Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United missed out to Championship rivals Bristol City for Sammie Szmodics.
Sammie Szmodics is yet to really show what Leeds United are missing. Then again, he hasn’t really been given the chance.
According to the Bristol Post, Leeds made a last-gasp attempt to nab Szmodics from under the noses of Championship rivals Bristol Rovers in late July.
Director of football Victor Orta was obviously impressed by the attacking midfielders final season at Colchester United, where the local lad made good scored 15 goals and produced nine assists.
Szmodics’s ability to score and create in equal measure from his favoured number ten role could, on paper at least, have eased the burden on the 34-year-old talisman Pablo Hernandez who, while remarkably evergreen, simply cannot go on forever.
In truth, however, Leeds left it too late. Szmodics’s move to Bristol City was simply too far down the line by the time The Whites firmed up their interest.
But while Leeds are arguably more reliant upon the mercurial Hernandez than ever with Jack Harrison and Mateusz Klich in particular struggling to open up deep lying defences at Elland Road, Szmodics hasn’t been given a chance yet to show what he can do.
Six games into the new Championship season, the 23-year-old has not got off the bench yet with his only Bristol City appearance so far coming in the EFL Cup against Queens Park Rangers.
If Szmodics is not deemed worthy of a starting place under Lee Johnson, what chance would he have had of ousting Hernandez at Leeds?
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