Here are your Leeds United morning headlines for Saturday, 25 July.
Bruce tips Shackleton for first-team spot
Former Leeds defender Alex Bruce has tipped midfielder Jamie Shackleton to be a part of the Leeds first-team squad next season.
The 20-year-old is closing in on 50 first-team appearances for the club but started for just the fifth time this season in Sunday’s win at Derby.
Bruce believes the England Under-20 international could be part of Marcelo Bielsa’s squad next season instead of being loaned out.
Bruce told Football Insider when asked about Shackleton’s future: “You never know, I’m a big believer that you never know how someone’s going to do in the big leagues until you get the opportunity.
“When you’re young, hungry and a local lad, sometimes with better players and playing against better players it can bring you on a little bit.
“We’ll have to wait and see but with his performance levels, the way they’ve been the last couple of weeks, it wouldn’t surprise me if they also want him in and around the squad.”
White wins vote in landslide victory
Ben White has been named as the Leeds Live fans' player of the season in a landslide win, picking up a collecting 42.3 percent of the vote.
The 22-year-old arrived on a season-long loan deal from Brighton & Hove Albion last summer having never previously played at Championship level or higher before.
This is a clear statement from the Leeds faithful that the club should make the deal for the defender permanent this summer ahead of the return to the Premier League.
Pablo Hernandez came second with 25.3 percent of the vote with Stuart Dallas collecting 12.4 percent of the vote to complete the podium.
The results of the club's end-of-season awards ceremony were revealed on Friday night, with Hernandez landing the player of the season gong and White being named young player of the year.
Bielsa gesture on statue from fan
Leeds fan Tony Clark designed a statue of the club’s boss Marcelo Bielsa which he will now raffle off to raise funds for the Mind charity.
The statue depicts Bielsa sitting on a bucket, which has become an iconic image of the Argentine during his stint at Elland Road.
Clark - who has paraded the statue around various Yorkshire locations including Leeds city centre - has explained how he had originally planned to give the statue to the club.
"Originally, I designed it for Leeds United and they were going to take it," Clark told Leeds Live. "Then after the covid and everything else there was a lot of controversy about it.
"Basically, a message then came from the club that Bielsa would love it to go to the fans and then James Mooney [Leeds' head of communications] said that if I was to raffle it off then he would love that."
