We still don’t know where Aidan White will be starting the new season. He could stay at Leeds, or he could go to Derby County, Middlesbrough or even Celtic. The big surprise is that we’ve yet to receive a bid from Norwich City, who seem intent on signing every other Leeds player they can get their hands on.

White is currently without a club as his Leeds contact expired at the end of June, after he turned down an offer that was reported to be £10,000 a week, but hasn’t fixed himself up with another club just yet. Although he is out of contract Leeds will still be entitled to a transfer fee, as he is under 23 and came through the club’s youth academy.

On Wednesday the ever-reliable Daily Star reported that a fee of £500,000 had been agreed with Derby and that the transfer would be completed later that day. This turned out to be complete garbage, as Wednesday came and went without White pitching up at Pride Park. Meanwhile, today’s Derby Evening Telegraph confirmed that Rams boss Nigel Clough is interested in signing the player, but says that although they have had talks with White, it’s unlikely that any deal is imminent.

"He is out of contract, so we can talk about him a bit more freely," said Clough. "We rate Aidan very highly but the problem we have is getting him within the budget if we want to sign all the players we want. We think he is a good player and, in an ideal world,we would like to bring him in but it is probably looking unlikely at the moment."

Middlesbrough have also been reported as being interested in White, and Celtic boss Neil Lennon also said this week that he was interested in taking White to Parkhead. But Leeds haven’t given up hope of keeping hold of White and Neil Warnock has claimed that he feels that White wants to stay at Elland Road.

But that will only happen if we can offer him a better deal that the one already on the table, and like everything else, that depends on whether the new owners are willing to stump up the cash. Let’s hope the takeover can be completed in time to keep White at the club.

Photo: Action Images

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