You would be forgiven for presuming that activity at Premier League clubs has come to standstill.
The footballing world has its eyes firmly focused on emerging sporting, and political, headlines from the ongoing World Cup Qatar, with top-flight players even granted mid-season holidays.
Nevertheless, there is work being completed daily to ensure all sides are prepared for a return to competitive action in late December.
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Whilst football's return will, surely, arrive with a strong sense of jubilation, the buzz and hype of a January transfer window will also greet teams within a week of matches recommencing.
Leeds United are one club that can be expected to conduct winter business. The Whites currently sit in 15th place and will look to avoid another relegation scrap by strengthening their ranks.
With that in mind, below is a record of everything recently said by Leeds United officials ahead of what could prove to be a vital window at Elland Road.
Jesse Marsch
Leeds boss Marsch admitted that the club will consider signing a new striker after his side's 4-3 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
“We've spoken a bit,” Marsch said. “I think in general whenever I look at windows I look at it as sort of piece by piece and window by window.
“There's the two-month project and what we think we need right now, then eight months and what is 14 months and trying to piece together how the cycle will present itself. We have targets. I think we're smart enough to know that in order to achieve our goals, we want to continue to look at every position and think about how we can move forward in the right way.
“We also know that I think we have some young talented players that will continue to draw interest and so trying to figure out how to keep those players, how long we can keep them, what can entice them to stay and what that means to the pieces that we might need moving forward. I don't want to talk specifically about positions.
“We talked enough about the striker position in the summer and I don't think that that's gone away but I think we're active, we've been active. This is one of the best parts about working with Victor (Orta) is his clarity on what the market is and what's available and what are good fits for how we're trying to play football is quite good.”
Victor Orta
The sometimes outspoken Orta has opted to remain quiet on plans ahead of the January window, despite having a major influence in recruitment at the club.
Though he did previously outline Leeds' future ambitions in September. "It is as problematic to be too conservative as it is to be too ambitious," said the Spaniard.
"I think Leeds have to consolidate the project, to be between 14th and tenth, to take steps to reach the top ten on a regular basis in two years’ time.”
“It is complicated. With the current business model in the Premier League, the top six is almost unattainable. Leicester and West Ham have broken through in recent years, but it's not easy. To be in the top ten would already be a great success.
"It's happened before, you’ve seen it, you’ve seen the Leicester story which was epic. But, outside of that, you see teams like West Ham, you see Wolves, we’ve seen other teams really disrupt the top-six, huge clubs, and we need to take each game at a time.
“We don’t need to set any unnecessary targets but we want to be one of those teams that tries to upset the natural dynamics of the Premier League. That’s what we’ll try and do. It might take time, we might have to be patient but that’s the ambition of the club from the top down. We don’t want to be operating at 14th or at the lower-end of the table. We want to be ambitious and aim up and look up.”
Angus Kinnear
While he is known to play a part in completing signings, Kinnear also carries several other responsibilities in the day-to-day running of Leeds. Therefore, his silence when it comes to winter additions is unsurprising.
He did, however, reveal certain elements of the recruitment process, using Willy Gnoto's move as an example, in his programme notes ahead of Aston Villa's visit to Yorkshire in October.
Kinnear stated: "Victor and his team had spent several months tracking the player and meeting him [Gnoto] and his family – part of our process to optimise the chances of a player fitting our requirements and being successful. Such groundwork made the decision to accelerate his move, albeit at the last moment, more compelling and straightforward.
Andrea Radrizzani
Following a failed deadline-day bid to bring Netherlands attacker Cody Gakpo to Elland Road, Radrizzani told Leeds fans that another attempt will be made to sign the PSV attacker in January.
In a tweet replying to a supporter, Radrizzani outlined his plans to move for Gakpo once more. He wrote: "We will continue to work on Gakpo. Now it's time to focus on the pitch and support our new project and the great job Jesse and the staff are doing."
Gakpo's excellent form this season, including a goal in the Netherlands' opening World Cup win over Senegal is likely to mean he has much more high-profile admirers come the window and with that, a very large price tag.
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