Two Players Who Can Replace Kyle Bartley At Leeds United
On-loan Leeds defender Kyle Bartley has been a rock for Leeds United this season. His parent club may well be in the Championship next season but the former Rangers defender could be looking for Premier League football.
Should Bartley leave, Leeds must look to replace him quickly and that, on a permanent basis. The Yorkshire club have the look of a side who could challenge for the title next season but they won’t do that without quality defenders.
The partnership between Bartley and fellow loanee Pontus Jansson has been a major reason why Leeds are where they are. Without those two, and the goals of Chris Wood, Leeds may well have been looking at another season of mediocrity instead of dreaming of the Premier League.
Assuming Leeds don’t make it to the Premier League and Bartley doesn’t come back next season, they need to act very fast to replace him and here we look at two centre-backs who would do well to make the move to Elland Road and represent the ambition matching Leeds’ fans desires.
Danny Batth
Batth has been tremendous as skipper at Wolverhampton Wanderers this season but sadly for the West Midlands club, it’s hard to see them improving sufficiently under Paul Lambert, to be title contenders anytime soon.
Batth is approaching 40 games this season now and is the proverbial rock at the back, meaning this would be something of a like-for-like swap should Bartley be no longer available. Batth is 26 now and his best years as a centre-back are surely yet to come. This is another thing Leeds should be looking for when attempting to build a proper team for the future.
Danny Batth is the type of player who could go from being an unknown to being a contender for a spot in the England national team within a year. Such is the nature of football on these shores. So a move up the footballing ladder would be desirable for him.
Marc Muniesa
The former Barcelona man has been at Stoke City for the past 4 years with limited success in truth. His time at the Britannia has not been hailed as a massive success and his game time has been limited. However, he may well be just slightly out of his depth in attempting to displace Ryan Shawcross from the Stoke team.
Regular football and a (hopefully) short-term drop in level could well bring the best out of a player, who clearly has the talent to succeed. Bringing in Muniesa is something which could be done on a loan deal, something they did with Bartley. This would represent a good alternative should a permanent solution not be found in time.
