The forgotten Leeds United man has not featured in their first two pre-season friendlies and his future looks bleak.
Back in 2016, Leeds United signed French defender Amadou Haidara, swiftly sticking him in the under-23s and never officially announcing his arrival.
A year, on, he is yet to make his first-team breakthrough and has had to make do with a few run-outs for the second string. That said, he will have seen this summer as the ideal chance to impress new Whites manager Thomas Christiansen.
Now 23, Haidara may have seen the lack of centre-backs at Leeds’ disposal as a key factor in potentially making a mark during pre-season, and yet after two friendlies he is one of the only under-23 defensive options not to have been given a chance thus far.
While Paudie O’Conner and Paul McKay both got a chance against both Harrogate Town and the latter also featured against Guiseley a few days later, Haidara was nowhere to be seen.
That is no change to last season, yet it shows how far he has to come even to beat Leeds’ fringe players to a few minutes in a pre-season friendly.
Haidara’s future has looked determined for quite some time, and now that Leeds’ pre-season campaign has begun it seems their new manager has made a swift and emphatic decision regarding a player who could go down as one of the club’s weirdest ever signings.
There is still plenty of football to be played this summer, but with Toumani Diagouraga impressing in an unfamiliar role at the back, Haidara’s one and only Leeds chance may have gone before it even arrived.
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