Daniel Farke refuses to rule out marquee Leeds United signing amid James McAtee, Man City talk | OneFootball

Daniel Farke has explained his thoughts on Leeds United signing an attacking midfielder in the January transfer window.

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has refused to rule out a marquee signing in January amid links to Man City attacking midfielder James McAtee.

Following the conclusion of the summer window, Leeds' chief executive Angus Kinnear revealed that the club had pursued ambitious swoops for McAtee and Fabio Carvalho from Manchester City and Liverpool respectively, although Pep Guardiola elected to keep hold of the former, whereas the latter joined Brentford for £27 million.

It left Leeds without a natural playmaker, even if they had the likes of Brenden Aaronson, Joel Piroe, Willy Gnonto, Largie Ramazani and co. who could operate centrally. In recent weeks, rumours have circled that the Whites may be interested in the Manchester City youngster again, though.

There's still seemingly life in their pursuit, with another recent report from Leeds Live emerging that revealed the Championship promotion hopefuls are looking to land the talented midfielder on loan for the rest of the season. Leeds Live's most recent update is that a midfielder has not been ruled out by the German chief in the winter window.

Daniel Farke explains midfield situation amid Leeds links to James McAtee

His creativity as more of a natural playmaker would be of huge benefit when breaking down teams sat deep and compact or in a low block, which Leeds do not always have the answers for. McAtee has a spark Leeds don't have, and so his mixed comments yesterday were interesting:

However, despite the possibility of Ao Tanaka or Joe Rothwell moving further forward, per Leeds Live, a marquee new signing at Leeds in the January transfer window could not be ruled out by Farke in Thursday’s press conference, amid recent talk of McAtee being a target.

“You can never rule out something," he said. "Even in the summer, I didn't expect it would be such a busy summer with so many key transfers. For us, it was not the plan and sometimes you have to react to the reality. For that, you can't rule anything out.

“It's a while until the window opens and, until then, I also won't comment on any speculations or I don't want to talk too much about this because we have eight games before January 4, then you can draw a line on that and have a look at how the situation is.

“Are there, perhaps, hopefully not, but potentially some injuries of key players or in which position are we and, always, the situation? If you ask me, right now, I don't expect a busy period at all in January.”

McAtee is a player who already has other Premier League suitors, with London News Online revealing that Palace want to bring McAtee to Selhurst Park and Man City said to be holding out for a fee in the region of £20 million for the attacking midfielder.

A loan would likely work well for Leeds, and possibly McAtee too. But they could find themselves priced out of a permanent swoop for the ex-Blades loan star. That's because, according to The Guardian, both West Ham United and Fulham are also interested in a deal for McAtee. They have been becoming increasingly hopeful that City will be open to selling McAtee in January, according to a report from Give Me Sport.

The Man City youngster has been out on loan for the last two years with Sheffield United, initially with the Blades in the Championship, where they saw the best of him during the second half of their promotion campaign, highlighting his Premier League potential.

The 22-year-old was one of Sheffield United's shining lights in an otherwise bitterly disappointing Premier League campaign. He is now well down the pecking order with City despite their decision to retain him, which is doing him little good in terms of regular senior game time.

A player who could operate as a central or attacking midfielder would be of huge benefit in terms of re-configuring Farke's attacking options. His creativity and eye for goal as well as his link-up play could be the difference in the final third for Leeds.

It may be contingent on how much game time he gets in the next month or if City intend to retain him long-term, so instead look to sanction a loan, but Leeds would be a good destination for the youngster to continue his development. A move to Leeds would be a fairly exciting one, considering Elland Road is a good place to be and develop with regular game time right now.