Leeds running out of goalkeepers as Darlow moves to Man United
Friday, 10th Jul 2026 09:50 by Tim Whelan
With Karl Darlow on the verge of agreeing a free transfer to Manchester United and Lucas Perri reportedly in demand for a loan move, Leeds will almost certainly have to look to sign yet another new goalkeeper before the new season starts.
The Athletic have reported that our friends from the wrong side of the Pennines are close to completing the signing of Darlow, although as of yesterday there were still a few details to be sorted out. Their report also said that Everton had been making moves to sign the keeper, but Darlow had decided on the move to Old Trafford.
All this comes after Leeds had failed to persuade the Welshman to sign another contract, so he was free to leave. Which seems a bit odd on the face of it, after Darlow finished last season as the clear first choice between the sticks, but maybe he was looking for an assurance that this would continue into the new season, and didn’t get it.
No player should be guaranteed a starting place regardless of their form, but maybe he was told that the intention is to sign another top goalkeeper over the summer. That said, he certainly won’t be first choice at Old Trafford, where Senne Lammens will undoubtedly be the first choice for the foreseeable future.
Darlow made 38 appearances during his time at Elland Road, mostly during the spells when he came in for Meslier towards the end of our promotion season, and when he was restored to the side for the second half of the season after Perri’s form wasn’t quite what we wanted.
At the time Daniel Farke said he was a “very reliable, solid goalkeeper, who was fantastic for us last season”. But now we have the inevitable comments on social media that Darlow has ‘tarnished his legacy’ by choosing that particular club for the next stage of his career. And it means that we’re back to having just the four Welshmen in our first team squad.
Darlow’s move might have opened the door for Lucas Perri to re-establish himself as the club’s number one, although when Farke made the decision to change goalkeepers in January he was quoted by the Athletic as saying he needed to take Perri “out of the spotlight” and that he had “perhaps not delivered, performance-wise, what we were expecting”.
After that Perri’s opportunities were limited to the run to the FA Cup semi-finals, where he proved to be an excellent penalty saver, as we got through the shoot-outs at both Birmingham and West Ham. He also made a few crucial saves in some of the cup ties, but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to bring him back into contention to be our regular goalkeeper.
Now Sky Italia have reported that Serie A club Torino have made an enquiry about the possibility of taking him on loan, as they need a new keeper for next season. Though the same report says the Italian club is also looking at Southampton's Aaron Ramsdale. Perri still had three years left on his Leeds contract, so we will not be obliged to move him on if we think we still need him, as cover at least.
In the meantime our former keeper Ilian Meslier has completed a rather surprising move to Arsenal, after his Leeds contract came to an end on June 30th. He might at least move up from being a third choice keeper to being second choice at the Emirates, with the word being that Kepa Arrizabalaga is likely to move on, and having a £5M release clause in his contract.
But unless David Raya gets injured Meslier is unlikely to see any first team action outside of the domestic cup ties. We all thought he was more likely to move to a French club to restart his career, rather than one of Europe’s top sides, so he will have to hope that the goalkeeping coaches at the North London outfit have got what it takes to rebuild his confidence.
All of this could leave Alex Cairns as our one remaining senior keeper, so thankfully he agreed to sign a new contract after his previous deal expired at the end of June. That’s not a situation that can continue, so we have to assume that the club are looking to sign at least one new keeper, either as backup for Perri or as a new first choice.
As ever the 49ers are keeping their cards close to their chest, but hopefully there will be more news on that front before the new season kicks off in June.
Reuters
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