OPINION
With Leeds flying high at the top of the Championship it can be quite easy to forget just how much of a calamity last season was for the Whites and the players who took part.
Many of those players are the same ones shining under Marcelo Bielsa this season – suggesting it might have been the man in the dugout than those out on the pitch who was the problem – while others have been shipped out permanently or on temporary deals.
One man that much, if not all, of Elland Road will have forgotten about is left back Laurens De Bock, the Belgian having failed to make any sort of an impact in England before being promptly moved out on loan back in the summer, joining KV Oostende back in his homeland.
With 14 appearances this season you might think the 26-year-old is doing well but it seems as though the chiefs at the Belgium top flight side are not so convinced, sporting director Hugo Broos issuing a clear-cut statement on his future after the capture of fellow left back Bojan Nastic late in the transfer window.
He told Belgian publication GVA: “Nastic is someone with the best profile. He knows the Belgian league, has played strong competitions, has a mentality and is also very good at attacking.
“We are already doing this transfer with a view to next season. Then Laurens De Bock must definitively return to Leeds.”
It sounds as though Nastic is going to be first choice for the second half of the season, De Bock returning to the club, and if he is not set to play regularly he must come back, either to act as cover but more to get him a late, late move on deadline day.
Leeds need De Bock in the shop window before the summer and he does not like getting the chance to show off much at Oostende for the rest of the season – terminating his deal and getting him playing needs to be the Whites’ priority if they want to sell him for a decent price.