David Prutton: Barry Douglas would be a wonderful addition for Leeds United ... especially at £3m

I WAS very surprised to read that Wolves were willing to part company with Leeds United target Barry Douglas.
Leeds United target Barry Douglas battles for the ball with Stuart Dallas.Leeds United target Barry Douglas battles for the ball with Stuart Dallas.
Leeds United target Barry Douglas battles for the ball with Stuart Dallas.

He played a massive part in Wolves’ Championship-winning season last season and he was really effective for them.

I don’t know whether it’s a case of Wolves thinking they need a whole new set of players to keep them in the Premier League, but I think Douglas is a superb player.

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His delivery from set pieces and his crosses are exceptional and with him you have got a really energetic attacking outlet who is good from set pieces. There is talk of a £3m price tag and £3m is a snip for someone who has not only helped a team get promoted but absolutely walked the league.

Matej Vydra.Matej Vydra.
Matej Vydra.

He’s only 28 and when you talk about the cliche of when a player is in his prime, 27-28 is around that period. I think he would be a wonderful addition at Leeds and then you would also have someone in through the door with a winning mentality having been at a team like Wolves who have done so very, very well.

I think that would be invaluable, especially when you have a mix of younger players and more experienced players. Here you have a more experienced player who has also won promotion.

We’ve also had all the photos and talk of Leeds United’s long-term main summer transfer target Matej Vydra being in the city this week and if it wasn’t him, then it was a very good lookalike! The club chose not to comment on the matter and to me, no comment means there is something still going on.

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If there was nothing there wouldn’t they just categorically say no? It sounds like wages have been the issue getting Vydra into the club but the wage that Vydra commands being the kind of goalscorer that he is, that is absolutely right.

Paul Madeley. Picture: Andrew Varley.Paul Madeley. Picture: Andrew Varley.
Paul Madeley. Picture: Andrew Varley.

Leeds fans might have been getting the hump a little bit because he was asking for those wages but from a personal point of view you put yourself in a position where you maximise what you can earn. It’s just business really.

If they can manage to meet somewhere in the middle then suddenly they have got someone who can get them 25 goals, which is great.

You can either stumble across a player like that (like Chris Wood) or you actually pay the money to sign them and then after that the pressure is on the player.

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If he comes in having asked for X pounds a week then he has got to come and deliver. That’s the next port of call. By the sounds of it they are quite far down the line with it and I do think they need to do as much as they possibly can.

But with the past decade in mind they have got to be careful from a financial point of view – especially about wages.

Let’s be honest, I’m sure Douglas won’t be on peanuts and he will be negotiating from a point of view of a Premier League player and he will be in a position where he can ask for a certain amount of money. They have got to be prudent but also any team that wants to talk about promotion has got to speculate to accumulate.

I’d like to finish by saying a few words about the passing of Paul Madeley this week. Having played for Leeds, what you always got from the minute you came in the door at Leeds was a sense of history with it all and quite rightly so.

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The older players and older generation were always bobbing around and you are generations apart. But just to be able to say that you played in the same arena is just a privilege really.

Players like him helped build the club and have given others the chance to come and play for a team with stature, history and tradition.

Men like him help put the building blocks in place and built the foundations of what Leeds United is, and the regard the club is held in around the world today.