This is genuinely the best news I’ve heard coming out of Leeds United for a fair amount of time. As the press concentrate on Myanmar and we watch the too many of the players give up on the pitch the club have entered talks with Swansea to bring Kyle Bartley back to Leeds United, with the player open to a return to the club after a difficult season at Swansea.
Phil Hay revealed the news last night that Bartley was the number one target for Leeds United this summer, so much so that they are looking to do a deal by the end of the Championship season if possible. Bartley hasn’t featured much for Swansea this season and after a very bad injury his career has really stalled again, with the Welsh club fighting to stay in the division. Leeds main stumbling block is simple, if Swansea are relegated then they might want to keep Bartley, but one more win would probably be enough for the club as Carlos Carvahal looks to steer them away from danger. The other factor was that Kyle Bartley may have wanted to stay at Swansea but Hay has revealed he is open to the move back to Leeds, and that was probably made clear before Leeds bothered to get in touch with Swansea about the deal.
Kyle Bartley would return to Leeds and would almost certainly be handed the captaincy as he walked back through the doors, that’s how important he was, and would be to our club. He hasn’t been replaced this season, the attempts have been shown up as feeble at best, Liam Cooper and Matthew Pennington will probably wonder where their futures lie after Queens Park Rangers next week because neither of them have given an indication that they are good enough to help us progress. The fact this has been revealed as the number one target may well show our intent for the season and if we can get this deal done sooner rather than later it gives us a very good foundation and start to build on for what must be a huge summer for the club.