Leeds United-oriented journalist Phil Hay has issued an update about the situation of Jean-Kevin Augustin at Elland Road.
Hay was speaking on the latest episode of ‘The Phil Hay Show’. A discussion took place about the situation of Augustin at Leeds and Hay addressed this in some detail. He revealed that there is a lot of uncertainty about his future at Elland Road and he’s really struggled physically since arriving in January.
Should Leeds sign Augustin permanently?
Not worth it!
That'll be brilliant
The 23-year-old Frenchman arrived at Leeds on loan from Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, following a loan stint at Monaco. According to Bild, Leeds have an obligation to buy the forward, but only if they gain promotion to the Premier League.
When asked about how Augustin’s fitness issues, Hay said: “I think the long and short of it is that he’s struggled to get up to speed with Bielsa and his body has struggled to cope with it. He had the hamstring strain at the end of February, it’s obviously been a problem in this period, where he’s been trying to try to catch up and get into first-team training before the restart.
“He did lose a lot of weight, but I think still wasn’t quite down to the weight level that Bielsa would have wanted. But I go back to what I said in the piece I wrote last week, which is that I wonder more and more how feasible it is for any mid-season signing to catch up with Bielsa.
“If you come in a significant way behind, and particularly at the end of the January window, is it ever likely that you’re going to get to the same physical level in an ongoing season as [Mateusz] Klich, or [Kalvin] Phillips, or [Liam] Cooper or anybody else? I don’t think it is. It’s evidently been very, very tough for him.”
The journalist also then talked about whether Leeds would make his move permanent or not. Hay said it is the player who will have to decide his future, but he doesn’t know where he stands in that regard.
“His loan will end at the end of June. And it will be interesting, really, to see whether or not Leeds seek to extend that towards the end of the season. Because in a financial sense, if he isn’t going to be available, and he isn’t going to play, it wouldn’t make a huge amount of sense as much as the players are all on wage deferrals at the moment.
“But the much bigger question here is whether or not he or Leeds, at the end of this season, are going to have the appetite for this move that’s been proposed from Leipzig. And even though it has been described several times as an obligation, I struggle to see how, if Augustin decides that this is not for him, Leeds or Leipzig would be able to go ahead with the deal.
“And I don’t know where he stands on that. I don’t know how he feels. I don’t know how frustrated about this he is. I don’t know whether he thinks that with the benefit of a full pre-season, he could perform in the way that Bielsa needs him to.”
TIF Thoughts…
Augustin made only three Championship appearances for the Whites since he joined in January. All of those appearances came from the bench, totalling just 48 minutes on the pitch (via Transfermarkt).
He had sustained a hamstring injury back in February and despite having ‘worked hard’ on his rehabilitation, he sustained a fresh injury more recently.
Clearly, the player is facing injury issues, and that’s stopping him from playing for the club. In that sense, Leeds may have to decide whether prolonging his future at Elland Road is the best solution for all parties.