OPINION
When Ezgjan Alioski was prised from Swiss side Lugano this summer for a reported fee of £1.5million, Leeds United fans immediately hailed him as a landmark signing.
The Championship outfit beat off interest Champions League regulars Basel as well as clubs in Germany and Italy to land the 25-year-old whose record at creating and scoring goals was as bright as his peroxide haircut.
But three months into Alioski’s Elland Road career, the feeling among the Elland Road faithful is one of great disappointment.
The player who scored 17 times and assisted 14 more from 36 matches for Lugano last season has been given plenty of opportunity by manager Thomas Christiansen, but an encouraging opening month has been followed by an autumn of despair.
The 13-times Macedonia international’s statistics have been as mediocre as his performances.
Fifteen matches have yielded just one goal – a rocket against Nottingham Forest – and two assists, a puny return for the right-winger.
Leeds fans embraced Alioski early on but now are starting to regularly highlight his flaws, which include a disinclination to roll up his sleeves and a startling absence of a fourth or fifth gear needed to decimate Championship defences. His finishing has also been lamentable.
Little wonder that Leeds fans are now starting to wonder whether director of football Victor Orta got this signing badly wrong. Is the player hailed as fantastic a few months ago actually just a fraud?
Alioski will surely be omitted from the starting line-up for Tuesday night’s Championship clash against Derby County as Leeds seek the win needed to reignite their promotion-chasing campaign.
Chances are running out for the winger, who must pull his finger out and demonstrate why United pushed so hard, and spent so high, to sign him this summer.