Leeds United winger breakthrough this week? Manager hints at Elland Road optimism

Marcelo Bielsa was giving nothing away when asked if the Whites were looking at further transfers last week, but he has been linked with Udinese's Rodrigo de Pauland Dijon's Mounir Chouiar this summer.

League One manager Richie Wellens has an insight because he is trying to loan 20-year-old winger Jordan Stevens from Elland Road.

The deal has been held up because Leeds are yet to bring in a player themselves, but Wellens says he expects Stevens to join at the start of next week.

“Jordan Stevens, we’re very close to, I think we’ve more or less done it," said Wellens.

"Leeds have got an issue in terms of releasing him at the moment because they’re trying to get someone in. And Marcelo Bielsa doesn’t let players out very easily. He is the head of Leeds, and only his say so will release players.

"We’ve been after him (Stevens) for six or seven weeks. He will join us on September 21.”

Jack Harrison scored in Leeds's opening game of the season, and Helder Costa made a goal and had another disallowed, but their apparently unsuccessful pursuit of Ranger's Ryan Kent shows the Whites want more competition beyond Ian Poveda, who was on the bench for the 4-3 defeat at Anfield.

De Paul and Chouiar were notable by their absences at the weekend.

Argentine de Paul's future would appear to be away from Udinese, but whether it will be at Leeds remains to be seen.

The 26-year-old was not one of the 22 players Udinese used in this weekend's pre-season friendly with Venezia. Reports in Italy suggest his preference is to stay in Italy, but that so far only Leeds and Zenit St Petersburg have registered real interest.

There has been speculation Juventus and Napoli could move for de Paul, who has been in Serie A since leaving Valencia for Udinese in 2016.

The right-footer can play on either wing, although with coach Luca Gotti favouring a 3-5-2 last season he was often used on the right of a central midfield three.

Udinese's first game of the Serie A season is at the end of the week beginning September 21. They travel to Hellas Verona on the Sunday.

Dijon's Ligue 1 campaign is three matches old but having played in their opening two matches, the 21-year-old was left out of Sunday's 2-0 defeat at home to Brest, and is expected to move on.

Chouiar played in the hole of a 4-2-3-1 in his last appearance, at Lyon, but is more usually deployed on the left wing.

Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers are also understood to be interested, but Leeds is thought to be his most likely destination.

The Whites are also thought to be close to the signing of Feyenoord's Crysencio Summerville but, like fellow summer signings Joe Gelhardt, Sam Greenwood, Cody Drameh, Dani van den Heuvel and Charlie Allen, it is expected the 18-year-old Dutch forward is seen as more of a development player rather than an immediate first-team addition.

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