integrate them into his way of thinking.”
Opinion
Prutton is absolutely right in saying that the Whites need to ramp up their transfer business right away, for it is well known how difficult it can be to hit the ground running when a player joins up either late in the window or over the January market. Bielsa, the wily old coach that he is, will want very specific things from his players when they take to the pitch and this pre-season is his chance not only to drill that into his squad, but to determine who is deserving of the chance to be among the starting XI when the new season kicks off. He will be picking out the weaknesses during training and looking for new recruits to fill the gaps, and the sooner he gets them in, the quicker he will be able to get them up to speed. Leaving the business late could be a disaster for Leeds in the opening weeks of the Championship.