Let’s be honest, playing Alex Mowatt was never going to be the long-term answer to Leeds United’s growing need for a #10 playmaker.
As good as Mowatt was, the youngster is now at Barnsley and will return to Elland Road with them next season, he was never going to cut the mustard as a playmaking midfielder.
So, when Leeds United signed Samu Saiz, and after fans had undertaken their own due diligence of Internet and YouTube searches, there was hope that the Whites had landed the answer.
It certainly looked that way in the first half of the 2017/18 season when the talented Spaniard played with a certain sense of pomp, imperious displays of skill and football there for all to see. The diminutive Spanish wizard was lighting up the pitch at times.
Before the turn of 2018, Saiz had five league goals and five league assists to his name, as well as a further four goals in the Carabao Cup. Suddenly £3million, or a shade over, seemed a drop in the ocean.
But, a rash moment in the FA Cup loss to Newport Country where he spat at an opponent, coupled with the now expected ‘Leeds United second part of season slide’ saw a six-game ban and his confidence droop off. Just three more assists followed.
Yet under Marcelo Bielsa, the yoke of Paul Heckingbottom cast off, Samu looked back to his mercurial self in the first half of the 2018/19 campaign. Four assists flowed, but there were rumblings that something wasn’t right.
That proved to be the case when news broke that, due to family issues, the Whites had negotiated a return to Spain for Saiz and a half-season loan deal with Madrid side Getafe. That has just ended, it seems that the Spaniard will not be being kept on.
What next for Leeds United and Samu Saiz?
His 299 minutes and one goal for Getafe is not enough to convince the LaLiga side to take up the option of paying Leeds United to take him on a full-time transfer back to his homeland. Added to this, with him going there ostensibly as he was homesick, he’d only begrudgingly come back to Elland Road.
His current deal at Elland Road runs until the end of June 2021, so there’s very little likelihood of the Whites simply tearing It up and allowing him to go on his own way. So, any return to Elland Road would be contractual rather than him wanting to.
There is some interest from at least one top-tier club in Spain, but who that is remains unknown. Even that could be complicated with the news that broke earlier today across Spain that involved a certain level of allegation that I am not willing to go into here.
The likelihood is that Saiz will ‘return’ to Elland Road and that the club will look to move him out on a season-long loan in the hope that he will recapture that sparkling form he showed when first signing at Elland Road. That will, at least, convince whoever he’s playing for that he’s worth taking a punt on.
