Leeds United are confident that they will get a deal done for Swansea City’s Welsh international Daniel James despite manager Graham Potter confirming that Wilfried Bony’s exit is edging closer, according to journalist Tom Carnduff.
The Sporting Life reporter claims on his personal Twitter account that the Ivorian’s impending departure from the Liberty Stadium should not have too much of an impact on James’ move to Elland Road, with the Whites said to hold belief that the winger, who has one cap for his country, should join Marcelo Bielsa and his men before Thursday’s deadline.
Wilfried Bony leaving Swansea *shouldn’t* massively affect the Daniel James to Leeds deal by the sounds of it. Looks like #LUFC still remain confident of something happening. Clearly an area of the pitch where they want to strengthen.
— Tom Carnduff (@TomCarnduff) January 29, 2019
Potter, as quoted by the BBC, confirmed that there were developments over an exit move for Bony, who is said the be the club’s biggest earner which in turn could have affected James’ potential departure.
Opinion
Not many Leeds fans will have been keeping too close an eye on Bony’s future at Swansea but maybe they should have been. Having been relegated from the Premier League, the Swans know that they need to offload players, likely to be their big earners, before they can make moves themselves in the transfer market and while Bony remains, getting rid of the likes of James was more necessity than desire. However, if the former Stoke and Manchester City striker does leave the club this month then it puts less pressure on Swansea to sanction other departures and so Leeds’ move for James could well have been thrown into doubt. It seems as though that is not the case and that the Whites are confident he will be theirs over the coming days but it goes to show just how intertwined football can be. Still, until pen is put to paper James is Swansea’s and Leeds have some way to go before he can call himself part of the Elland Road squad.