James Trafford is expected to be the latest arrival at Leeds United in this summer window. The Whites are aiming to build a team good enough to survive another season in the top flight.
£100 million was spent last year to bring in quality starters like Jaka Bijol, Anton Stach and Noah Okafor.
The major concern for Leeds in this window was that the club needed a first choice goalkeeper. Lucas Perri was signed for a big fee last summer and failed to deliver, and was benched by Karl Darlow.
Darlow turned down a new contract offer and decided to join Manchester United as a free agent.
Trafford will arrive in the coming weeks and will become the club’s number one goalkeeper. Reports suggest that he will become one of the highest earners at Elland Road.
Leeds United star expected to leave US training camp to seal transfer
The Manchester City star’s transfer will also see another deal go through.
Lucas Perri has had talks with Torino and both clubs have an agreement. It is expected to be a loan deal with the option to buy at the end of the season. The Brazilian wants a chance at being first choice elsewhere after last season.
But the Perri deal was on hold as Leeds wanted James Trafford to arrive first.
With the deal for the England international on the brink of completion, Torino are also on the other end. TuttoSport have reported that the Italian side are confident that Lucas Perri will join them soon.
The keeper is ready to ‘pack his bags’ and leave the US to sign for Torino.
Perri played the second half of the game against Wrexham on Sunday in the Whites’ pre-season tour in the US.
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Leeds still have to find a backup keeper
James Trafford arriving means that there will be a first choice goalkeeper going forward.
But with Perri leaving, the backup keeper situation gets a little complicated. Leeds only took two first team keepers on the US tour with Alex Cairns being the other option.
Cairns is old and will not be expected to be the backup if Trafford is unavailable.
So it is very likely the club will dip into the market to sign a backup goalkeeper. It is also possible that they will sign a free agent to fill that role as the new season approaches.
Why did you give Cairns a new contract if he’s not good enough, would have made room for one of the youngsters coming through, this is ridiculous! 🙈