‘Exactly’… Manager says he is already trying to sign 23-year-old Leeds United player permanently this summer
Leeds United currently have 13 players who were in and around the first team out on loan.
The majority of those made their Elland Road exits last summer in the wake of relegation from the Premier League, but there were a few more who joined them in January.
Luke Ayling, Darko Gyabi, Lewis Bate and Ian Poveda were among those to leave temporarily last month, but for three of them, that is their Leeds career all but over.
Gyabi is the only one of that quartet whose current contract is not expiring in the summer, and Leeds are said to have no intention of offering extensions to any of those three players.
Poveda became the last player to seal a loan switch in January as he made the move to Sheffield Wednesday. Speaking to the Sheffield Star, manager Danny Rohl has already talked up their chances of signing him permanently, even though he is yet to make his debut.
Rohl talks up Owls’ hopes of Poveda deal
He said: “Yeah, this is exactly what I will do. Now we will start to prepare for the summer and that means to look for our players, to extend contracts, to speak with them and look for new options in the summer.
“We have to make the decision. If we are convinced on players then we have to move and do it as soon as possible and get players we can take in the future.”
Poveda’s switch to Wednesday had originally looked like it would be permanent but in the last moments of deadline day, it changed to a loan move all of a sudden.
That means the 23-year-old will be ineligible to face Leeds when the two sides meet at Hillsborough on March 8.
Despite Wednesday looking likely for an immediate return back to League One, it was Poveda who made it clear that it was a move he wanted to make, and it is now up to him to ensure he does enough to earn a permanent deal.
As mentioned, Leeds are highly unlikely to offer him a new deal at the end of the season and with that in mind, Rohl is already making his intentions clear.
