Leeds United evening headlines as target to ‘leave’ and Orta clarity

Leeds United are back in action this weekend at home to Tottenham Hotspur. The Whites need to win and hope Everton and Leicester City drop points to ensure they stay in the Premier League.

They lost 3-1 to West Ham away last time out. Here is a look at some of the latest transfer news and rumours coming out of the club…

Leeds have been linked with a move for Toulouse midfielder Branco van den Boomen this summer along with fellow top flight club Aston Villa, as per Takvim. In this latest update by reporter Fabrizio Romano on Twitter, he will ‘leave’ his current club at the end of this season to pursue a new challenge elsewhere. That means he will become a free agent.

Sunderland have confirmed on their retained list that Joe Gelhardt has returned to the Whites. The former Wigan Athletic striker was given the green light to join the Black Cats on loan in the January window to get some experience under his belt. He scored three goals in 20 games to help Tony Mowbray’s side sneak into the play-offs.

Victor Orta has denied he was interviewed after ‘exclusive’ comments were published yesterday evening, per the YEP. The ‘interview’ situation has been clarified by Di Marzio contributor Mo Ibrahim, who published the story.

“I published an article about a small talk with former Leeds director Victor Orta. It turns out that the person I spoke to wasn’t actually Victor and it was someone pretending to be him.

“The website the interview was published on has no responsibility as to what happened. Things like this aren’t good of course and I’m aware of that. It’s not something I’ve not done on purpose and really apologise for. Thanks.”

As covered by the Yorkshire Evening Post earlier on Friday, Tottenham will be without Eric Dier for their clash against Leeds. The England international has had groin surgery and will next be seen in the next campaign.

Allardyce is prepared to take a fitness gamble against Spurs. There have been question marks over whether attacking pair Rodrigo and Patrick Bamford will play but the boss has said:

“Rodrigo trained today. Patrick we’re going to give him as long as we can, certainly until tomorrow, see where we’re at before we make our final selection for Sunday. In the striking area we are not overwhelmed with strikers perhaps, but it’ll be what it’ll be when we find out tomorrow morning and pick a final XI to start the game on Sunday.

“I’ll gamble on anybody’s fitness if they want to play, if I think they’re going to make a contribution to try and help us win the game. It’s the last game, they can have plenty time to recover. There is obviously the medical issues where it depends if you risk them, the risk is too great and then of course a lot of it is up to the player himself.”