Reid Awaits Roque Junior

Last updated : 13 September 2003 By Kevin Markey
The 27-year-old was only expected to touch down at Leeds-Bradford Airport at 4pm today after playing in Brazil's two World Cup qualifying win's over Colombia and Ecuador.

"All the players have come back with the exception of Roque Junior," said Reid to leedsunited.com.

"We'll look at him tomorrow and again on Sunday, with Monday in mind. It's something we will have to assess because he has played in the two games.

"They don't get any bigger than Brazilian qualifying matches, but we'll have a chat with him, through someone who speaks Portuguese obviously, and see how he feels.

"Sometimes you get a feel when you talk to players or see players and I'm sure if he fancies playing it's going to be difficult to stop him.

"But we've an extra couple of days which will certainly help us and him."

Roque Junior arguably represents one of the biggest signings in the club's history and Reid cannot wait to see his Leeds side benefit.

"He is a World Cup winner. It's another quality player, I can't get enough of them, who gives us options at left-back or left centre-half.

"I've seen him on a couple of occasions and he will give us pace and strength and he can handle a football as well.

"He'll just slot straight in because it's not like he's coming directly from South America. He's got that European culture after a few years in Italy."

The boss is set to add Salomon Olembe to the squad, but he probably won't break up the midfield partnership of Jody Morris and Seth Johnson to accommodate him.

"He's been very lively, got a good left foot and is very quick. He's not the biggest guy but he's impressed me as well."

"I think the two centre midfield players have done well for me, Johnson and Jody, but we've also got David Batty chomping at the bit to play and Salomon can play on the left or in the centre too."