West Ham’s interest in £25m rated star could be bad news for Leeds United

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West Ham’s desire to sign Swansea defender could impact on Leeds hopes of bringing back Kyle Bartley.

Earlier this week Leeds United fans reacted to news of Paul Clement’s sacking at Swansea with hope that they could finally sign defender Kyle Bartley.

Bartley spent last season on loan at Leeds, only for new manager Clement to block a permanent transfer.

But now their hopes appear set to face a potentially critical blow due to West Ham’s interest in Swansea’s star defender Alfie Mawson.

The Telegraph report West Ham have made Mawson a priority this January, even though the Swans value him as highly as £25 million.

Swansea could be deemed as mad to cash in on Mawson, but they have already sold key players Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente earlier this year.

Mawson’s departure would weaken Swansea defensively quite considerably, and mean they could not afford to let Kyle Bartley go.

Bartley was re-establishing himself as a Swans regular before suffering a knee injury early in the season, from which he has now recovered, appearing for the under-23s earlier this week.

Leeds’ only chance of landing him is if Swansea keep the rest of their defence together, and bring in reinforcements in January. The Swans selling Mawson would be the complete opposite.