Some Leeds fans have been speculating about possible departures after Leeds United officially unveiled the first-team shirt numbers ahead of the new season.
The Yorkshire giants revealed the confirmed shirt numbers for the 2018/19 season on their official Twitter account.
? | Ahead of the new #LUFC home shirt going on sale tomorrow, we can today reveal the squad numbers for 2018/19… pic.twitter.com/mqCiPWrped
— Leeds United (@LUFC) July 26, 2018
The club have released the confirmed shirt numbers ahead of the 2018/19 home shirt being released tomorrow.
Marcelo Bielsa’s team will wear the new kit in a competitive fixture for the first time when they take on Stoke City on the opening day of the Championship season on August 5th.
One fan said it was good to see Bailey Peacock-Farrell given the number one shirt – but many others were left wondering who could be heading out the exit door after the likes of Eunan O’Kane and Vurnon Anita were left without numbers.
This is Futbol have rounded up the best tweets from a section of Leeds fans as they noticed a few notable absentees:
Nice of you to keep number 3 for Douglas free.
Number 9 for a striker free
and Number whatever for Vydra free.Also, confirmation that it's bye for O'Kane, Anita, Sacko and Murphy, and Ideguchi didn't get a number either.
— 🙂 (@Max_LUFC) July 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/leeds_4/status/1022498164761415680
Glad to see @bailey_pf has been given the No.1 shirt ? #LUFC
— Helen Louise ??? (@hellsbelles92) July 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/ThommHol/status/1022507524606636032
Anita . Murphy, indeguchi, o’kane ,ekuban on their way then
— Ben Mason (@Bmason1919) July 26, 2018
And sacko. Poor guys
— Marc Burton (@bronk_21) July 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/DubBeGoodToMe/status/1022502720811479046
OPINION
It’s clear to see who these fans quite liked the players that haven’t been given shirt numbers this season. However, new Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa must be ruthless with his squad and cut everyone who he thinks won’t make the grade. If they’re not good enough to get into the first-team, then they should be on their way out anyway, because they’re simply not going to play enough. What this could also mean is that the club expect a few arrivals over the next few weeks, so they need to free some shirt numbers up for their new signings. The Leeds fans will find out if that’s true soon enough.