Phil Hay: Lewis Bate could be 'very good signing' for Leeds United

Leeds United are set to announce Lewis Bates' arrival from Chelsea today (Thursday) after a £1.2million fee was agreed, according to Phil Hay.

The Athletic journalist reported via his personal Twitter account on Thursday morning that the deal includes a "substantial sell-on clause".

Hay added his opinion about Leeds' swoop for the 18-year-old midfielder, claiming it is "potentially a very good signing".

Exciting one for the future

Bate will join Leeds having never made a senior appearance in his career so it's unlikely that the England youth international will be straight into Marcelo Bielsa's first-team squad at Elland Road.

However, there's a lot of integration between the senior squad and the Under-23s at Thorp Arch and we expect that Bate will train with the first-team players every now and then.

He's a really talented young player.

Bate led Chelsea's Under-15s to a treble before playing for their Under-18s at the age of 15.

The London-born central midfielder has since been named on the bench twice for the Chelsea senior squad and impressed in Premier League 2 last season for their Under-23s as he made 20 appearances.

After shining in December, Bate won the Premier League 2 player of the month award while the left-footed ace has also left Chelsea fans purring over his performances.

Hay is excited and we're excited too because it seems as though we've found a real gem here and have done extremely well to prise him away from Chelsea.

That sell-on clause could be annoying in the future but for now, that's nothing to worry about and is very common in deals such as this.

In other Leeds United news, the Whites are on the verge of making a senior signing with a work permit now applied for.