Kenny’s move to Leeds faces delay

The 34-year-old goalkeeper is United manager Neil Warnock’s No 1 transfer target of the summer and talks have been taking place with QPR over a possible transfer for several weeks.

Agreement is now believed to have been reached between the Londoners and Leeds over a fee, which is expected to be around £500,000.

Any hopes, however, of forcing through a deal this week have been dashed by a combination of Kenny going away for a planned short break and United chief executive Shaun Harvey being occupied by other club matters.

Talks are not expected to resume until the middle of next week but Kenny remains keen on a fourth spell under Warnock after earlier being together at Bury, Sheffield United and QPR.

Providing agreement can be reached, the arrival of the Halifax-born goalkeeper would pave the way for Andy Lonergan to leave Elland Road with Bolton Wanderers leading the chase for the former Preston North End man.

Newly-relegated Wanderers are understood to have made their interest known to Leeds, who paid around £200,000 for a player who made 38 appearances during his first season at Elland Road.

Lonergan is likely to be joined in leaving Leeds by Adam Clayton, who as this newspaper revealed yesterday is wanted by Huddersfield Town.

Talks have taken place over the midfielder’s possible switch across West Yorkshire with Leeds making it clear they want in the region of £500,000 for the 23-year-old.

Meanwhile, the Football Association have started their own assessment of the unseemly scenes that marred the end of United’s derby win over Doncaster Rovers at Elland Road in February.

Players from both teams clashed at the final whistle and police had to step in to separate the warring factions in the tunnel.

Officers then spoke to the Leeds and Rovers players in their respective dressing rooms before conducting further discussions in the days and weeks that followed.

After the investigation was completed, the matter was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to make a decision as to whether to proceed or not.

That ruling came on Tuesday when the CPS announced that no further action was planned, meaning the FA were finally able to step in.

An FA spokesman last night told the Yorkshire Post: “Now the CPS have made their decision, we can start to look into the matter. We will liaise with the police to establish the evidence they have collected.

“We had to leave it to the police, it was only right they concluded their own investigation.

“Ours is not an investigation as such at this stage, we are looking into the matter.”

The FA are also at pains to stress that no timescale has been set but, considering the severity of the fracas, it would be a major surprise if the two clubs did not face at least a charge apiece over failing to control their players.

Last term, Bradford City and Crawley Town were both fined over an on-field clash at the end of the two clubs’ meeting at Valley Parade that led to five players being red carded.