It’s not been smooth sailing so far for Jean-Matteo Bahoya at Leeds United.
More often than not, the French winger has been an unused substitute since signing for the Whites on deadline day.
However, over the weekend, Bahoya was left out of the squad entirely for our game against Tottenham.
But despite this latest setback for the 21-year-old, the door still looks to be open for Bahoya to make an impression in West Yorkshire.
January signings unlikely – more opportunities await for Jean-Matteo Bahoya
Although Bahoya is only on loan at Leeds, we have an obligation to buy the youngster for £25.7million should he make a certain number of appearances for us.
To this point, Bahoya has only made three substitute appearances for us. The longest of these cameos was the 12 minutes he played against Bournemouth.
So despite our well-documented struggles in the final third at points this season, Bahoya is still struggling to get on the pitch.
However, there is a part of Beren Cross’ recent article for The Athletic that will fill Bahoya with encouragement.
Cross argued that if the Whites could strengthen in one area in January, in his opinion, “another attacker, better than what Leeds already have, would always be welcome.”
However, he also noted that “the January window rarely appeals to the club’s top brass.”
So with attacking reinforcements unlikely to arrive midway through this season, there will still be chances for Bahoya to impress at Leeds for the remainder of the current campaign. Or so you would imagine, as we’re not exactly blessed with quality depth in the final third.
It’s clear that this season, he’s not going to establish himself as a starter.
But there’s no reason why Bahoya cannot manoeuvre himself ahead of Brenden Aaronson and Dan James in the pecking order to be the first player Farke turns to when the German wants to change a game.
Beren Cross’ article reinforces what we’ve all been thinking
Another quality attacker is the obvious addition we need to make if we want to go to that next level.
But I don’t think any of us expected the 49ers to do this in January. Now Cross’ article essentially reaffirms this.
Over the last week or so, we have found ourselves linked to the likes of Folarin Balogun and Conor Gallagher.
When covering any of these rumours, I’ve always said that I’m sceptical that we’ll do any significant business in January. It’s well known that the 49ers tend to avoid the winter transfer window.
Now, considering Cross’ article, this makes me even more confident that those moves won’t materialise.
And unless he relays anything differently, I’m not expecting any big money moves to happen at Elland Road in just over one month’s time.
