Should Leeds United ask about Tottenham Hotspur’s Kyle Walker-Peters?
Luke Ayling struggled yet again for Leeds United on Friday and it’s clear that the 26-year-old is nowhere near the level that he posted every week last season.
Problem is, Leeds’ other right-back, Gaetano Berardi, has been decent in a left-back role under Thomas Christiansen and the Whites’ head coach could well have reservations over moving him.
United have a good squad but quality right-back options are scarce – especially with Lewie Coyle out on loan – and the Championship side should ask Tottenham Hotspur for a player on loan: Kyle Walker-Peters.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Tottenham have loaned a potential wonderkid to the Championship this season after Josh Onomah was sent to Aston Villa. The 20-year-old struggled in the 1-1 draw at Elland Road, but he’s clearly a big talent nonetheless.
Walker-Peters is also a big talent but he won’t expect a minute of Premier League football for the foreseeable future. He can play right and left-back, but Kieran Trippier, Serge Aurier, Ben Davies and Danny Rose’s presence means that he simply won’t be playing for a while.
The 20-year-old made his Premier League debut in August but hasn’t featured in any competition since September and Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino will know that Championship games are a hell of a lot more positive for his development than Under-23 appearances.
He has a big future at Tottenham, but for now he’s not even in the picture and someone like him could really challenge the out-of-sorts Leeds man – who has played every second of the Whites’ 20 league games this season – and motivate him to find his best form again.
At the moment, there is nobody doing that. There is no incentive to rediscover the consistency that made his £700,000 move from Bristol City look like an absolute bargain, but a player of Walker-Peters’s promise might just help him.
Leeds will have a lot of games in the second half of the campaign and you get the sense that rotation will be key in their promotion hopes – and rotating between Ayling and Walker-Peters at right-back can only help the team.
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