Leeds United midfielder Mateusz Klich has been in the Utrecht squad twice since leaving Elland Road on loan.
When the January transfer window opened, one of the players that most Leeds fans would have expected to leave the club in some capacity was summer signing Mateusz Klich.
Klich was one of the Whites’ first signings of the Andrea Radrizzani era at Elland Road, but it quickly became apparent once the season began that he was going to have to be patient as Thomas Christiansen preferred other options in the Championship.
A brilliant performance in the Carabao Cup win against Burnley suggested that the 27-year-old may have turned a corner, but he was unable to build upon that display and soon found himself back on the periphery.
A lacklustre performance against Newport County earlier in the month left many fans largely writing him off – though he was by no means the worst Leeds player on show in the defeat – and a January move, at that stage, appeared inevitable.
He returned to the Eredivisie last week to join Utrecht. And while the Dutch side have only played two games since he joined the club, the early signs just hint that the grass may not be that much greener elsewhere for Klich.
The Poland international has been in the matchday squad for both home games against Feyenoord and Ajax. But unfortunately for Klich, that is where he has remained on both occasions, meaning he goes into this week’s clash with Excelsior still awaiting his first minutes for the club.
Given the calibre of the opponents that they have faced in the last two games, Jean-Paul de Jong may have felt that throwing Klich straight in would have been a potential mistake, but it is perhaps still a surprise that he has not got onto the pitch at all.
Klich has more than enough time to turn his fortunes around, but the early signs just hint that he may not find it so easy to make a statement to his parent club that he deserved to be used more often.
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