According to Sun reporter Alan Nixon, Leeds United could be facing up to the loss of one of their highly regarded starlet youngsters in the January transfer window.
Nixon, chief football writer for The Sun, says (below) that young left-back Tom Pearce could very well be on his way out of Elland Road.
Youngster Pearce is one of the new young starlets from Leeds United’s Thorp Arch production line. The Ormskirk-born 20-year-old started out his football career at Everton, transferring from their youth set-up to Thorp Arch in 2014.
He made his breakthrough at the tail-end of last season, appearing five times for Leeds under Paul Heckingbottom and scoring his début goal for the Whites in a 2-1 victory over Barnsley.
However, Nixon (both above and below) indicates that there is a very real possibility that Leeds United could see themselves without Pearce in January amid growing interest from others.
Pearce, who signed a fresh four-year deal only this summer, has been a target for former club Everton in the past – now Bournemouth are also said interested. Whilst the ‘interest’ is unconfirmed at the moment, the calibre of performances that Pearce has put in have been of a quality high enough to attract Premier League interest.
It’s a situation that Leeds United fans always dread, their rated youngsters being cherry-picked by higher profile sides. However, some solace for these fans can be taken from the fact that the Whites are riding high in the table at the moment.
Yet, faced with a rumour that the club could be looking at the distinct possibility of losing another young player, solace isn’t something that commenting Leeds fans are satisfied with. Here’s what some Whites fans have been saying over on Twitter:
There’s a lad from Luton who we are interested in
— louis (@JxckHxrrison) October 28, 2018
Ouch …. Reaction to yesterday’s substitution ?
Didn’t look good … Young lad will be a bit miffed— Karl McMichael (@2REPmac) October 28, 2018
He is hardly going to get game time from teams in Prem, Bielsa clearly willing to give youth a chance should he not get his head down and learn from a great manager
— arran vaughan (@arranv70) October 28, 2018
So Tom Pearce could leave leeds, we need to hold on to players, not sell them off
— Kevin Richings (@kevgrab8) October 28, 2018
Whether there’s anything in this story, whether it has legs or not, that remains to be seen. The proof of this particular pudding will be in January – only then will we be able to see if this pudding will rise, or flop like a taken-out-too-early soufflé.
