It’s been reported today that Leeds have made a bid for Nottingham Forest striker Dexter Blackstock, although their new manager Alex McLeish is keen to keep hold of the player.

Sky Sports are reporting that Blackstock is Neil Warnock’s next transfer target in his search for an experienced striker, now that he’s been rebuffed in his attempt to sign West Brom’s Chris Wood. We’ve apparently tabled a bid somewhere between £700,000 and £800,000.

Just before Christmas I heard that Blackstock was likely to be coming to Elland Road, and that was before his impressive performance against us in the Boxing Day game, when he scored one of the goals in our 4-2 defeat. But that has now been thrown into some doubt by the surprise sacking of Sean O’Driscoll, with Alex McLeish wanting time to evaluate the players he’s inherited before he decides what changes he needs to make to his squad.

McLeish told the Nottingham Evening Post "I am just walking in through the door and am starting to realise we have to make some big decisions very, very quickly. There is all sorts of speculation about Dexter, but we are not planning to let him go. He is out of contract in the summer and you never know. I realise he probably wants a new contract, an extended deal, but I would hope that Dexter would want to stay the course with us.”

It makes a pleasant change for Leeds to be linked with a top player from another club, rather than looking to flog one of our own key players who can’t agree a new contract. Hopefully this is a sign that GFH are providing the resources we need to offer players better contracts than they can get at other clubs in this division, so we can attract the players we need.

But it’s likely that Blackstock’s situation won’t be resolved for a couple of weeks, as the new Forest manager makes one more attempt to get him to sign a new deal, and possibly asks his board to make the player an improved offer. Any transfer probably won’t happen until the final few days of the transfer window, but watch this space.

Photo: Action Images

NoChance added 20:48 - Jan 4 As a Forest fan i felt compelled to register and correct the fanciful progeganda peddled in this article, probably written to appease fans who have yet to see any takeover cash spent! Do your research and you will see that far from "making one more attempt to get him to sign a new deal", Dexter has infact said he is desperate to be offered a new contact with Forest and it is the club who havent approached him about it. Why would Dexter leave Forest for Leeds? A 4-2 mauling recently, multi billionaire owners who when they took over purchased 14 players and the cheque book is wide open for another 3-4 players this window, club very nicely positioned to kick on in the 2nd half of the season... its just not going to happen. Leeds are just not a big draw for players these days, and along with Forest you need to stop dreaming of your yesteryear status! If Dexter does leave it will be because Forest are the ones to let him go and dont offer him a new deal and that will only be because we have better in the pipeline. Yuo cant even beat Leicester to a signing for *** sake!

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bremner1 added 08:58 - Jan 5 you are totally right, you are living in yesteryear if you think that forest ,unlike leeds as you say are a draw for players. your team has done absolutely nothing in at least 20 years and you talk about beating us 4-2 the other week. We beat you 2-1 in september so whats the big deal. We are above you in the league right now and our last significant silverware was being champions of the 1st division before it became the premier. You are probably going to reply with your european superiority but as you said earlier its in the past. you are a big club and should be in the premier but you are no way bigger than Leeds

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