Steve Evans urges Massimo Cellino to invest more in Leeds squad

Former Leeds United boss Steve Evans says Massimo Cellino must invest in the squad if the club want to mount a serious promotion challenge.

Evans replaced Uwe Rosler as Leeds boss in October 2015 and guided the club to a 13th-place finish in the Sky Bet Championship.

However, Evans' tenure followed on from those of Rosler, Brian McDermott, Dave Hockaday, Darko Milanic and Neil Redfearn under the Italian owner.

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The 53-year-old and Leeds parted company once the campaign finished but the former Rotherham and Crawley manager is hopeful the club can make positive progress under new head coach Garry Monk, who was appointed on June 2.

Speaking on Sky Sports Now, Evans said: "The left-back [Charlie] Taylor should be in the Premier League, I'm surprised he's not there already. [Lewis] Cook and Sam Byram have both gone and are very talented kids.

"There's a lot of cream left at that football club and if they can add selectively to it, and get proper players in, and Cellino opens up that cheque-book which he hasn't done yet, then they could get the players that will make Leeds United a force in the Championship."

Evans believes the squad Monk has at his disposal is one with plenty of quality and believes the time has come for Leeds to mount a serious promotion challenge.

"I think he still has to add to it to be in the top six," he added. "There's been some good signings made, [Kemar] Roofe and Kyle Bartley were going to come in [when I was in charge].

"Garry obviously rates those players highly himself and has brought them in, but it's a football club which has underachieved for many seasons and now needs to get it right and have a proper promotion campaign.

"With Garry coming in, with the resources that seem to be spent and are going to be spent this week, I'm hopeful that they can do."

Sky Sports' biggest season of football features 127 live games from the English Football League. The new EFL campaign kicks off in front of the Sky cameras on Friday when Fulham host Newcastle, while there's a Championship double-header on Sunday as Leeds travel to QPR and Sheffield Wednesday welcome Aston Villa.