Leeds right back move unlikely in January

Sean Whetstone

8 years ago

Categories: News, Whispers

Journalist Matt Law claims that West Ham are targeting Leeds right back Sam Byram in the Telegraph today.

He adds that the Hammers will make a cut-price January bid for the players whose contract expires at the end of the season.

The defender can play as a right-back or on the right side of midfield and is one of the most highly-rated players outside the Premier League. He has so far refused to extend his Leeds deal.

That has alerted a host of Premier League clubs, including Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Crystal Palace but West Ham are aiming to jump to the front of the queue for the 22-year-old. With the transfer window open in a few hours time the move seems unlikely this month.

David Sullivan has repeated several times that we haven’t got a penny to spend on wages at this moment and time and that was said after Matt Jarvis was sold to Norwich. Leeds are believed to want £8m for their young 22 year old star.

Claret and Hugh understands that David Sullivan and Tony Henry will use this January window to setup deals for this summer. If West Ham interested in the 22 year old right back it would make much more sense to wait until the summer and attempt to persuade the player to join the Hammers on a free transfer. As the player is under 24 Leeds would be due compensation but it would far lower than the £8m being touted in the papers today.

After the Telegraph story today, Leeds Manager Steve Evans said:

“Until Massimo Cellino phones me up and tells me that Sam is being sold, I’ll continue to pick him, I’m quite relaxed about the situation.The reason I’m picking him is nothing to do with his contract or anything else. It’s down to his form. The reason he didn’t play for a few weeks a while back was because I wasn’t seeing the performances in training I needed to see from him. But he’s worked his game up and he’s a fantastic professional. I take a lot of interest in the Prozone stats and in two of the last three games he’s covered more distance than any other player by a quite distance. His attitude’s spot on and he’s been big for us.”