Leeds have released a statement about Andy O’Brien after the defender refused to play for the club at Burnley. We are going to send him out on loan, and West Ham United are said to be interested.

The statement read “Central defender Andy O’Brien was omitted from Saturday’s squad at Burnley after informing manager Simon Grayson he had no wish to be involved in the game. The former Newcastle and Bolton defender spoke with the manager on Friday and informed him he had no wish to play for the club again. The club will decide Andy’s long-term future this week.”

If we are to arrange a loan deal for O’Brien we will have to get a move on, as the deadline to make any loan deals in the remainder of this year is Thursday, so if we can’t farm him out by then we will be stuck with him until the transfer window opens in January.

Over the weekend Simon Grayson spoke of his disappointment at O’Brien’s decision not to play for the club again, after sticking by the player during a difficult period at the start of the season. No doubt O’Brien was irritated by being booed by some of the fans at the start of the season, and then dropped from the side, but his poor performances were partly to blame for the number of goals we conceded in the first few games.

At the time he was struggling for fitness after missing a lot of pre-season through a hip injury, and he also had personal problems which were affecting his concentration. But he seemed to have put it all behind him when he was recalled to the side at Leicester (albeit due to the injuries and suspensions of others) and had an excellent game.

All of which made his announcement at the weekend so unexpected. Maybe the rumours of an approach from West Ham had turned his head, or perhaps he realised that when O’Dea and Lees came back he would be back on the bench. But he could have been more professional about it and submitted a transfer request while still making himself while he was still on our books. He’ll soon discover that Ken Bates deals pretty severely with any players who mess him round, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Pappa Smurf refuses to pay him altogether.

So let’s hope that we manage to find a loan deal for him soon to get him off the books, which will be the best thing for all concerned.

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