Leeds United Thought to be Interested In Tommy Elphick

It’s officially centre-back silly season for Leeds United after Thomas Christiansen finally addressed the glaring lack of depth at the position. So what does that mean?

Rumors. More Rumors.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

All jokes aside, until TC brings in 1-2 more centre-backs, you’ll see countless reports linking player A to Elland Road. Reliable? Who knows.

All I can say for certain is that the Birmingham Mail has reported that Leeds United are interested in Aston Villa defender Tommy Elphick.

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Elphick was born in Brighton and was a part of the Pigeons since his youth academy days. Before he could get his first senior team start for Brighton Elphick went out on loan to non-league side Bognor Regis Town, where he started 17 times and even scored a goal for the Rocks. Tommy Elphick made his first start at centre-back in 2007 and went on to have 153 appearances for the Pigeons before being sold to AFC Bournemouth in 2012. He played 142 times for the Cherries, scoring 5 goals in the process. Once Bournemouth got to the Premier League, however, Elphick seemed to fall out of the rotation, making only 14 appearances during the 15/16 campaign. Last season, Elphick was Aston Villa’s first signing of the summer as they dropped down to the Championship, and was even appointed the captain of Roberto Di Matteo’s squad. He made 26 appearances for the Villans in 16/17, starting 20 of them. However, with John Terry’s arrival and Elphicks’ spot not guaranteed, he could be swayed to go. He has been also nursing an injury which has kept him from playing for Villa this preseason. Just wanted to put that here just in case if/when certain sites start claiming that Elphick is “sitting out for a new move” or something along those lines. The Birmingham Mail reported that its Sunderland who are keen in bringing in the 29-year-old, with Leeds thought to be interested. Per transfermarkt.com, Elphick is valued at £2.55M.

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Leeds have been doing amazing this transfer window and if they are able to bring Elphick in for cheap, why not right? On the bench or starting alongside Pontus Jansson, Elphick isn’t a bad option. You could definitely go worse than Tommy Elphick (I’m looking at you, Bellusci). Having captained Brighton, Bournemouth, and Aston Villa, Elphick is naturally a leader in the back. It seems like years now that we here at TIAT have been talking about the glaring concern at centre-back depth. So if you’re new here, just know that I could suit up and probably be more useful than Giuseppe Bellusci, and he’s all we have for “backup”. He’s been allowed to leave, so hopefully both club and player can just move on.

Would I like Tommy Elphick as a Leeds player? Yea sure, I guess. At this point, you know about the glaring ball of concern that is the centre-back depth chart. Bringing in talent is a must. I’m just keeping calm because I don’t believe this transfer will happen. Literally, the only time Leeds United are referenced in the Birmingham Mail report is as follows:

“Leeds United are also thought to be interested in the 29-year-old”

It’s the closer to the article. Of course, I know pretty much nothing about how business is being run, but to me, it sounds like whoever wrote up the original story had to throw in a CB-needy team to make his story get more views, and decided to pick Leeds, of all teams. Vagueness sells rumors, and it certainly worked this time. I’d welcome Tommy Elphick at Leeds, of course! I just don’t think it’ll happen. Then again, I slammed the initial rumor of Caleb Ekuban joining the Whites, so I could be wrong here too. Either way, let's get a centre-back in ASAP. MOT