Torino target Lucas Perri as £40m James Trafford move nears at Leeds | OneFootball

James Trafford’s pending arrival at Elland Road could ease Leeds United’s stance on a Lucas Perri exit.

According to Leeds Live, Torino are preparing a loan with an option to buy and regard Perri as their primary goalkeeping target, hoping Trafford’s move creates an opening.

Leeds have maintained Perri would not be allowed to leave until a new keeper is secured. Approving his departure would also force a search for a fresh back-up amid tighter spending under new Squad Cost Ratio rules, with net outlay just under £50m.

Other priorities remain, including an understudy to left-back Gabriel Gudmundsson and a challenger striker. Daniel Farke, keen to protect dressing-room morale, would likely not block a wantaway player.

Perri joined for £13.9m last summer and was dropped mid-season for poor form, so a temporary loan appears plausible. Even so, Leeds are not obliged to sanction an exit without a contingency, and before the Trafford developments his camp insisted he would fight for his place.

That position may have shifted. A poll of more than 1,800 fans asked whether to keep him as number two to Trafford, if willing, or to offload regardless.

Some 65% favoured keeping him as back-up, while 35% preferred an exit. The verdict suggests last year’s punt, which left him largely a cup goalkeeper, was a rare miss in the 2025 recruitment, yet supporters would accept him in a reduced role.

Source: Leeds Live