Leeds United will surely offload a few faces in January and here’s three players who Victor Orta should ditch in order to trim the fat.
January is upon us and so too is the time for Championship clubs to take stock of their season and use the transfer window to make necessary changes.
It has been a very decent first season for Leeds United under Thomas Christiansen so far, but it can always be better and one obvious way to enhance the Whites’ promotion credentials will be to recruit reinforcements next month.
First, though, Director of Football Victor Orta must trim some of the fat on Leeds’ squad and here, HITC Sport looks at three players who the Spaniard should sell in order to make room for new additions.
Hadi Sacko
Sacko is as pointless as a butter knife – and about as dangerous as one too. The French winger had a very mixed loan spell at Elland Road last season, scoring two goals and setting up three in 38 Championship games under Garry Monk, and the club’s decision to sign him up on a permanent basis – before a new manager was installed – looked baffling. Fast forward six months and his £1.6 million transfer fee is looking more like a waste of money with each and every week that head coach Thomas Christiansen keeps him on the bench for 90 minutes, or omits him from the squad entirely.
Unlike quite a few of Christiansen’s senior squad, Sacko can’t play another role. He is a winger – an ineffective one at that – and it makes little sense having him at the club unless he can play a role in helping United win promotion.
Mateusz Klich
The Poland midfielder was the first player to arrive at Leeds in the summer and he might well be the first to leave in January. Signed for £1.5 million, the 27-year-old is one of several Orta signings who simply hasn’t Klich’d in West Yorkshire, with the former FC Twente man managing just three Championship appearances – and none since September. Christiansen’s decision not to include him in the visit to Barnsley last month spoke volumes for how little trust the Spaniard had in him, given that Ronaldo Vieira was suspended for it.
Klich revealed his frustration over that snub by posting an internet meme of a face palm on social media in a gesture which is unlikely to have helped his cause. If Leeds can recoup some of that £1.5 million then it’s a no-brainer. Unlike Sacko, Klich looked to be a very useful addition at one point, but it hasn’t worked out.
Andy Lonergan
By virtue of the fact that Christiansen has chopped and changed his goalkeeper on three occasions, you could argue that the Leeds boss isn’t entirely convinced with his options between the sticks – and nor should he be.
Felix Wiedwald and Andy Lonergan are shaky to say the least, but there is time for Wiedwald, the 27-year-old signed from Werder Bremen in the summer, to improve in England, whereas Lonergan, at 34, is about as good as he’s ever going to be and it’s still not enough for Leeds.
A goalkeeper should be high on the list of priorities and that means selling one is a must, and offloading Lonergan simply makes a lot more sense than Wiedwald.
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