There is nothing like a rumour spinning away to get fans at a football club excited, then disappointed in equal measures when it all turns out to be utter bunkum. There’s always one spinning up at Elland Road.
Saturday evening the Transfer Rumour Tombola™ (TRT™) ground to a halt, spilling out the name of…Pablo Hernández.
Why him? Why has the Castellón-born 31-year-old suddenly fallen from the TRT™ and been picked up by Leeds United fans as ‘a signing soon to be made’? It could be the small matter that Leeds are said to have been in the hunt for future additions to the squad, that one of these is a ‘midfielder’ and that additions might be expected before Sunday’s Championship opener against QPR at Loftus Road.
I could be all of the above plus the fact that he used to play for Swansea…under Garry Monk. Come to think of it, as with most rumours the most tenuous link to a player is often the most plausible. It could very well be the strand that is underpinning and holding all of this together.
Who is he though? Who is Pablo Hernández?
Would the real Pablo Hernández please stand up?
Pablo Hernández is a left-winger who currently plays for Al-Arabi in the Stars League in Qatar. Born in Spain, the 31-year-old came up to professional football and La iga representation with Valencia via lower-league sides Onda and Valencia Mestella. He was at Valencia only a year before a free transfer Getafe, which again only lasted a year before an £850,000 tranfer back to Valencia, where he stayed for four years until a £5.95m move to the English Premier League with Swansea.
Two seasons of football at Swansea saw him make 57 Premier League appearances before a £4.25m move to Al-Arabi, who are his current side. He’s been at Al-Arabi since mid-July 2014 but with a half-season loan to Dubai-based Al-Nasr (Jan 2015-Aug 2015) and a full-season loan to Spanish side Rayo Vallecano (Aug 2015-June 2016). As such, Hernández has played just the 13 games for Al-Arabi, scoring six times.
During his time with Swansea, 57 games spanning the 2012/13 and 2013/14 Premier League seasons, the Spaniard scored five goals and, crucially, laid on 15 assists for the South Wales side. This pattern persisted through to his recent spell in last season’s La Liga competition, the diminutive winger scoring three times and providing four assists.
So, the big question – do Leeds United really need Pablo Hernández at Elland Road? I mean, the Whites have a veritable riches of natural wide players for the coming season, well compared to last season when it was Stuart Dallas +1 other person. There is always the old argument that you can never have too much quality, and it is reasonable to say that Hernández does provide this ‘quality’. Thing is, what is the cost of this ‘quality’, bearing in mind that Leeds have pressing transfer needs in other areas of the field.
Again, it will be up to Garry Monk to apply his self-chosen maxim of ‘does it add to the group of players that we have here’? If it does, bring him in; if not, then look elsewhere.
