Phil Hay has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s The Phil Hay Show about all things relating to Leeds United.
One of the main topics that he spent a little bit of time on was transfers, and one player that he mentioned was Fikayo Tomori, who has been linked with a loan move to Elland Road.
However, it appears that Leeds had a look at the 23-year-old in the summer but are unlikely to make a move for him this time around.
He said: “Leeds kind of enquired about Tomori back in the summer, but it was more of a speculative ask about what his situation was, whether he was available.
“They didn’t really get into serious discussions about a deal; I don’t think Bielsa did any real close-up analysis of him.
“Bielsa said about centre-backs after these injuries came up – he said, ‘look, I will work with what I have got, we’ve got academy players, we’ve got Phillips who can play there, we’ve got Ayling who can play there.’
“You kind of feel that he’d give [Kiko] Casilla a bash there or try and make the best of him if needed he to.
“It just seems to be his way, and that doesn’t seem to have changed; there was never a plan to get another centre-back in, and from what I am told, at this point, [that] hasn’t shifted.”
Do you think Leeds are right not to sign a centre-back?
No, we need one
Yes, we have enough options
TIF Thoughts on Hay’s information and Tomori…
So, if what Hay says is true, then it looks like you can forget about Tomori moving to Elland Road in this transfer window.
The Whites have struggled at centre-back this season, with the likes of Liam Cooper, Robin Koch and Diego Llorente all missing league games.
So, it was not a surprise to us to see that Tomori was linked with a move to Elland Road, but it looks like Leeds are not interested and are happy to wait for the return of the likes of Koch and Llorente.
We agree with this strategy because the Whites invested quite a bit of money into centre-backs in the last transfer window, and it would only be fair to allow them to recover and have a proper run in the first team.