So, put this one under the ‘okay, that seemed rather pointless’ category.
Leeds United today announced that forward Rafa Mujica will spend the rest of the season on loan at Spanish second division side Extremadura UD. Now a lot of Leeds fans were somewhat baffled by the news, and if I’m being brutally honest, so am I.
When Leeds first signed the 20-year-old, they gave the impression straight away that he had an immediate future with the club, saying on the website when he put pen to paper that:
“He will initially link up with Carlos Corberan’s Under-23 side, with a view to training with the first team.”
However, in the space of about six weeks, it looks as if those plans for him to be promoted into the first team have gone the same way as England’s top order, in that they were finished before they had a chance to even get going.
When he first joined Leeds, I had high hopes for him, I saw that there would be a chance for him to develop under Marcelo Bielsa, possibly get a few games in the various cup competitions and towards the end of the campaign, even be challenging the likes of Patrick Bamford and (at the time) Kemar Roofe for a place in the first team.
However, I’m not sure if a move abroad, particularly to a team in the second division is the best move for him. If they were to send him on loan, I think he would have been much better served to go on loan somewhere in England where he could adapt to the physical challenges that playing in England requires. In fact, if he were to get better on that aspect, it would have been even better if he stayed with the U23s, at least there Bielsa could keep a closer eye on him, and he could play with the first team occasionally as well.
What do you make of the move? Was this the right one? Or would you have preferred he stayed at Elland Road a little bit longer?