Leeds look to emergency market as White deal collapses

United allowed the final day of the summer window to elapse quietly with no new winger added to the four signings completed by McDermott since the end of last season.

And the club’s attempts to move surplus players off their £15million wage bill also produced no positive results as Barnsley failed to agree a deal to take Aidan White to Oakwell on loan until January.

The versatile 21-year-old attracted an approach from the South Yorkshire Championship club last Thursday after losing his place in McDermott’s matchday squad.

But Barnsley, who were offering to pay around half of White’s weekly wage at Elland Road, gave up on the proposed transfer yesterday afternoon having failed to push it forward over the weekend.

Championship leaders Blackpool had previously been unsuccessful with an offer to sign United’s former academy player on a permanent basis.

McDermott was ready to listen to approaches for other members of his senior squad –David Norris, Adam Drury, El-Hadji Diouf and Danny Pugh among them – and the Leeds manager hoped that deadline-day departures would create space on the wage bill for a late acquisition.

United signed strikers Matt Smith and Noel Hunt and midfielder Luke Murphy during the close season and took their tally of new arrivals to four by closing out a deal to bring centre-back Scott Wootton to West Yorkshire from Manchester United on August 20.

But McDermott made no secret of his desire for a new winger and made efforts to land one in the final days of the summer window after approaching United’s board with the name of a specific target last week.

He admitted, however, that the mooted signing was a “maybe” and made no progress with negotiations prior to Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers.

Yesterday’s deadline arrived amid a dearth of fresh developments at Elland Road.

McDermott insisted over the weekend that he would “work with what we’ve got and be happy to do that” if Leeds failed to secure any last-minute arrivals.

But he will continue his search for wide midfielders when the Football League’s emergency market opens early next week.

Speaking at the start of last month, McDermott said: “I would be open to loans but the ideal scenario for me is that if we signed a player on loan, it would be a player who we could actually get at the end of the loan.

“We don’t really want to be having five or six loan players who aren’t Leeds United players so to speak – guys who their club will only send out to play games for the benefit of that club.

“You want a deal where you can loan a player with a view to signing them later.”

The possibility of player-of-the-year Sam Byram recovering from a hip injury without the need for surgery could provide one solution to United’s shortage of wingers, though the 19-year-old is still some way from making his return despite two appearances for Leeds’ development squad.

He was used in last night’s game against Derby County at Elland Road, playing for 65 minutes in the 2-1 win and will have his condition re-assessed during the international break.

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