Leeds United product Ryan Edmondson can ensure the club only postponed the inevitable by sending Pawel Cibicki to the Eredivisie on loan with ADO Den Haag.
The Whites confirmed Cibicki’s season-long departure on Wednesday afternoon, with the 25-year-old joining Alfons Groenedijk’s Kyocera Stadium natives as they look to claw back inside the European qualifying places after losing out on a Europa League Play-Off spot to Football Club Groningen on goal difference.
Den Haag also hold an option to turn the 5 ft 9 centre-forward’s move into a permanent arrangement next summer for an undisclosed fee.
Cibicki had shared hope in April that his efforts in the Allsvenskan with loan side Elfsborg last season would see that Marcelo Bielsa offers a chance to prove his worth in West Yorkshire, but the Argentine deemed the forward surplus to requirements early in the summer.
Malmo-born Cibicki had been linked with a permanent move to Elfsborg, too, but negotiations broke down, leaving Leeds forced to accept another temporary bid for the 2021-free agent’s services.
The writing is very much already on the walls for the former Sweden youth international, that he must perform in the Dutch top-flight with ADO Den Haag if he wants a chance to salvage his faltering Whites career. However, Under 23s star Edmondson can ensure that the message on the walls reads ‘you’re time at Elland Road is over’.
Edmondson lit up the Professional Development League under Carlos Corberan last season with eleven goals in nine games, and is banging on the door to Bielsa’s office crying for a chance to prove himself in the first-team.
The boss has not been afraid to turn to the academy to introduce fresh blood to the senior ranks, and Edmondson cannot be ignored for much longer.