Leeds United and Crystal Palace are about to start talks over a probable transfer for Shaun Derry.

Derry is approaching the end of his two-month loan with Crystal Palace, but while he is officially due back at Thorp Arch for training on Monday morning, the south London club are expected to begin negotiations over a permanent transfer before the end of this week.

This comes as no surprise, as Derry has been out of favour at Elland Road ever since the mysterious ‘molegate’ affair when we played Palace last season, an occasion when Derry was known to have visited the Palace squad at their hotel the night before the game. He was then sent to Selhurst Park on loan, supposedly to build up his fitness, but in fact he went straight into the Palace side and has played the full 90 minutes of every game since.

Derry’s relationship with Wise soured even further when he failed to return to Leeds for the Oldham game, though there were differing stories about whether it was Neil Warnock or the player himself who took the decision that he wasn’t coming back. So it would seem that Derry has no future at Leeds, even though his performances for a club in a higher division suggest he would undoubtedly make the current Leeds side on merit.

Derry has been a key part of Palace’s dramatic improvement under Warnock, and the Palace boss has hinted that he intends to sign the player permanently. The Palace boss told the Yorkshire Post We'll be talking to Leeds because his contribution has been good.

Shaun's on a good contract at Leeds so we've got to see if they are ready for him to go, and also sort things out this end. I think things will be resolved in the next week to 10 days."

Derry is under contract with United for another 18 months and Leeds are thought to value the midfielder at around £300,000. Leeds have signed four midfielders since the transfer window opened and any fee received for Derry would give Wise additional funds for the remainder of the month.

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