Did Leeds make mistake with Mallik Wilks sale?

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Leeds United loanee Helder Costa hasn’t been better than Mallik Wilks this season.

“DO NOT SELL WILKS, I REPEAT, DO NOT SELL WILKS.”

That was the view of one Leeds United fan on Twitter this past summer when reports of Mallik Wilks’s departure were floating about.

The Thorp Arch product had only recently returned to Leeds following an excellent season-long loan at Doncaster Rovers in League One, netting 15 goals across all competitions.

At 20, that’s a fine goalscoring return from right wing, but the supporters’ appeals to keep Wilks fell on deaf ears and he was sold to Barnsley in July.

Fast forward four months and the Chapeltown native could be forgiven for wondering whether his boyhood club made a big mistake.

You can’t argue with Leeds’ rationale. After all, they went on to sign Helder Costa on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers and, as far as pedigree and experience goes, the Portuguese is on another level to Wilks altogether. At least, he was meant to be.

It’s been a pretty dreadful season on an individual level for Costa, who has one assist and zero goals in 14 Championship outings so far. Bear in mind that this is a player who the Whites have committed to paying £15 million for next summer [The Daily Mail].

With Pablo Hernandez out, it would’ve been a fight between those two to start for Marcelo Bielsa on the right-hand side of attack and it isn’t a stretch to suggest that Wilks – who’s five years younger – would be putting his higher-profile counterpart to shame.

If Jack Clarke can get a move to Tottenham off the back of working under the famed Argentine coach for a year, it’s fair to say that Wilks could have thrived under him, too.

In fact, he has already opened his account for the Tykes in the Championship, scoring in a defeat by Luton Town in September. It doesn’t reflect all that well on Costa, or Leeds for that matter.

The Wolves-owned star might explode into life, but each week without a memorable moment is another week that should pose questions as to why Wilks was cut loose.

He wasn’t as big of a name as Costa, but he’s been the bigger player this season and United might’ve made a mistake here. Lewis_LUFC knows.