Two Leeds United players are no longer ‘in the picture’, Daniel Farke is ready to sell them both

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Leeds United are ready to sell both Leo Hjelde and Lewis Bate when the January transfer window opens.

Hjelde had began the season in the first team picture under Daniel Farke after a promising pre-season, starting both of Leeds’ first two matches against Cardiff City and Shrewsbury Town.

However, having been hooked at half-time in both, Hjelde’s only appearance since then came in the Carabao Cup defeat to Salford City, and he is now very much back in the U21s.

Bate, meanwhile, has barely been given a chance by Farke since a loan spell at Oxford United last season, receiving just a handful of minutes against Shrewsbury all the way back in August.

And now according to Phil Hay’s latest article for the Athletic, Leeds are ‘very open’ to interest in both players next month with neither anywhere near the first team fold.

Leeds have wasted Bate and Hjelde development

Bate is out of contract at Leeds in the summer and so clearly their mind is made up that he will not make it at Elland Road, despite having been fairly close under Jesse Marsch back in the 2021/22 season.

With it being clear early on that Bate was not part of Farke’s plans, Leeds made a really poor error by not sending him out on loan in the summer and allowing him to build on a first full season at senior level with Oxford.

Leeds are said to have received plenty of offers from him earlier this year and so it makes no sense to have kept him around just to play U21s football, which he has already outgrown.

Hjelde, meanwhile, unfortunately failed to take his first team chance earlier in the season and has since dropped considerably down the pecking order, even with injuries at left-back.

However, given his frame and stature, Hjelde’s best position is actually at centre-back, where he has never been given a chance. Again, Leeds should’ve sent him on loan in the summer in order to do that.