'Not good enough' - Ex-Leeds United boss fires Whites transfer warning with signing recommendation

Ex-Whites boss Sam Allardyce has fired a Leeds United transfer warning but with a free agent player recommendation.

End-of-season-appointment Allardyce was unable to rescue Leeds from Premier League relegation at the end of the 2022-23 campaign but the Whites are now heading back to the top flight as Championship champions.

One of United’s promotion-winning stars cost in the region of just £3m, Ao Tanaka proving to be an incredibly shrewd signing from Fortuna Dusseldorf as the 26-year-old went on to make the EFL Championship team of the season.

Speaking on the Footy Accumulators No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, ex-Whites boss Simon Grayson picked out Tanaka as his player of the season as part of a campaign in which he made 43 appearances for Daniel Farke’s Whites.

Allardyce, though, made a point of warning that Leeds would now have to spend big to buck the trend of newly-promoted Championship clubs going straight back down.

“You can’t keep going out for those £4 million signings, somewhere along the lines Leeds are going to have to spend,” said Allardyce.

“This is where clubs have previously been relegated because they’ve spread the budget for seven or eight players, and they’re not good enough.”

As a squad player, Allardyce also believes that outgoing Leicester City star Jamie Vardy would be a good signing for Leeds but not as their man striker.

Allardyce said of Vardy: “He’s proved that he’s still got the desire and the hunger. The legs are probably going a little bit, but he’s still got something about him.

“Maybe one season might work as a squad player...”

“Maybe one season might work as a squad player, but I don’t see Jamie starting for Leeds that often.

“If you’re relying on someone his age, he’s had a fantastic career, but it’s not the message you want to be sending out if he’s going to be your number nine for a whole season.

“ I think wherever he ends up in the Premier League, it’ll be as a squad player, but he can definitely be a starter in the Championship.

“If you’re going to play tippy tappy football, you’re not going to pay to his strengths, because he runs in behind better than anybody else, so you can’t be playing it into his feet because it’s not his strength.

“However, recruitment will be the hardest problem because there are not enough players available worldwide to keep you in the Premier League, especially goal scorers and frontmen.

“That’s why Vardy might be a valuable commodity, because there’s not a great bunch of them worldwide anymore.”