Leeds United tipped to offload favourite as £5m Newcastle United signing admits he wanted Whites move

Leeds United are now preparing for Friday's Yorkshire derby with Sheffield Wednesday. The Whites only played on Tuesday, returning to winning ways against Stoke City, and they face a tough turnaround ahead of their trip to Hillsborough on Friday evening.

Daniel Farke's men are still looking up at the the top two, with Ipswich Town leading the way, but they are more than capable of eating up a two-point gap if they remain consistent down the stretch. In the meantime, we have rounded up all the latest news surrounding Elland Road.

Jenas admission

Former Newcastle United man Jermaine Jenas has admitted he wanted to join Leeds over the Magpies ahead of his 2002 move. He said on That Peter Crouch Podcast: “He [Paul Hart] went we have had three offers on the table,” he said. Sir Alex Ferguson has rang and he’s basically said we’ve bid £3million and not a penny more because it’s an honour to play for the football club.

"David O’Leary has rang from Leeds, they have bid £5million and Newcastle have bid £5million and the car is going to be here in an hour. So I’m in the car from Nottingham to Newcastle and I’m saying to my agent that I want to go to Leeds and I knew Rio [Ferdinand] as I’d bumped into him a couple of times out, as you could imagine!

“Rio was there, Fowler was there, the Champions League stuff was just kicking off at the time. And Paul Hart’s son was my agent, and Paul was at Leeds previously, and said you are not going to Leeds. He said it’s going to fall apart, you’re not going. United was the only one I said no to straight away because I wanted to play. I looked at their midfield and they had Veron, Scholes, Giggs, Roy Keane and Becks.”

Cooper claim

Sky Sports pundit Brian Deane believes Liam Cooper will move on at the end of the season after his long spell at Elland Road. He said: "I think that if they go up, they should realistically let him go and get a good contract somewhere else, as they’re going have to refresh in that position. If they keep him, he’s not going to get game time.

“I know from my own experiences that you can sit and be frustrated when you think you want to stay, but unfortunately time moves on. He’s been a great servant to the club, but I’m sure they’ll come to the right agreement. If they keep him, it’s because they think he will be a great leader for next season, but sometimes as a player, you have to start thinking about these things, and you need to be playing all the time."