Leeds are on the verge of signing Stuart Dallas from Brentford, but will also be without Tommaso Bianchi for at least the first month of the season.

Leeds are reported to have agreed a fee with Brentford of around £1million, and this figure is likely to rise by a further half million in the future depending on the number of appearances made by Dallas in the next few years. The transfer is still subject to a medical, but is expected to be completed early next week.

Dallas is a 24-year-old from Northern Ireland and is already well known to Rosler, as our current boss took him from Brentford from Crusaders in 2012. He only made a few appearances in his first season at Griffin Park, but he was an integral part of their side that reached the play-offs in May, with 38 appearances and scored six goals in 2014/5.

Dallas is left footed and is likely to provide the width Rosler has been looking for to complete his preferred 4-3-3 formation, and his arrival will presumably this will mean that Mowatt will revert to a more central position. Earlier we had been reported to be after another in Sunderland winger Will Buckley, but the Black Cats will now have to hope that someone else will take Buckley off their hands.

The arrival of Dallas comes at an opportune time, because the midfield area of the squad has been depleted by an injury to Tommaso Bianchi. Bianchi had impressed Rosler during the pre-season friendlies and seemed likely to be in the starting line-up when the league games began, so the Italian will be very frustrated to pick up an injury at this time.

Rosler told the Yorkshire Post that Bianchi will have a cartilage operation on Monday. “It’s a similar thing to what Luke Murphy had and he will be back between four to six weeks. Unfortunately that happened against Frankfurt in a dual. It’s an impact injury and we hope everything goes well. But he has a good base of fitness and that will not be lost in two weeks before he can start running again.”

But despite this setback the pre-season seems to be progressing well. This time our signings have all have previous experience of the Championship and are mostly younger players who will be keen to progress. By all accounts the players have been impressed with the training and the way that Rosler is handling the team. Do I feel a little bit of optimism starting to creep into my veins?

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