Reliable journalist: This Leeds summer transfer will certainly happen if promotion bid fails
By Alex Stevens
Charlie Taylor will quit Leeds if they fail in their bid to win promotion from the Championship, according to a reliable journalist.
Yorkshire Evening Post correspondent Phil Hay has claimed in his weekly column that the Yorkshire giants “will certainly lose” Taylor if they remain in the second tier next season.
However, Hay reports that Leeds top brass were not resigned to losing the club’s academy product if they ended their 13-year spell away from the Premier League.
That standpoint comes against an backdrop of Taylor being of contract at Leeds at the end of the season and talks about an extension failing to get off the ground.
But Hay claims the chances of the club hanging on to the 23-year-old are evaporating as a result of the run of results that has left their play-off hopes in tatters.
Leeds must win their final two matches of the season and hope other results go their own way – a swing of four points – to secure what is now an unlikely place in the top six.
The outcome of a campaign that had promised so much for months will have a massive knock-on effect in terms of the futures of the playing squad and possibly even the manager Garry Monk.
The defender was reportedly the subject of considerable interest in the January window, with the Guardian reporting that the Championship promotion challengers knocked back offers of £7million from not only West Brom, but two other Premier League clubs in Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace.
However, Leeds will be powerless to stop Taylor from leaving in the summer even though they will be entitled to a considerable compensation fee as he is a product of their prolific academy.
In total, the 2015-16 Leeds player of the year has started 26 of their 44 Championship matches this season in which he missed nearly three months with an achilles problem.
Taylor was recalled to the starting XI for last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Burton after being on the substitute’s bench for the previous four matches.
Taylor is now preparing for Leeds’ final two matches of their league campaign, a home clash against Norwich on Saturday and a trip to Wigan eight days later.
Monk’s team have accumulated 73 points from 44 matches and can still secure a top-six finish and a place in the play-offs, but are relying on their rivals Fulham, Sheffield Wednesday and Reading slipping up.
In other Leeds United transfer news, a stunning £14million bid is being prepared as deal edges closer with Premier League big hitters.
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