"There are no excuses" - Leeds United urged to take transfer action to fill Georginio Rutter void | OneFootball

Leeds United may well rekindle their interest in a new attacking midfielder when the January transfer window comes around

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Leeds United have been urged to recruit an attacking midfielder in the January transfer window after failing to replace Georginio Rutter following his switch to Brighton and Hove Albion.

The Frenchman was among a number of high-profile departures from Elland Road across the summer window, as Brighton sought to activate his £40m release clause.

Rutter, who had joined Leeds in January for a club record fee in a deal worth up to £36m, struggled to adapt to the Premier League before showcasing his worth at Championship level in the previous season by finding the back of the net on seven occasions and setting up 15 goals.

Finding an adequate replacement was always going to be a tall order, but the failure in doing so in the summer was not for the want of trying. According to reports, Leeds saw a shock £13m offer for Gus Hamer rejected by promotion rivals Sheffield United, while they tried and failed to sign Roland Sallai from Bundesliga outfit Freiburg.

Following the conclusion of the window, controversial chief executive Angus Kinnear revealed that Leeds had also pursued ambitious swoops for James 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 £27m.

Daniel Farke's side have not been hindered too much by their inability to source a direct replacement for Rutter just yet. At the time of writing, they sit in fifth position after seven matches of the new season, having won four of their last five outings.

However, they have been urged to take action once again when the January window rolls around.

Leeds United told to sign attacking midfielder in January

We asked our resident Whites fan pundit Kris Smith to predict one scenario that may well happen in the winter window, and he believes that Leeds will finally secure a new attacking midfield signing after being dealt rejection during their summer pursuits.

"We missed out on an attacking midfielder during the summer window and it was quite obvious that Farke was adamant of how much he wanted one, he mentioned it in multiple press conferences alongside the other targets that we did end up getting in a central midfielder and a left-back - but that was the one that got away," Kris explained to Football League World.

"So it does stand to reason that the club would still have that in their mind to get an ambitious signing to rectify that from August, now looking to January.

"There are no excuses for not signing one this time around.

"It is hard to see, though, how we get someone of the quality of Hamer and Sallai, but I do have confidence in this recruitment team to find someone who would be deemed as a serious or ambitious signing to propel us towards promotion given the ilk of signings such as Isaac Schmidt, Largie Ramazani and Ao Tanaka.

"They're a bit more left-field but absolutely have the quality to be in a top-two side. The thing for me that really makes it obvious that we should be signing one and the club will be expecting to sign one is the fact that we showed our hand with Hamer, bidding £13m.

"The money is there for a signing, it's just up to the club to sign one and fans probably won't tolerate an inactive January."

A new attacking midfielder could be a game changer for Leeds United's promotion bid

Depending on the quality of the potential buy, a fresh attacking midfielder could make all the difference to Leeds' promotion hopes.

Brenden Aaronson has made a surprisingly impressive start to the season after being kept on against all odds, but the USA international simply cannot handle the responsibility of fulfilling that role on his own and stern competition would be of great benefit.

He is largely unchallenged there at the moment and while Joel Piroe may have something to say about that, the Whites need a more dynamic profile who can progress forward with the ball and carve out chances at will just like Rutter did.

Supporters should not and realistically will not be expecting a signing of the same quality as Rutter, but someone with stylistic parallels could be a game-changing signing heading into the second-half of the season.