Leeds United Transfer Window Update: What’s going to happen today?

Charlie Taylor. Toumani Diagouraga. Luke Murphy.

Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu. Gboly Ariyibi. Khouma Babacar.

So many names, so little time.

Today’s the day, ladies and gents, when the Summer Transfer Window closes and we find out who Leeds United really is for the next four months. We have rumours upon rumours floating around the internets, and we’ll try to make sense of them for you here at Through It All Together throughout the day.

Charlie Taylor is probably the biggest name to watch, with West Brom, Liverpool, and other Premier League squads in the mix for the young left back. Will Cellino hold on to him without a clear replacement ready? Will he expect Tyler Denton to step up and start after signing him to a three year deal? My money says Charlie’s with us til January, but others aren’t so sure.

We’ll see.

Toumani Diagouraga and Luke Murphy have been on the outs with Garry Monk, with neither seeing much (if any) playing time since the start of the season. Rotherham and Rangers have both been linked to Toums, and Luke Murphy can’t seem to get any legitimate interest, though Sheffield United, Barnsley, and Bradford City have all been rumoured to be interested.

I’d bet both are gone by the end of the day today, and I’ll personally be sad to see both go. Appreciated what both brought to the club... when they played well.

Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Gboly Ariyibi, and Khouma Babacar are all rumours I’ve seen online, but only “PRudz” has gotten attention from mainstream press. The Luton Town midfielder impressed Cellino in the EFL Cup, and while rumours persist online that a Leeds bid was rejected, there’s been no official word anywhere we’ve found (as of time of writing). Lee Sobot of the Yorkshire Evening Press has been following the Pelly Ruddock saga and had this to say...

Gboly Ariyibi, you might remember, was released by Leeds in 2014 and currently plays for Chesterfield. He’s still only 21, and he’s still fast, but that rumour doesn’t feel like it holds much weight... even if it’s a Pogba-esque “Ariyiback” sort of thing on social media.

The rumour about Khouma Babacar won’t go away either. Babacar is a 6’3” Senegalese striker, currently playing for Fiorentina in Italy, and he has been rumored before, though mostly by Football Manager types online. Instead, yesterday, several outlets ran with a story that Babacar was indeed coming in on loan, with details to be announced in the morning. Most of those reports seemed to be coming from fake Twitter accounts, because people are idiots. While Babacar fits what Monk might be looking for up top to go alongside Antonsson, we’ll just wait to see what happens today before running that story.

So that’s all we have for now... we’ll keep you posted throughout the day here and on Twitter at @ThruItAllLUFC. And let us know if you hear anything? Ha. No matter what happens on this last day of August, let’s have a better September. MOT.

Update: Looks like Leeds might be making a move for Bournemouth midfielder and Ireland international Eunan O’Kane... more on that, here.