Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton has told the Blackpool Gazette that they will not be signing Leeds United’s Laurens de Bock.
The 25-year-old defender has not been at Leeds for long after signing for them in January from Belgian side Club Brugge but it has not been a great time for him at Elland Road so far. He was meant to be a replacement for the outgoing Charlie Taylor but after a poor run of games, he was dropped from the first team. So far, he has only made seven appearances for Leeds.
That meant it wasn’t a surprise to see de Bock being linked with a move away from Elland Road with Fleetwood reportedly being interested in signing him on loan. New Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa has been keen to reshape the squad in his own image and getting de Bock out of the squad for at least a short while would help him in that aim.
But Fleetwood’s manager Joey Barton has denied that they are interested in him, even claiming that he had never even heard of the player. He said: “Never even heard of him.”
“I think we would always look to improve the squad, we have got competition for places in many areas.”
“I think we could do with strengthening maybe in that left-back slot.”
“We have got Eddie Clarke who we have brought in, who will need a little bit more time at this level.”
“We forget he has only played 15 games at National League level. To ask him to step up is a huge task.”
“He is growing every day in training in terms of his performance.”
