Liam Cooper and Jamie Shackleton are in contract talks with Leeds United, with the club looking to extend the captain’s ten-year stay at Elland Road and the academy product’s time in West Yorkshire, too.
Leeds face a busy summer once again, after last year brought a post-relegation rebuild for Daniel Farke. He, Nick Hammond, Gretar Steinsson and co. were tasked with assembling a squad capable of winning promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
One year and some more play-off final heartbreak for Whites fans later, that task remains the same for the team. However, this time it is likely to be a case of fine-tuning, as there is no need to carry out a complete overhaul of what is a talented squad.
Having said that, a lot of Leeds’ business might be dictated by outgoings, and there will be more on top of the players the club announced as retained and released, and some key ones at that as well. However, last week, the club announced that Cooper is now in contract discussions with the club, alongside Shackleton.
They also revealed that Sam Byram has triggered a one-year extension in his deal, whilst Charlie Allen, Luke Ayling, Lewis Bate, Keenan Carole, Stuart Dallas, Cuba Diboe, Scott Godden, Ian Poveda, Morten Spencer, Harvey Sutcliffe, and Dani van den Heuvel have all been released following the expiry of their deals.
Leeds’ skipper has found his game time to be limited this term, with Joe Rodon coming in on loan to play alongside Pascal Struijk, whilst Ampadu is also able to operate in the centre-back role and has switched from holding midfield to the heart of Leeds’ defence in the absence of Struijk following an adductor injury sustained around the turn of the year.
Shackleton has not started in a league game since October, and of Leeds’ 55 games in all competitions, the 24-year-old played a part in only 15 of them, despite his ability to cover both full-back roles and the centre of midfield as well. Cooper, by contrast, played in just 19 games all season.
Reaction to Leeds contract news
FLW’s Leeds United fan pundit Kris Smith spoke to us and gave his reaction to the news that Leeds are in talks with the duo, he said: “It’s not really a shock to me with the three players in the retained list – the major ones anyway – getting offers.
“Byram signing a one-year deal, and then Liam Cooper and Jamie Shackleton being in talks. We don’t know whether they are going to sign or not, but obviously the club have tried to make an effort to sign them up.
“Byram, for me, makes perfect sense as full-back cover on both sides, so we don’t really need to talk about that.
“I’m torn on Cooper. We’ve seen a couple of times last season that he’s off the pace of our other centre-back options and I just don’t see that that is a signing that makes perfect sense for us.
“Even though he’s a leader, as a player he’s not up to the level we need.
“As for Shackleton? For me, there is no reason whatsoever why we should be looking at tying him down to a new contract.
“He was useful back in August, when we had no other options, and our squad was completely depleted.
“As soon as our squad was settled down after the transfer window shut, he was just pushed out to the fringes and barely playing.
“Then, when we might have been looking to use him in the second half of the season during a time injuries started to creep in, he himself was constantly injured despite not even playing for us often.
“There is no point having a utility player that can cover multiple positions that can’t stay fit, and even when he does play he’s probably a 6/10 at best for us.”
