Dan James comments on Swansea return after missing out on Leeds move

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Dan James looked set to join Leeds United on transfer deadline day.

Dan James has told Swansea’s official website that he is pleased to be back in training with Graham Potter’s side despite failing to seal a deadline day move to Leeds.

James was at the centre of a bizarre saga at the end of the January window. The Yorkshire Evening Post reports that the 21-year-old travelled to Elland Road to undergo a medical and everything was in place for the Whites to land the winger on an initial loan deal that would become permanent in the summer if Marcelo Bielsa’s side secured promotion.

The Yorkshire Evening Post however, added that Swansea stopped taking calls from Leeds in the final moments of the window and the deadline passed without James completing his move.

James was left out of the Swans’ clash with Bristol City at the weekend, but the club have now confirmed on their official website that he has returned to training and is in contention to feature against Millwall this Saturday.

And after linking up with his teammates again, James opened up about the failed move to Leeds and insisted that a lack of preparation was the reason for his absence against the Robins.

“It has been a tough few days with everything that has gone on,” he told the club’s official website.

“But I am back here now, I trained today and I really enjoyed it. I do love it here, the boys have welcomed me back and there were a few laughs and jokes.

“It was not that my head would not have been in the game, my head is here,” he went on to add when discussing not playing at the weekend.

“But with going back and forth I did not feel I had prepared myself right and the last thing I wanted was to have a bad game and people think my head wasn’t in it.”

It cannot be easy for James as he would have been sure for much of transfer deadline day that he was Leeds-bound. Similarly, there is likely to be a lot of frustration at Elland Road over how those hours played out.

It remains to be seen whether Leeds make any fresh move for James in a future window. But perhaps the way he responds on the pitch over the coming weeks could have an impact on whether Bielsa asks the Whites hierarchy to have another go at landing him in the summer.