Leeds United taking a Premier League gamble but history suggests it will pay off - David Prutton

But they haven’t had this many players out injured before either.

You just have got to trust that they all know what they are doing from a recruitment point of view and that, hopefully, the injuries don’t get any worse.

The amount of injuries that Leeds have had is staggering.

Kalvin Phillips and Liam Cooper are out until March but February is a short month.

Hopefully, Leeds can get things done and blasted through and then players back fit.

Not bringing in anybody would be a gamble.

But the gambles that Leeds have taken in the last few years have all paid off so, if you are a Leeds fan, I think you are trusting that, hopefully, that’s the way it keeps going.

I wouldn’t say I am worried about Leeds staying up because we are talking about a professionally run football club here.

We are not talking about people that don’t know the ins and outs or what it takes to run a club or to get a club into the Premier League or be successful.

They have obviously done that very, very well and we are talking not about people that are quite callow and new to it.

We are also talking about big business here as well.

It’s imperative that Leeds make sure they stick in the Premier League because of both how long it has taken them to get there and also how cut adrift it can feel if you are that team that is back in the Championship.

These are the motivating factors and I think Leeds have got a first-choice team that can very much be competitive in the Premier League and a not full/half-strength side that can survive.

Red Bull Salzburg midfielder Brenden Aaronson has been the main target of the window and he has only been at Salzburg for a year. But he will have been well coached and that is something you look at when you sign a player but that brings its own expectations.

Leeds have been unsuccessful with bids of £15m and £20m and, if he came in for say £25m or £30m, then suddenly everybody wants to see performances from a £30m player and, if they are not up to scratch, then the player is soon in a position where he has to really prove himself.

But transfer values can seem like arbitrary things because they are set by each club for the market and the market doesn’t necessarily mean that money equals value for money and hand in hand equals success for the player.

I would suggest that breaking the bank for Aaronson is not the most sensible thing to do but, equally, I think he is capable of big things.

It’s a tough position to be in because, if you go all in for that player at a big price at that time of the year, then I think you want something a bit more guaranteed.

That’s not to say that Aaronson cannot be a very special player but, with any player and any form of transfer that you bring in, regardless of age, there is a risk.

People might say if you couldn’t get Aaronson then why not get someone else instead but is it really as simple as that?

Just steaming in and getting someone else? A case of ‘fine, if we miss one we will get another’. Leeds seem to be quite particular with the way they do their recruitment having been not 100 per cent accurate over the course of the time that this regime has been in charge.

They have got to be seen to be diligent and they can’t be seen to be willy-nilly because of what is at stake and because they won’t have money to waste. No club will have money to waste off the back of the pandemic, regardless of how big it is.

There won’t be many that could just chuck £25m or £30m at a player that they hope would do well. I’d like to think it is a bit more forensic than that when it comes to what Leeds are doing and how they want to recruit and I think they will be all right.

Obviously, it doesn’t help when you lose at home to one of your rivals down there through last weekend’s defeat against Newcastle United.

But I absolutely think they will be all right although they have got to be wary of teams that are rearing their heads, the likes of Norwich City et cetera, and we will have to see what happens with Watford and whether they can get a bit more security under Roy Hodgson.

Marcelo Bielsa said himself that the defeat to Newcastle was a big opportunity missed by Leeds.

But it was not a big opportunity missed with games running out and with Leeds sitting in the bottom three. It was an opportunity missed to put a bit of daylight between themselves and the bottom three.

But you just have to pick ourselves up and go again.

Knowing Leeds and knowing what they are capable of, they will pull out results against teams that you wouldn’t necessarily expect them to and find themselves safe. But this is talking theoretically.

In practice it has got to be done, it’s going to be tough and it’s not going to be for the fainthearted.

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