Former Leeds United striker Noel Whelan has slammed the Whites’ trio of loan stars brought in from Chelsea last summer.
Izzy Brown, Jamal Blackman and Lewis Baker all swapped Stamford Bridge for Elland Road on a temporary basis, but the latter two returned to Chelsea ahead of schedule and Brown made just two first team appearances due to injury.
BBC pundit Whelan wasn’t impressed: “The Chelsea three loanees, they were dreadful,” he told Football Insider. “They had good Chelsea academy backgrounds and decent professional experience but proved nothing in a Leeds shirt.
“If that’s the standard, we have a better academy than they have. These so-called big hitters couldn’t get a game for us. If Leeds are going to bring in loan signings again this summer from Premier League clubs, they have to make a far bigger impact.”
OPINION
It’s hard to disagree with Whelan, here. All three players arrived from west London with burgeoning reputations and decent experience out on loan at other clubs, but they seemingly couldn’t do anything in a white shirt. Marcelo Bielsa knew who his trusted players were, and none of these were amongst that select group it seems. For Blackman, he never threatened the number one shirt and eventually returned to Stamford Bridge early after suffering a broken leg. Baker, meanwhile, the most experienced of the three, looked poor whenever he played and had his spell cut short due to not making an impression in Yorkshire. Brown was obviously unlucky with injury, but you obviously can’t say he made an impact at Leeds either. As Whelan says, if Bielsa goes after loan signings from the top flight this summer then he’ll need to do better than these three, that’s for sure. Still, he can’t do much worse, can he?