It looks like we will be going into our opening pre-season friendly with Wrexham with either one of two rookie keepers in goal or someone who played half-a-game for us nearly 15 years ago!

The game kicks off at 7:30pm on Saturday in Tampa but the time difference means any Whites' fans who are tuning in via an access pass through lufc.com will watch at 00:30 on Sunday, our time. Oh well after the recent World Cup I guess we are used to it.

And all eyes will be on the first name on the team-sheet! Which I suspect shall be Alex Cairns, given yesterday's news that Lucas Perri is close to joining Torino in a €16m move!

Im sure given Perri's erractic form last season and the fact the Serie A club are offering to buy the Brazilian outright, Daniel Farke will not want to risk him, even if it does mean facing the Hollywood cash-injected Welsh side with last-seasons third-choice keeper, our U21's stopper or a teenage Scottish goalie who was on loan at Scunthorpe last season.

Cairns, 33 did forge a decent career in the lower leagues mainly at Fleetwood and Salford City, amassing just under 300 league appearances. But you have to go back to 2011for his last action in a Leeds shirt, when he came on as a sub at half-time against Blackpool in the Championship at Elland Road. Leeds were trailing 3-0 thanks to the infamous Paul Rachubka horror-show. Cairns put up a spirited display but Blackpool ran out 5-0 winners and with Andy Lonegan injured then Whites boss Simon Grayson opted to bring in Alex McCarthy on loan from Reading instead.

Luckily we took two other keepers along in Rory Mahady and Daryl Ombang. 19 year old Scot Mahady was at Scunthorpe last season on loan, Ombang has just signed a new one-year deal.

However even if Phil Parkinson's side win comfortably, I doubt it will matter a jot as our eyes will be on James Trafford. Perri's likely departure has intensified speculation that we are close to bringing in the 23 year old Man City stopper.

No doubt like you, I've heard Trafford will cost anything upwards from £40m to £50m with or without add-ons, there's also rumours about City wanting a "buy back clause" even though they've already bought him back once from Burnley and im sure you've heard the one about the player apparently wanting a "European football exit clause" and Leeds wanting to set the bar at £75m!

But we will leave all that to Adam Underwood, head of recruitment and his team. They pretty much got it spot-on last season and if the figures concerning Perri's likely exit are correct, we've even managed to make a profit of around £800k which is decent business given he failed to establish himself as our number one last season.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters