{"id":204745,"date":"2025-06-22T09:12:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T09:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/204745\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T09:12:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T09:12:20","slug":"leeds-united-now-set-to-miss-out-on-jaka-bijol-back-up-as-5m-man-city-man-makes-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/204745\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds United now set to miss out on Jaka Bijol back-up as \u00a35m Man City man makes decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leeds United are expected to announce the signing of Jaka Bijol in the coming hours, but he was not the only centre-back Leeds were after this summer \u2013 as The Whites looked to bring in cover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bijol\u2019s<\/a> addition leaves Leeds<\/a> with five central defenders. Joe Rodon and Bijol are expected to start while vice-captain Pascal Struijk will provide cover. Max Wober and James Debayo<\/a> also remain on Leeds\u2019 books.<\/p>\n

But Wober has been told by Leeds he can find a new club<\/a> this summer, while youngster Debayo is yet to sign a contract offer<\/a>. It has now been a month since Leeds offered the London-born star a new deal.<\/p>\n

With Wober not part of Leeds\u2019 plans moving forward and Debayo either likely to leave permanently, or sign a contract and go on loan, Leeds still need another centre-back signing to act as cover to Bijol.<\/p>\n

\"RCDPhoto by Alex Caparros\/Getty ImagesMan City\u2019s Juma Bah makes decision after Leeds United links<\/p>\n

Bought by Man City in January from Real Valladolid for \u00a35m<\/a>, teenage defender Bah has been linked with Leeds<\/a> after impressing on loan at RC Lens during the second half of last term. He will go on loan again.<\/p>\n

However, Southampton were said to be leading Leeds in the race for the Sierra Leone international due to Will Still joining as manager \u2013 having left Lens to go to Southampton. But now, a return to France is likely.<\/p>\n

The Sun\u2019s Alan Nixon<\/a> says Lyon and Nice are the front runners to land centre-back Bah, with the player himself actually preferring a move to Nice. Man City have decided Ligue 1 is best for his development.<\/p>\n

\"WestPhoto by Malcolm Couzens\/Getty ImagesBah decision could tempt Debayo to sign a new Leeds deal<\/p>\n

The issue Leeds have in signing cover at centre-back is finding a player that is willing to sit on the bench. Bah might have been willing to do so in the Premier League<\/a> but realistically, he would be fourth choice.<\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

Given the obvious struggle Leeds will have in convincing a player to join, it may tempt Debayo to sign a deal and stay put. It would see him be fourth-choice, excluding Ethan Ampadu, and may get game time.<\/p>\n

Whether Leeds go back in for another centre-back after Bijol and indeed Bah, remains to be seen. But any move will have an impact on whether Debayo signs a new contract, or chooses to leave Elland Road<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United are expected to announce the signing of Jaka Bijol in the coming hours, but he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,76178,1860,100,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-204745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-juma-bah","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-transfer-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}