Phil Hay drops major Leeds United transfer claim, it'll leave fans furious - opinion

Leeds United are unlikely to make any late additions before Monday’s transfer deadline…

That’s according to The Athletic’s Phil Hay, who claims that the Yorkshire giants aren’t prepared to submit a third bid for RB Salzburg midfielder Brenden Aaronson after having two offers rejected.

“Transfer situation is essentially this – no third offer for Aaronson and Salzburg unwilling to sell in this window. Club will wait until the summer for him and won’t bid for another centre mid now,” he revealed on Twitter.

“If Summerville asks to leave and goes, a replacement needed. A fair bit of European interest in Summerville, not least in Germany and Holland, but [Marcelo] Bielsa doesn’t want to lose him.”

The Argentinian head coach has suffered from an injury crisis at Thorp Arch for much of the campaign, resulting in the desperate need for some form of reinforcements this month.

Leeds very rarely conduct business during the winter but the aforementioned situation highlights why their plans have somewhat changed, and whilst they have failed in their attempts to sign Aaronson, they haven’t really looked elsewhere, which is disappointing.

They haven’t signed a central midfielder in four years – and counting.

Earlier this month, Bielsa was unable to field much of a bench against West Ham United in the Premier League. He named eight academy prospects among nine substitutes. Similarly, 15-year-old Archie Gray was involved against Arsenal in December when there were 11 players absent through injury.

Among those missing recent have been last season’s top goalscorer Patrick Bamford, who has missed 17 of their last 18 league games, club captain Liam Cooper and influential anchorman Kalvin Phillips.

The latter two are absent until March at the