The tale of Ian Poveda has been a strange one. Not even 21 yet, the winger has already been at some of the most prestigious clubs in world football.
The England youth international has been at Arsenal, Barcelona and Manchester City, but now he’s at another club with rich history – Leeds United.
Unfortunately for the 20-year-old, he’s received a bit of the Jack Clarke treatment. The Spurs teenager was loaned back to Elland Road for the first half of the season but found minutes hard to come by – playing just once in the Championship.
Likewise, Poveda has also found minutes at a premium and hasn’t featured yet for the first team after arriving from Pep Guardiola’s Man City in January.
He was frustrated with a lack of opportunities under Guardiola but he’s now been left somewhat neglected by Marcelo Bielsa too.
It’s rather strange that he’s preferred Jack Stevens on the bench, a youngster who wasn’t shy of controversy earlier this season when he was banned for breaking betting regulations.
However, the performance of Leeds would have been another blow to Poveda who could see opportunities limited further after the impact of Helder Costa and Jack Harrison.
The dynamic duo, who can both join Leeds permanently in the summer, were in fantastic form as they showed what they were all about on Saturday.
Costa will cost Leeds £15m in the summer when he becomes a permanent acquisition while Jack Harrison may also move in a deal that would set the club back £8m.
At £23m, they are pricy players compared to Poveda who only walked through the doors on a free transfer. Though, with Costa attracting criticism this season there could have been a route into the first-team for their January arrival. After all, he’s only managed two assists all term.
That will become more difficult after Harrison and Costa played such a vital hand last weekend, though. Leeds were at their free-flowing best on the counter-attack as the wide men combined to play a total of six key passes.
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Their creativity was sumptuous as the Portuguese laid on an assist for Pablo Hernandez while he also played an inch-perfect ball that split the defence in the build-up to Tyler Roberts’ first strike.
In terms of his dribbling, he mustered just one but Harrison registered as many as six successful take-ons.
It was an inspired display from the pair – one that will hand a further setback to Poveda.
Meanwhile, one Thomas Christiansen signing is proving Leeds have NO REASON to make a £5m signing this summer…