Re-signing Sam Byram on loan could be a great move for Leeds United

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Should Leeds United take a look at Sam Byram?

January is only around the corner and it will give Leeds United and their Championship rivals a much-needed chance to address weaknesses.

Thomas Christiansen’s side are only a point adrift of the top six, but this is a team who were setting the standard in the Championship early on and the Whites certainly need a few new players to enhance the likelyhood of them finishing in the playoff places come May.

One area which United could and should strengthen is right-back. As good as he was last season, Luke Ayling is nowhere near as consistent as he was under Garry Monk and he needs a jolt to the system.

With Gaetano Berardi impressing at left-back, Ayling’s place isn’t under threat, which is no good because no matter he poor he is, he has the safety blanket of knowing that he’ll be playing the following week.

One man who Leeds should target is West Ham’s Sam Byram, who left Elland Road for £3.7 million almost two years ago (price reported by The Independent), and getting him back on a six-month loan would certainly give Ayling something to think about.

The 24-year-old is sidelined with a thigh problem at the moment but he will be back later this month, though does he want to spend the remaining six months on a bench, watching Pablo Zabaleta impress under David Moyes?

Even when he returns, Byram isn’t going to displace the Argentine defender and perhaps he would be receptive to leaving East London on a short-term basis – and where better to go than your boyhood club?

The truth is that Byram – who joined Leeds at the age of 12 originally – needs to show Moyes that he can be a big player for West Ham in the long term and he can’t do that while Zabaleta is playing every week.

But a successful stint on loan would certainly alert Moyes to his talents and the West Yorkshire side need somebody of his quality and experience.

Ayling had Berardi and Lewie Coyle nipping at his heels last term, forcing him to play well, but they haven’t been factors this season and it’s probably no coincidence that the former Arsenal youth’s performances have dipped as a result.

Byram is good enough to displace him in the first XI and maybe that would give Ayling something to think about when a hungry Coyle returns in the summer following a season-long loan at Fleetwood Town.