Leeds United signed the forward on loan when they should be focusing on players who will be with them for the long haul.
In a recent interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds United’s managing director Angus Kinnear explained that his side was building for the future and was never going to make a bold claim for promotion in the first year of a new era at Elland Road.
“We’re confident that by putting foundations in place and giving it stability, this club should be getting promoted,” he told the YEP.
“We’re all clear that if we haven’t done that after five years then we’ll have failed in what we set out to do.”
The problem is, there is no stability in signing their main striker on loan as they did with Pierre-Michel Lasogga, especially when there is no option to make the 25-year-old’s switch a permanent one in the summer.
Leeds’ director of football Victor Orta had the option of building for the long-term, signing a young striker who would be at the club for years and help secure their dream of securing and ultimately retaining top flight football.
Most importantly he could have targeted a player proven in the English football league, such as Ollie Watkins, but instead he opted for a short-term fix in his bid to replace last season’s top-scorer Chris Wood.
Building for the future and having a long-term plan is admirable, but contradicting that by putting so much faith in a loanee – especially one who has not exactly lit up Elland Road to date despite a promising debut and a few goals since – is bizarre.
Leeds had the ideal opportunity to sign a forward who could have built a career at the club. Instead they signed Lasogga on loan and supplemented him with the likes of Jay-Roy Grot and Pawel Cibicki; two players who have flattered to deceive thus far.
Only Caleb Ekuban looks a decent bet, with injury robbing him of the chance to hit the ground running.
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