Revealed: Leeds line up three short-term deals if season extends

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16 Mar 2020, 10:30 am

Leeds United are in line to pursue new short-term deals for their loan stars if the Championship season is extended into the summer, Football Insider understands.

The Yorkshire giants have five loan players on their books - defender Ben White, goalkeeper Illan Meslier and star attacker trio Jack Harrison, Helder Costa and Jean-Kevin Augustin.

A Leeds source has told Football Insider the club are likely to look into new rolling contracts, possibly on a week-by-week basis, for White, Harrison and Augustin.

It could also be the same for Meslier, although United may have already taken up their option to sign him permanently by that point.

As revealed by Football Insider today, the Championship leaders have told his parent club Lorient they intend to push through a £5million permanent deal.

The fifth member of the quintet, Costa, signed on an initial loan from Wolves last summer that becomes permanent on 1 July.

In line with the football calendar, contracts usually run until 30 June and that is also an end point for many loans.

Leeds will be especially keen to extend the season-long loans of White and Harrison, who have remarkably both started all 37 of their Championship matches this campaign.

The EFL announced today it will hold a board meeting this week to discuss how to deal with the spread of the coronavirus after last Friday's suspension.

Top of the agenda will be how to complete this season's fixtures as well as deciding promotion and relegation.

One possibility is that Euro 2020 is postponed - possibly until 2021 - and the domestic leagues continue into June and July in what would be an unprecedented move.

In other Leeds United news, it can be REVEALED there is a key meeting today as football chiefs reveal drastic promotion/relegation plan.

Leeds United