Leeds United chief executive Shaun Harvey has tried to allay fears that the January transfer window could see the club sell top players like Jermain Beckford and Fabian Delph.

But fans – and other clubs – will notice that he has left himself some wriggle room if the club does get an offer from a Premiership club that is too good to turn down.

The former Bantams managing director said: “We don’t need to sell but that does not mean we won’t. We have said previously that there will always be a time when it is right for the club to sell a player.

“But to put fans at ease, we are looking to add to our better players to get us out of this division.

“If we can find the right players, we will add to our squad and we will probably look to move a few players out but they will be players on the fringes.”

And in a move seen as a ‘vote of confidence’ in manager Gary McAllister, Harvey has blamed the players for the club’s current slump in form.

Harvey said: “Gary is responsible for the players on a day-to-day basis and they work as a unit but even Gary loses control at 3pm when it turns over to the players on the pitch.

“The players have to step up – it’s up to them to make the difference.

“They have to get themselves out of the run we are currently in.

“The same players were good enough to get us towards the top of the table at the start of the season, playing football that everyone was excited to see. They need to rediscover that.”

Harvey insisted that Leeds still hope to go up via the two automatic promotion places.

He said: “We don’t want to be accepting a place in the play-offs because they can be a lottery.

“We want to be in the top two.”