Neil Warnock has been talking to the press about the futures
of Billy and Ross, whilst stating his desire to bring Martin Cranie in after
his trial with the club ended. Billy ‘Barndoor’ Paynter seems to be attracting
interest from a couple of clubs with Doncaster Rovers and Blackpool leading the
race (If you can call it that) to sign the striker. Rumours are that Blackpool
are offering 500k for Billy which has shocked Leeds fans everywhere, as we all
thought we would probably end up paying something similar to get rid of him. It’s
fair to say Paynter never looked like he was going to make it at Leeds and no
doubt he’ll end up being another player that goes on to flourish elsewhere and
will no doubt score against us in the future, just like every other ex player.
As for Ross we need to keep him, with rumours that we may be
exchanging him with Craig Mackail-Smith populated social networking sites, I argued
why keep constantly getting rid of your best players. Smith would be a good acquisition
but not at the expense of losing Ross. If I were to choose one I would go with
Ross every time. He was one of the leading lights for us last season and even
the season before when he wasn’t hitting the back of the net, supporters could see
he had good technical ability and it was just a matter of time until the goals
would flourish.
Warnock was quoted as saying ‘There have been a couple of
clubs ask about buying him, but we don’t want to sell him unless there is a
player exchange’. This caused many fans to think that Warnock was resigned to
losing Ross as well as Snodgrass, I could be wrong but my theory is that, the
comment was aimed at Huddersfield. Rumours have been around for a long time
suggesting that Grayson was weighing up a move for his former striker and I believe
that Warnock was basically saying ‘you can have Ross if we can have Rhodes’.
Now I don’t think for one minute we would get or that Huddersfield would let us
have Rhodes without a large sum of money going the other way. But I think it
was Warnock’s way of warding off interest from our West Yorkshire neighbours.
Martin Cranie seems to have done enough to impress Neil during
his trial with the club, ‘he’s a steady player and what I’d call a squad player’
Warnock said ‘where it goes from here really depends on what Martin’s looking
for and what we can afford to offer him’. Personally I think that Cranie would
be a good addition to the squad. With the seemingly impending departure of Andy
O’Brien, the release of Alex Bruce and the fragility of Kisnorbo, we are
lacking in depth in that area. The former Coventry man would offer steady cover
for Pearce and Lees.
After Sky Sports confirmed a bid for Peltier and rumours of
a bid for Beckford in the offing, fans are hoping for some new acquisitions this
week, however Warnock doesn’t expect any new signings before our friendly
against Sandefjord on Wednesday. ‘I wouldn’t have thought have thought any of
my targets will come in before then, although you never say never with us’. That’s
right Neil anything can happen when it comes to Leeds.
