Leeds reward Lees’s impressive year with improved Elland Road contract

The 21-year-old has agreed terms on a deal to stay at Elland Road until 2016 after becoming a mainstay of the Leeds defence under both Neil Warnock and his predecessor Simon Grayson.

Lees missed just five of United’s 50 games in 2011-12 and the new deal, his third in a couple of years after agreeing improved terms in both 2010 and last September, will bring his salary more in line with other senior members of the squad.

The new contract is reward for an impressive year in the first team after two years on loan at Bury in League Two. He is expected to be fit to start the new campaign in August after recently undergoing surgery to repair the broken nose he suffered during the closing weeks of last season.

The Warwick-born defender agreeing a new deal follows the capture of Jason Pearce from Portsmouth earlier this month in a £500,000 move.

Otherwise, however, the first month of the close season has been a frustrating affair for Warnock and supporters due to the “two or three signings” the United manager wanted to have made by now having failed to materialise.

One of his targets, Joel Ward, has already slipped through the net due to the right-back today being on the verge of agreeing a transfer to Crystal Palace.

The 22-year-old, also believed to have been on Sheffield Wednesday’s radar, spoke to Warnock earlier this month and was expected to join Pearce in switching from relegated Portsmouth to Elland Road this summer.

However, Palace have since stolen a march on United and sources in South London suggest a £400,000 deal is expected to go through today.

Eagles manager Dougie Freedman, a former Leeds striker, sees Ward as a replacement for Nathaniel Clyne.