Senior Leeds player unlikely to earn a squad number after slipping down pecking order – report
By Harry Sykes
Toumani Diagouraga is in danger of not being handed a squad number by Leeds United for the new season, according to a report.
The Yorkshire Evening Post claim the future of the midfield enforcer, 30, is outside of Elland Road after a major summer overhaul pushed him even further down the pecking order.
Diagouraga started Leeds’ opening two pre-season fixtures but was then omitted from the three-match tour of Austria in a clear indication that he does not feature in the plans of manager Thomas Christiansen.
The Yorkshire Evening Post report that the Frenchman will find too many players blocking his path to a first-team spot following the arrivals of the likes of Mateusz Klich and Vurnon Ania to compete with 2016-17 central midfield mainstays Liam Bridcutt, Ronaldo Vieira, Eunan O’Kane and Kalvin Phillips.
“Leeds have so many midfielders that Christiansen might spend more time contemplating who to leave out than who to include,” the newspaper states on Thursday. “The range of players will probably mean that someone like Toumani Diagouraga fails to earn a squad number.”
Diagouraga has one year remaining on the contract that he signed when he joined from Brentford for £600,000 in January of last year.
He spent the second half of last season on loan at Championship club Ipswich Town and is expected to join a new team before the transfer window cut-off.
Football Insider verdict:
Diagouraga’s time is up at Leeds. That much has been abundantly clear for some time. Christiansen appears to have the same view of the one-dimensional midfielder as his predecessor Garry Monk. The solution is for Diagouraga to find new employers over the next few weeks, preferably ones who play him week in, week out, as Ipswich did in the second half of last season. It would take a hugely unlikely chain of events for the player to be seen in a Leeds shirt ever again.
In other Leeds United news, the Yorkshire giants have ramped up their interest in signing one of the best left-backs in the Championship.
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