Championship giants Leeds United paid Spanish Segunda side Huesca £3million to bring Samu Saiz to Elland Road last summer.
Samu Saiz’s debut season in English football started like a dream and ended like a nightmare.
The £3 million attacker was a revelation in his first few months at Leeds United, taking the Championship by storm with his thunderbolt strikes and wonderful creativity, as Thomas Christiansen’s side appeared to establish themselves as early promotion contenders.
The first half of 2018, however, could hardly have been different from the second half of 2017.
Saiz copped a six-game ban for spitting in an embarrassing FA Cup exit against Newport County in January and then failed to score for the rest of the season as Leeds finished 13th, 15 points adrift of the final play-off position.
All the while, the club Saiz left to join Leeds last summer are celebrating with delirium.
Huesca have never played in the top flight of Spanish football in their 118-year history but, after beating Lugo 2-0, they will be a La Liga team next season. This is quite the achievement for the Aragon side, who were in the third tier as recently as 2014/15.
Saiz may not regret leaving Huesca for Leeds last summer, but he would be forgiven for feeling a little jealous as the players he shared a dressing room with almost this time last year toast a remarkable achievement.
And Huesca’s success is made all the more remarkable by the fact they have done it without their one-time talisman.
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