When Leeds United agreed a £20m deal to signal Michael Cuisance from Bayern Munich in the summertime of 2020, it very a lot appeared as if the Whites can be welcoming one of the crucial thrilling younger midfielders in world soccer to Elland Street.
Certainly, expectations for the France youth worldwide had been fairly excessive, with former Borussia Monchengladbach coach Dieter Hecking stating of the then-21-year-old: “Michael is an distinctive participant for his age. He’s a game-changer.”
In the meantime, Bayern’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic additionally praised the teenager very extremely, saying of the playmaker: “Michael’s strengths are in his possession of the ball. He has an ideal method, a robust left foot and an ideal mentality.”
As such, when Victor Orta’s transfer for Cuisance allegedly fell through on account of a failed medical, many supporters of Leeds would have been extraordinarily disenchanted.
Do you assume Cuisance would have flopped at Leeds?
Nonetheless, a bit of over 18 months later, it now seems as if the Premier League facet dodged a considerable bullet on the midfielder, who has somewhat dramatically regressed within the meantime.
Leeds obtained fortunate on Cuisance
Certainly, following his failed swap to Elland Street, Cuisance subsequently secured a temporary move to Marseille, with the Ligue 1 facet possessing an choice to buy the Frenchman.
Nonetheless, after a disappointing season with Les Phoceens – he averaged a SofaScore match ranking of simply 6.45 over his 23 league outings, rating him because the membership’s third-worst participant within the division out of 31 – Jorge Sampaoli determined in opposition to signing the midfielder completely, with the Argentine claiming that the teenager possessed one thing of an perspective drawback.
After returning to Bayern final summer season, the Bundesliga facet as soon as once more made it clear that Cuisance was free to depart the membership, with Serie A outfit Venezia ultimately touchdown the 22-year-old in a £3.6m deal.
Nonetheless, issues don’t seem to have improved for the £32k-per-week midfielder in Italy both, with the Frenchman averaging a SofaScore match ranking of simply 6.51 over his seven league fixtures this season, rating him as his workforce’s joint-seventh worst performer within the Italian high flight out of 34.
As such, contemplating his somewhat poor degree of efficiency – along with the participant who Markus Babbel dubbed a “rotten egg” and “not the brightest” now being valued at simply £4.5m by Transfermarkt – it’s clear to see simply how fortunate Orta and Leeds had been in lacking out on the £20m signing of Cuisance within the autumn of 2020.
AND in different information: £1.5m wasted: Leeds flop dubbed “as gifted as Pogba” rinsed Radrizzani for 207 weeks