Is Eunan O’Kane set for more disappointment at Leeds United?
When he retires, Leeds United midfielder Eunan O’Kane won’t look back on 2018 with any great fondness. The Republic of Ireland international received a first-half red card at Ipswich Town in the Whites’ second league game of 2018, in a moment which pretty much set the tone for a rotten year.
O’Kane swiftly became a very unpopular figure among Leeds fans and started only eight more matches from then until the end of the season.
Yep, 2018 hasn’t been all that kind to him, but it’s probably going to get a lot worse for the 28-year-old.
The former Bournemouth man isn’t going to play for Leeds this season, evident by the fact that Marcelo Bielsa did not even give him a shirt number. In order to play regularly somewhere, he must leave before tomorrow’s deadline, but has he just shot himself in the foot in that regard?
Charlton Athletic boss Lee Bowyer went on record last week as saying that he wants him in London, but claimed that O’Kane didn’t fancy a drop down to League One.
The Addicks have just signed Josh Cullen on loan from West Ham, meaning that a rare chance for O’Kane to have a big role at another club has probably just ended, even if it’s League One.
Considering we’re a day away from the transfer window closing and he’s still at Leeds, it could be argued that the phone at Thorp Arch probably isn’t ringing off the hook with clubs desperate to sign the Irishman.
With that in mind, O’Kane, earning £12,000-a-week [Daily Star], probably wasn’t in a position to turn down Charlton if first-team football was on the agenda, but that chance has passed him by and he now looks set to spend the next four months in exile under Bielsa.
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