Antonio Milic (KV Oostende)
24-year-old Croatian Milic fits the bill for Leeds United in more than one respect. He’s of the age range that the Whites seem to currently favour bringing in, old enough to have experience yet young enough to be able to develop and improve. He arrived in to Belgian football with KV Oostende for a relatively small fee of around £500,000 at the start of January 2015. He’s an 18-cap Croatia Under-21 player and is on the fringes of a full international call-up.
This season he has featured in 26 Jupiler Pro League fixtures, scoring one goal and receiving just five yellow cards – this showing he has some degree of discipline. With his contract due up at the end of June, the Whites might want to dip their toes in the water and enter a bid for Milic’s services. One thing that might be an incentive to the Whites is that it will likely be cheaper to bring in someone like Milic from the continental scene than it is to buy a similar player from the domestic market.
Holger Badstuber (VfB Stuttgart)
It is definitely certain that Leeds United need some kind of synergy and consistency in the centre of defence, long gone are the days of Pontus Jansson and Kyle Bartley forming a solid core in the heart of the backline. To press, Jansson has been partnered with something like five partners this season, the latest being Under-23 captain Paudie O’Connor. Bringing in Badstuber would give the Whites not only a degree of consistency, he also brings with him a certain pedigree.
29-year-old centre-back Badstuber, who can also play left-back at a push, came through the youth system at German giants Bayern Munich. Across all age groups for Bayern Munich, he featured 267 times including 177 appearances for the first team – 119 of these (one goal/five assists) being in the 1.Bundesliga. Leeds fans have been crying out for players with ‘Championship experience’, but surely 119 1.Bundesliga appearances, 37 Champions League appearances and 31 Germany caps would trump these claims. Of course they do, and Leeds United need to make concerted attempts to bring in players like Badstuber who has featured in 22 1.Bundesliga games (two goals) this season for Stuttgart.
