Elland Road
Leeds are continuing to sign players as they mount a challenge for promotion next season.

Leeds have confirmed the signing of two new players over the weekend with midfielder Tommaso Bianchi and striker Souleymane Doukara both coming from Italy to join the Premier League hopefuls.

Just as Massimo Cellino promised the side are looking for more talent with long-term prosperity in mind, the club have dipped into the Italian market once more, signing the duo to help with their attacking line-up for the campaign ahead.

25-year-old Bianchi joins Leeds from Sassuolo – he spent a long spell on loan with Serie B side Modena before making the move – and head coach David Hockaday claims he will be a star for the Lilly Whites in the coming months.

"Tommaso can play on the left, on the right, in the number 10 role and he can score goals," he said.

"In the last three seasons he has been involved in teams pushing for promotion. He was twice been beaten in the Play-Offs but more importantly he won automatic promotion into Serie A. So the last three seasons have been positive for Tommaso.

"He is hungry, young and he is everything that we are about. He has a great technique and he is another player that we delighted to welcome to Elland Road."

Doukara will be a loan signing from Catina to start with but could be made permanent if he fits well into the squad. Meanwhile Hockaday insisted that he is in close contact with Cellino over which players would be good additions to the Leeds squad.

"I have identified with the president the positions that we need to strengthen the team", he explained.

"We know we need to strengthen, we finished 15th last year and we have lost a lot of players.

"But that has allowed me to bring in the young players to give them a chance to spread their wings. The president is here now but we have been talking every day. Hopefully there will be more action now.

"As far as I am concerned everybody here is a Leeds United player with at least one more year remaining on their contracts.

"If we can add to what we have got and it improves the quality and the team spirit then we will have a chance."

And it would appear that Leeds are going to continue to use Cellino's Italian contacts to land more talent from the country in the coming months.