Simon Grayson is trying to play down the speculation that Max Gradel is on his way to West Ham United, Fulham or Swansea City.

Leeds fans have been getting increasingly restless during the summer months after seeing the departure of three of last seasons’ first team regulars, with no significant influx of talent to replace them. Following the contentious sale of Kasper Scmeichel and the decision to allow Kilkenny and Johnson to leave on free transfers, there has been talk in the papers that Fulham, West Ham and Swansea are all interested in signing Max Gradel .

It would be especially galling if Gradel was to join another club in our division, as West Ham are reportedly in debt to the tune of about £80 million, so they really shouldn’t be in a position to outspend us. But although Mad Max has only one year remaining on his contract (just like Schmeichel) Grayson has denied that the club has received any written offers for the Ivorian.

Grayson told the official site that "Max was back with everyone else on Thursday and he was full of the joys of spring. He's fantastic to work with and got stuck right in just as you would expect. Unfortunately you can't stop speculation. It shows the calibre of players we have, but there have been no written offers for Max. If someone offers mega money for a player you always have to weigh up if it's for the best, but we don't have to sell”.

So on the face of it, it all sounds good. I only hope that ‘no written offers’ doesn’t mean that we’ve actually had a verbal offer, and that Max wasn’t ‘full of the joys of spring’ because he thinks he’s going to get a big money move to another club. Cynical, aren’t I! Ken Bates has told us that we can expect some incoming players quite soon, now that everyone is back from their holidays and into pre-season training, so let’s hope that he means it and that we see decent team strengthening at Elland Road quite soon!

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