Summer promises to be a period of major upheaval at Leeds United. Whether the club is in the Premier League or Championship as June arrives, the expected takeover by 49ers Enterprises will have a knock-on effect for various departments at Elland Road.
Beyond that change at the summit of the organisation, there is the small matter of the head coach Leeds want guiding them through next season and beyond. Javi Gracia’s on a flexible contract which leaves his future largely tied to where the club finishes this campaign.
Further down the hierarchy, there is the now annual debate about Cody Drameh’s future. Except this time the landscape may finally be shifting in his favour.
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For the second time in two seasons, the 21-year-old is impressing on loan in the Championship. Despite playing less than half of Cardiff City’s league games last term, Drameh cleaned up at the Bluebirds’ end-of-season awards as their undisputed best player.
Now it’s Luton Town under Drameh’s right-flank spell. There are still five matches for the Hatters to play this season, though they look guaranteed to play at least another two after that.
Automatic promotion looks a long shot with Sheffield United five points clear on a game in hand, but the play-offs look nailed on for a club which was in League Two five years ago. Drameh’s played 12 of the 14 league games since he arrived at Kenilworth Road and no team in the Championship has picked up more points in that time.
Luton have kept eight clean sheets in Drameh’s 12 appearances. It’s not a single-handed effort, but the right-back is impressing those who watch him every week.
Last month, Luton boss Rob Edwards said: “Cody’s been really good since he’s come in, but we encouraged him to be really brave and we wanted him to take some risks. He was really on the front foot and he showed a lot of quality tonight.”
It remains to be seen what Luton achieve before the end of May as well as what damage Drameh can do at the end-of-season awards ceremony, but, in short, he’s impressed to the point where Leeds may have a hard decision to make in the summer. His contract expires in June 2024.
While Drameh has been away, Luke Ayling’s slipped into a rut with a series of poor performances at right-back. Rasmus Kristensen has popped up with a couple of goals and proved a versatile utility option for Gracia, but game time has generally been a problem in 2023.
Ayling, still only 31, showed in the double-header with Manchester United what a force he can be as a top-flight full-back, but this recent run of five matches has seen his stock fall. Like Drameh, the vice-captain’s contract expires next year.
Can the Whites afford to lose a 21-year-old prospect who is already one of the second tier's best right-backs, and likely to keep improving for the next eight or nine years, when their two senior options have shown such inconsistency? Leeds must either offer Drameh a new deal with a clear pathway to playing next season, loan him out again and risk losing him for nothing in 2024, or sell him for good this summer.
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