Conor Shaughnessy has left Leeds United on loan for the rest of the season.
Shaughnessy has endured a difficult season with the Whites. He played a fairly prominent role during his first year with the club, but he has made just one appearance for the first-team under Marcelo Bielsa.
It seemed to become apparent that Shaughnessy was not in Bielsa’s immediate plans when he could not get in the team even after a number of defenders had been struck down with injury. And it surprised few when he was given the green light to leave, with Hearts taking the youngster on loan for the rest of the campaign.
Some Leeds fans may be wondering whether Shaughnessy does feature in the long-term plans with the Championship side. But judging by his comments following his switch to Tynecastle, it appears that his goal is to impress enough that he gets another chance with his parent club.
“At this stage of my career the aim to play as many games as possible just to get the experience,” he told STV. “I am obviously hoping we can push up the league and finish as high as we can.
“From then I will go back to Leeds with more experience in the summer and hopefully then I can get a bit of recognition from the Ireland set-up. That would be a dream of mine really.”
Shaughnessy showed plenty of promise during his first season at Leeds, with Thomas Christiansen showing a lot of faith in him. But he is surely going to need to enjoy an excellent spell in the Scottish Premiership to really catch Bielsa’s eye.
Hearts resume the season with three home games on the spin following the mid-season break, starting with the Scottish Cup tie with Livingston.
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