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LEEDS UNITED are battling it out with Norwich City to land loan keeper Fraser Forster for 2010-11 – according to reports.
The highly-rated Newcastle United stopper, 22, recently completed a stand-out loan spell with the Canaries, featuring 38 times to help the East Anglians clinch the League One title ahead of Leeds.
Forster has since returned to parent club Newcastle, but is behind Steve Harper and Dutch Under-21 international Tim Krul in the pecking order on Tyneside and is tipped to be farmed out on loan again.
Leeds are rumoured to be in the market for him, while also being linked with Arsenal's young Polish custodian Wojciech Szczesny.
Hexham-born Forster, who had a brief spell at Bristol Rovers at the start of 2009-10, kept an impressive 20 clean sheets in the league for the Canaries.
He was one clean sheet away from breaking Carrow Road legend Kevin Keelan's record, with City boss Paul Lambert hailing him as a "world-class keeper in the making."
Ironically, a rare aberration by the keeper gifted Jermaine Beckford a late winner in City's 2-1 televised loss to Leeds in October, but it represented a rare blip from Forster, who took the club's players' player of the year award.
Leeds United anthem Marching On Together is on course for a place in this weekend's top 10. The much-loved song was released as a 79p digital download single on Sunday to celebrate United's promotion to the Championship.
And today the week's first set of purchase figures showed the track riding high as the UK's seventh best selling single.
Marching On Together has shifted nearly 10,000 copies - just 4,000 behind the third biggest seller, X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's All Night Long.
US rapper B.o.B. is the clear favourite to reach number one in this Sunday's singles chart, however, having clocked up sales of nearly 35,000 with Nothin' On You.
Sung by the legendary Don Revie era United squad, Marching On Together was originally known as Leeds! Leeds! Leeds! and was the B-side of the club's 1972 FA Cup final single.On sale at itunes, play.com, Amazon, Tesco.com, 7Digital & HMS
United fans have been snapping up the new downloadable re-release of Leeds, Leeds, Leeds (Marching On Together) increasing expectations of chart success next weekend. The track, digitally re-mastered, was available to download from Sunday and was... Full article on official Leeds United site
Leeds boss keen to freshen squadLeeds boss Simon Grayson has confirmed who will stay and who will go as the club prepare for life in the Championship.
Casper Ankergren, Rui Marques and Andrew Milne have all been informed that their contracts will not be renewed for the 2010/2011 campaign.
The club will, however, offer new contracts to Andrew Hughes and Jermaine Beckford, whose last proposal still stands although he is expected to sign for a Premier League club.
Alan Sheehan spent most of last season on loan at Swindon and has been informed that he will not be offered a new deal.
Nor will Lubomir Michalik, Andy Robinson or Tresor Kandol who have been told to start looking elsewhere despite all still being under contract.
Second-year apprentices Mike Whitwell, Ryan Jones, Sam Jones, Callum Williams and Adam Watson will not be offered professional deals.
Great piece on Andy Hughes
Signed from Norwich during the dismal Summer of 2007, I doubt many Leeds fans, myself included, knew who Andy Hughes was. To be honest, any player would have done at that point in our history. It soon became apparent that "Hughesy" suffered from the age old plague of many a professional footballer - he was too versatile.
Comfortable across midfield and at either full-back role, it was just too easy to move him to a void in the team rather than let him settle into a position and make it his own. Despite this, he has made 110 appearances for Leeds and although by his own admission he was far from the most technically gifted footballer in the clubs history, it was obvious that his 110% performances more than made up for it.
Hughes has had his critics during his 3 years at Elland Road, but name me a player who hasn't? At a club where your star, 30 goal a season striker is public enemy number one, you can consider yourself lucky not to receive death threats for conceding a corner! Despite the added pressure of pulling on the sacred white shirt, Hughes has played wherever, whenever, knowing that playing left back for the majority of a season was likely to expose him to abuse from the fans.
Without doubt his finest moment in a Leeds shirt came at Old Trafford, in that legendary F.A. Cup win back in Januray. Tasked with keeping the likes of Rooney, Berbatov, Obertan and later Antonio Valencia and Michael Owen at bay, Hughes out-performed the Premiership stars with a display that matched the top flight surroundings. In a recent interview with The Yorkshire Evening Post, Hughes was unsure of what legacy he has created at Elland Road and whilst I can't answer that question. I can tell you that my lasting memory of a very underrated, low-key player is that of a man who saluted the Revie Stand with raw emotion and passion following our promotion last week. If I had been blessed with enough talent to play for Leeds United, I wouldn't have greeted the clubs promotion any differently. Already without a shirt before the referee had removed the whistle from his mouth, Hughes ran wildly into the on-rushing masses of supporters invading the pitch and was later seen shedding all his emotions in front of The Revie Stand.
To date Andrew Hughes has scored only one goal for Leeds United, a goal that sealed a rare victory at The New Den back in April 2008. With his contract due to expire at the end of the month, I for one feel he has done enough to earn a chance to extent his 'prolific' goal tally. Even if its just for his versatility - Andrew Hughes should be a Leeds United player next season.
Leeds United sealed their automatic promotion to the Championship on a day of extreme drama at Elland Road.
A 2-1 victory over Bristol Rovers secured second place in League One and guaranteed United's return to the second tier for the first time since their relegation in 2007.
United's bid for automatic promotion hung by a thread after Darryl Duffy opened the scoring for Bristol Rovers early in the second half, but replies from Jonathan Howson and Jermaine Beckford in the space of three minutes brought salvation to Leeds
United dominated the first half without seriously threatening to score and it was memorable for an unseemly incident in the 33rd minute which led to the dismissal of Leeds winger Max Grade
