Mateusz Klich was another one of those signings who initially had Leeds United fans scratching their heads and quizzically asking ‘Mateusz Who?’ It didn’t go smoothly at first for the affable Pole but he has definitely found his feet under the guiding hand of Marcelo Bielsa. In a Q&A interview on Leeds United’s Facebook page called #AskKlichy, the popular midfielder talked about how he turned down a Middlesbrough move for the Whites.
Klich’s arrival at Leeds United came under former manager Thomas Christiansen, the Pole joining from Dutch side FC Twente at the start of July 2017 for a fee in the region of £1.5million. It didn’t go well in his first spell at Elland Road, the midfielder only making five appearances (135 minutes) in the Championship before being farmed out on loan back to Holland with FC Utrecht in late January 2018.
He showed some promise whilst back in Holland, scoring once and adding three assists in just 14 Eredivisie games. Still, it was thought that he’d move on from Elland Road before Bielsa wrought his magic with him. Klich has started every game under Marcelo Bielsa for Leeds – that’s 85 Championship starts for the Pole. In those games, he’s scored 14 goals and provided 13 assists.
Speaking on the Facebook video, Klich provides a little colour and background about his initial arrival at the club. It could very well have been a move to Middlesbrough as Victor Orta wanted him there. Of this interest, he said: “My manager called me and told me I had got an offer from Middlesbrough. Victor was at Middlesbrough. I was at Twente at that time and I said ‘yeah, if I can go to England we can consider it.”
Orta was pushed out of Middlesbrough and it was this move and the Spaniard’s subsequent arrival at Elland Road which brought about Klich’s arrival at Leeds. The midfielder comments on this saying: “He (my manager) called me and said the plan had changed and I had got the offer from Leeds United. I was a bit more happy because, obviously, Middlesbrough was Premier League at that time but you knew they were going to go down.”
Clarifying his happiness at signing for the Whites, Klich adds: “Leeds, I don’t want to be disrespectful to Middlesbrough, but Leeds is a bigger club. So I was happy to join Leeds.”
Middlesbrough’s loss is Leeds United’s gain, Klich now an integral cog in Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds machine.
