Leeds United’s successes under Marcelo Bielsa weren’t manifested in every player’s performances during his time at the club.
We’re currently enjoying the fruits of solid recruitment by Victor Orta this summer, but the director of football has made plenty of blunders in the market too.
Marcelo Bielsa’s first season at the club saw a host of signings made domestically to add plenty of Championship quality to a side looking to mount a promotion charge.
These included three loan signings from Chelsea, with Izzy Brown arriving on loan from the Stamford Bridge club.
Much like his colleagues that he arrived with, Brown was in the midst of an unsuccessful cycle of loan moves in which Leeds was the latest.
Do Leeds still need a striker going forward?
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The attacking midfielder joined Leeds off the back of a lengthy injury layoff from his stint previously at Brighton, and this was the first instance we saw of Bielsa being unwilling to rush a player back unless they were completely ready – most of his minutes at Leeds were in the under-23s:
He mustered two appearances for Leeds, amounting to 11 minutes. He came off the bench in an away defeat to QPR for nine minutes, picking up a booking, before making a two-minute cameo late in our defeat to Derby in the play-offs.
Brown’s loan spell ended with a terrible ballooned free-kick deep in stoppage time against the Rams.
At just 25, Brown has had another three clubs since leaving Leeds, as he joined Luton Town and notched an assist against Leeds in 2019/20, before joining Sheffield Wednesday in the following campaign.
Last season brought a permanent exit from Chelsea and a move to Preston North End on a one-year deal, but a ruptured achilles injury ruled him out for a significant period and he was released a week before the end of the season, with Preston reportedly not keen with his punctuality amongst his injury problems.
Brown is now searching for another club as he remains a free agent.
Injury problems look to have scuppered a very promising career for the former Chelsea man, with his performances prior to joining Leeds, such as at Rotherham and Huddersfield, as well as flashes for Luton proving his quality.