Leeds United are keeping tabs on Hull City defender Alfie Taylor ahead of a potential move to the Premier League, according to reports.
Who is Alfie Taylor?
Whites captain Liam Cooper and Robin Koch will be out of contract at the end of next season ,meaning that backline reinforcements will be needed should one or both of the duo depart during the upcoming window, and Sam Allardyce may have already highlighted an ideal long-term replacement in the form of the 19-year-old.
Taylor is an academy product at the MKM Stadium and is a regular feature of the club’s youth sides having originally joined the U18s, before being promoted to the U21s just last summer, as per Transfermarkt, but he is yet to make a single first-team appearance in the Championship.
The Tigers centre-back, however, has recently been training with Liam Rosenior’s senior squad and was named on the bench for the second-tier fixtures vs Watford, Blackburn and Middlesbrough, so is edging ever closer to making his professional debut, and this has attracted the attention of the hierarchy at Elland Road.
According to TEAMtalk, Leeds, alongside Premier League rivals Leicester City and Crystal Palace, are all “tracking” Taylor ahead of the 2023/24 term. Hull’s exciting starlet has been brought “onto the radar” of the top-flight trio following his performances at youth level, with his admirers looking to “bolster” their options in defence upon the conclusion of the current campaign.
The Yorkshire outfit view the teenager as a player with “huge potential” and believe that he could “develop” into someone that could compete at the highest level in the near future. The Championship outfit are “determined” to retain his services beyond the summer but are nevertheless “bracing themselves” to receive offers.
Would Taylor be a good signing for Leeds?
Should Leeds get relegated from the Premier League, Allardyce will have to sell some of his most prized assets and create a new squad ready for the Championship, so if that turns out to be the case, Taylor would be an extremely promising addition for the long-term future of the club.
Naturally a left-sided centre-back, he is a homegrown talent which always helps when balancing lots of transfers in and our during a no doubt busy summer, and is used to competing for silverware having participated in the likes of the FA Youth Cup with Hull’s U18s.
Finally, Taylor only currently pockets £500-per-week as a result of his age so he wouldn’t be an expensive player to have on the books, and when you consider how cheap of a recruit he’d be alongside his potential, Leeds chiefs shouldn’t even have to think twice about wrapping up a deal during the upcoming window.