Simply put, this is more like it.
According to reports in the Northern Echo, Leeds are interested in signing Burnley defender Ben Gibson. Gibson only moved to Burnley last year for £15m, but it appears as though the club are ready to cut their losses with him and recoup as much of the fee back as they can.
After the debacle of letting Pontus Jansson leave in the manner that he did, Leeds United fans have been clamouring for a centre back to replace him, or at the very least give ‘Calamity Cooper’ a little bit of cover in case he makes another mistake.
And Ben Gibson is the perfect man for Leeds to be going after.
Although he doesn’t have as much Premier League experience under his belt as perhaps he should, he’s got experience in getting teams promoted and being in the thick of it towards the end of the season. He was part of the Middlesbrough team that lost to Norwich in the 2015 playoff final, before kicking on and getting promoted the next season.
After Leeds’ experience last season, he’ll be able to bring in the perfect mindset that the club needs to give them that extra kick and take that step towards automatic promotion, rather than going through the playoffs again.
The only problem with this, is that there are a whole host of other clubs in for him, including Premier League outfits Aston Villa, Norwich City & Sheffield United as well as Newcastle United. So at the end of the day, it may simply come down to Premier League Vs Championship in the battle to sign him. It may take a little bit more than they are willing to pay, and they may need to get one more out the door in order to free up the wages and fee for him (I personally say Kiko Casilla, but we can debate that another time), but it is a risk that they simply have to take.
At the very least, they should sign him because it will put a stop to all the fans on Twitter replying to every post with demands to sign a centre back. It’s getting on my nerves, and I’m sure it’s getting on the social media admin’s nerves too.