MOT View: Leeds have three options for player deal as Athletic journo says PL cranking up heat
Leeds United will have to act on Gaetano Berardi’s future at Elland Road if the EFL is to follow in the footsteps of the Premier League in regards to player contracts.
Berardi, 31, is the only senior player at Elland Road whose contract expires on June 30 but with the season likely to extend past that date, it is unclear what the future will hold for the former Sampdoria defender.
Berardi may well want to stay on and help deliver Premier League football to the city of Leeds or he could see that he has no future in Yorkshire and that risking injury at this stage of his career will scupper his chances of a deal elsewhere.
For someone who has been at the club as long as Berardi has, we will not begrudge him for whatever decision he makes but he and Leeds may be forced into making that decision sooner rather than later.
The Athletic journalist David Ornstein has reported via his personal Twitter account that Premier League club will have to settle player contracts by June 23, one week before they expire.
It is understood that clubs will either have to agree a new contract, offer an extension to his current terms but boosting insurance or not make an offer at all and choose to release the player.
If this is what happens to EFL clubs then we believe Leeds must offer Berardi a new contract to extend his stay until the end of next season, not just this season.
Berardi may have only started 11 Championship matches this season but those are matches where players have been suspended or injured when he has had to fill in.
In those appearances he hasn’t really put a foot wrong, if you don’t include his red card at Millwall in October which was later rescinded.
Berardi’s disciplinary record has always been something he’s been criticised but one yellow card in 20 total appearances this term would suggest that the Whites have themselves a player who they can always rely upon in their time of need.
Leeds don’t just need Berardi to help finish off this season, but they’ll need him next season too.
In other Leeds United news, Keith Andrews has no doubt who Ben White will be playing for next season.