Charlie Cresswell ‘definitely not happy’ with Leeds United situation amid heavy transfer window interest – Phil Hay
Charlie Cresswell is “definitely not happy” with his lack of involvement at Leeds United and his future at the club is an “interesting” situation, says Phil Hay.
Speaking on the 5 January Square Ball the Athletic journalist reported that there is “loads of interest” in the centre-back, who had previously been told he wasn’t going anyway during January.
Blackburn are reported to have joined Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town in the running to bring the England under-21 international in this month [Alan Nixon via Patreon, 31 December].
But with manager Daniel Farke having suggested that the player’s feelings have to be taken into account as well Hay says Cresswell’s are currently not positive, potentially putting an exit on the table this month still.
Hay said (6m 35s): “Does he give Cresswell a game? Cresswell’s situation is quite interesting actually. There’s loads of interest in him, as you’d expect…
“Farke was saying Cresswell’s not a player that we’d want to go, but he did caveat that by saying you’ve got to consider the wishes of the player as well.
“Cresswell’s definitely not happy with the lack of minutes, which is basically complete at the moment, he’s not getting a look in at all.”
Stasis
It is no surprise that Cresswell isn’t pleased with how the first half of the season has gone, having returned from a breakout season on loan at Millwall to virtually disappear.
Having only seen two minutes of action since mid-August the 21-year-old has now only made the bench in the Championship three times in as many months.
The starting partnership of Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk has been hard to shift, but Farke has still opted for Liam Cooper to step in and hasn’t even seen fit to give Cresswell a sniff off the bench.
All things being equal the German would indeed prefer to have the security of the former under-21s captain in his ranks, but it is hard to sell the youngster on that when he hasn’t been given an opportunity at all for so long.
There is surely an argument to put him ahead of veteran skipper Cooper in the rotation, but if the manager prefers the experience of the 32-year-old whose contract is currently up in the summer, then a loan move for Cresswell probably makes sense.
It would of course be so typically Leeds for the squad to then be hit by a major absence at centre-back if they did that, but currently his development is being stalled and the almost total lack of involvement is surely a major frustration.
Farke has done a strong job for the most part this season but his unwillingness to rotate his squad is a definite question mark, and how that impacts on talents such as Cresswell can’t help but be a negative.
In other Leeds United news, a club has reacted after being left in shock by the Whites’ transfer window move already.