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After impressive performances, Leeds must break the bank to sign loanee in January – Opinion

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I suppose it’s a case of go big or go home.

Whilst this is obviously a team effort, one man has certainly caught the attention of Leeds fans so far this season above a lot of others, on loan defender Ben White. It’s not just the fans that have noticed it though, members of the media have picked it up as well.

Speaking to FootballInsider, Danny Mills said that:

“He’s getting better and better, he’s a superb player. He’s composed on the ball, good defender. He had experience last season of playing regular football which was vital and I think if he keeps improving Leeds’ biggest problem will be keeping him permanently.”

And I agree with Mills on this front, you could make the argument that he has been one of the most important players for the Whites this season. I was incredibly concerned when Pontus Jansson was sold to Brentford, however the way White has stepped up to the plate in his absence has been superb and the statistics back that up.

13 tackles in the first 5 league games shows he’s not afraid to get stuck in, only 4 fouls out of those tackles shows how disciplined he is, and an average pass completion percentage of 87.82 indicates that he’s really fallen in line with the ‘Bielsaball’ philosophy. That’s why I think Leeds need to go all out and sign him permanently in January.

Now even though this wouldn’t be an addition to the squad, the sooner that they can lock White down to a permanent deal, the better. Whilst Leeds aren’t in the best of positions when it comes to finances, we saw last year what can happen if the club fails to invest in January and signing him would give us a little more flexibility to either sign another player on loan, or give the other loan players more game time.

But I pose the question to you Leeds fans. Marcelo Bielsa brought in a few players over the summer on loan deals, Jack Harrison, Eddie Nketiah and the aforementioned White. If you could only sign one of the three loanees on a permanent basis, who would it be?

Now obviously in an ideal world where we are flushed with the money that being in the Premier League brings, we’d be in a pretty comfortable position to try and bag all three of them, but say we’re only in a position to get one, who would you go for?

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