OPINION
Leeds United fans should be thrilled that their club are firmly in the chase to sign highly-rated Motherwell youngster Stuart McKinstry.
Well, more than that. The Championship giants had been on the cusp of signing the precocious 16-year-old after the Scottish Sun claimed they had agreed a fee of £400,000 and shown him around their Thorp Arch training headquarters.
Now, it is said Southampton are attempting to “hijack” the transfer Leeds thought was all but done as they look to use their Premier League prestige and greater financial clout to push through the deal.
United may well lose out in their pursuit of the teenage attacker, who has already been named on the substitute’s bench for a league match even though he only blew out 16 candles on his birthday cake in September.
But, at least the club are working on signing a player with the potential to achieve great things.
Marcelo Bielsa may be at the centre of a spying storm but that should not hide his wonderful work at Leeds this season in improving the players under his command and turning a team who stunk out 2017-18 into league leaders and promotion favourites.
The Argentine has placed immense trust in the club’s academy products and the list of those who have thrived in the first team grows by the week.
Jack Clarke, who only turned 18 in November, is emerging as one of the brightest talents in Championship, while plenty of the other youngsters have seized their opportunities.
Southampton have an excellent track record of nurturing youngsters, but Leeds are doing as well as any club around in that regard.
It is testament to their progress that they could yet beat a Premier League big gun to an exciting young winger.
Fans should be delighted by that.