Coyle feels spell out on loan probably delayed not ditched

Leeds Uniteds development squad captain Lewie Coyle could yet go out on loan (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe).

The defender was in line to make a temporary move to the League Two side.

But the switch fell through in the final days of the Football League’s window.

United’s plan to loan out the 20-year-old so he could gain his first experience of League football was ditched after Gaetano Berardi was handed a two-match ban.

The Swiss defender was sent off in the recent 1-0 home defeat to Rotherham United.

Lower division clubs were alerted by Coyle’s impressive displays with United’s Under-21s.

“I was quite looking forward to it,” said Coyle, who recently received a new two-year deal from Leeds.

“The manager (Steve Evans) spoke to me and it was all set.

“I thought it would have been good for me to play League football, get League games under my belt and come back and push for a place in the first team. But that’s football – it was on, it was off.

“It would have been nice to get out on loan. That would have been the next stage of my development.

“Depending on what goes on here, I think the plan will be to get me out in January.”

Although Coyle has not made the step up into United’s first team, he did travel with the club’s senior squad for their pre-season tour of Austria and Norway.

Evans had planned to use him in a friendly against Wycombe Wanderers last month.

However, that idea was thwarted when Coyle picked up an untimely suspension following an Under-21s fixture. No one has asserted a right to be considered United’s right-back in Evans’s line-up recently with Berardi absent and Sam Byram out of the team amid on-going discussions about his expiring contract.

Byram’s deal runs only to the end of this season and Evans admitted over the weekend that the club’s failure to agree an extension with him was partly behind the 22-year-old’s omission from United’s side.

Leeds and Byram’s representatives are believed to have held fresh talks about his contract on Monday.

Coyle, meanwhile, is pushing to secure a senior debut at United and the youngster said: “That’s the aim, to play for Leeds United’s first team. That’s always been my aim.

“I feel like my chance is going to come. It’s just about being patient and not getting frustrated.”