Leeds United are ready to offload veteran defender Gaetano Berardi in January and are not looking at offering him a new deal according to Football Insider.
The Switzerland international has not been included for a new contract in their programme of renewals and is believed he is now surplus to requirements at Elland Road.
The defender has started five of Leeds’ last ten Championship games and came on as a substitute in their 4-0 victory over Middlesbrough but he looks set to leave at the end of this campaign.
Should the Whites fail to achieve promotion this season and if Ben White returns to Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion and they fail to land him permanently, their stance on this could potentially change.
Berardi has been the third centre-back at Elland Road for each of the last two seasons under manager Marco Bielsa after being converted from a full-back and should they win promotion they would likely look to make further quality additions in defence.
Leeds are currently top of the Championship and are well on course to challenge for automatic promotion this season and showed a real sign of intent on Saturday when they thrashed Middlesbrough 4-0 at Elland Road.
Leeds chief executive Angus Kinnear revealed in his programme notes for Saturday’s match that “the international break gave us the opportunity to complete our programme of contract renewals” as Pablo Hernandez followed Mateusz Klich, Luke Ayling, Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas, Leif Davis and Kalvin Phillips in penning a new contract.
This news from Kinnear hints that Berardi won’t be offered a new deal and considering his age this could be cited as a factor in him being deemed as not quite enough of a force to make the step up to the Premier League.
