Leeds United to make Hadi Sacko deal permanent

Loanee Hadi Sacko season last year left many fans underwhelmed, coming on at the beginning of the year with a flash and a bang, but fizzled out as the season wore on. Now his parent club, Sporting Lisbon, and Leeds United look to make the move permanent. The 23 year old winger, who has represented France at the youth level, will call Elland Road his home on a more permanent basis starting next season.

While not all of the details have been ironed out yet, it appears that the original deal had a purchase option for £1.7 million for the young winger who appeared 42 times in all competitions for Leeds, scoring two goals and assisting on two others. The speedy winger had transferred to Sporting Lisbon from French giants Bordeaux. He spent part of the 2013-14 season on loan at Ligue 2 side Le Harve, and while he was in Portugal, he played mostly for Sporting B, the reverse team for Sporting Lisbon, playing in the second division of Portuguese football.

While it is doubtful that this signing will make the difference between going up and staying in the Championship, giving Sacko another year to adjust to English football isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The worst thing is that he has another year like this past year where he started out strong but faded as the season went along, and Leeds is out a (relatively) small transfer fee. The best case scenario is that he finds his footing in England and realizes the potential that made Sporting sign him from Bordeaux in the first place.

Hopefully Leeds will have a deeper squad in the upcoming season, allowing for better squad rotation, which may help the young winger with fitness. At the very least, a new manager may challenge him and get a better performance out of him.