The January transfer window may still be a few months away, but Leeds United fans are already aware that finding a No. 10 is at the top of the club’s wishlist. However, the Whites might have to cross off another target.
Leeds are still in the running for promotion to the Premier League this season, even with the departure of several players. While they did invest to strengthen the squad, they missed out on a couple of key signings, particularly someone to fill that crucial No. 10 role in attack.
A few weeks back, Leeds chief executive Angus Kinnear mentioned that the club was interested in Manchester City’s young talent, James McAtee.
“Two of the other players, looking at the level we were looking at, McAtee at Man City, there was talk he might be released all the way through the window and then Pep [Guardiola] decided to keep him,” Kinnear said. “And then Carvalho, who, again, might have been able to go out on another loan. It might have been a Championship loan or a Premier League loan.
“We thought we were first in the queue if it was going to be in the Championship and he ended up being sold for £27m to Brentford. To strengthen our team and to make it better, we have to shop at the highest level possible. And there is lots and lots of frustration.”
Pep Guardiola explains why James McAtee remains at Man City
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola explained after the squad’s 2-1 win over Watford in the EFL Cup, in which McAtee earned his second start of the season, why he urged the club to retain the 21-year-old, especially with interest from Leeds and other teams.
“It is difficult to find players with a sense of goal in small spaces who attack the final third and McAtee has that quality,” Guardiola said (h/t Manchester Evening News). “That’s why I said to Txiki [Begiristain] I don’t want to loan him and I don’t want to sell him.
“I need his specific quality in small spaces. James has this ability. I have to see them and the first games I didn’t like it much and I told him afterwards: ‘Your impact in the game is not big, I want more.’
“After, he did well and his impact was really good. His period at Sheffield United helped him a lot to give value and suffer to get points, physicality, win duels, this kind of stuff. It helped him a lot playing there.”
