Liam Cooper in dark on Leeds United future but Stuart Dallas will know, as Daniel Farke doesn’t rule out January Luke Ayling exit – Phil Hay
Liam Cooper still doesn’t know whether Leeds United plan to offer him a contract extension, according to Phil Hay.
Speaking on The Square Ball on 1 December the Athletic journalist said Daniel Farke is “doing the right thing” in a competitive and professional sense by praising fellow veteran Luke Ayling as he phases him out, but there have as yet not been similar indications for the club captain.
Farke left Ayling, 32, out of the squad for the midweek win over Swansea but declared him “second to none” as a “football character and team-mate character” [BBC Sport, 30 November], and Hay feels the manager has been “searching for alternatives” for a while.
He couldn’t even rule out a January exit for Ayling as Farke had “fudged” the answer to avoid committing one way or the other when asked about the possibility.
According to Hay, when it comes to the right-back’s long-term contemporaries from the Marcelo Bielsa era, Cooper is in the dark so far while Stuart Dallas can probably work it out for himself after so long out.
Hay said (24m 30s): “At the moment, from what I can understand, Cooper doesn’t know one way or the other whether he’s going to get an extension.
“Dallas I think is clever enough that [he’s] been out for so long that Leeds are not, on a whim, just going to say, ‘Yeah have a new deal’. There’s going to have to be some element of ‘prove yourself’ there, which seems fair enough.
“And Ayling also out of contract at the end of this season.”
Changing of the guard
Time waits for no man, so with Bielsa long-gone from Elland Road and the promotion he brought to the club reversed in the summer with relegation it is increasingly looking like time to move on from some more pieces.
The new era under Farke is heading very much in the right direction and there seems to be less of a place than ever for members of the old guard.
Ayling had been far more heavily involved in the Premier League over the past two seasons, to dramatic effect in both positive and negative terms, but the new manager has since installed Archie Gray in his place, having also chosen Jamie Shackleton to start more recently.
With Djed Spence now fit again the run of games Ayling had at the beginning of the campaign will likely prove his final spell as the presumed starter, which on form is probably right.
His commitment to the cause and his character in the dressing room appear to be in no doubt, so he’s sure to be welcome until the summer although an extension seems unlikely.
Cooper, 32, isn’t part of the first-choice centre-back pairing any more either with Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk playing so well, and with Charlie Cresswell waiting in the wings the skipper is quite possibly in the same boat as Ayling at the end of the campaign.
Dallas is the great mystery after having not played for a year and a half, and the fact that there still seems to be an opening at left-back might just prolong his career if he can make a return from the devastating broken leg.
But it is starting to look like the trio of 32-year-old’s, who have all played such crucial parts in the recent history of Leeds United, might be set to pass on the torch to the next generation for good at the end of the season, potentially with another promotion secured.
In other Leeds United news, a Sky Sports pundit has admitted a “selfish” view as a forgotten star expected to push for exit in January.