Leeds United managed to secure a third loan deal for Jack Harrison from Manchester City in the summer, with the winger’s future almost certainly at Elland Road beyond this season.
Harrison has had a very unorthodox career path to get himself into the Premier League, ditching Manchester United to move to America in search of a career, to which he rose to the MLS and starred at NYCFC alongside David Villa.
Unsurprisingly, with the New York outfit owned by the same consortium as Man City (City Football Group), Harrison made the trip back across the pond in January 2018 to move to the Etihad, but was immediately shipped out to Middlesbrough for the rest of the season.
It wasn’t a fruitful loan spell for the winger, making just four appearances and registering one assist under Tony Pulis on Teesside.
However, in the 2018/19 season (Marcelo Bielsa’s first at Elland Road), Harrison was given a second chance like so many others at Leeds, entrusted to be part of a project to reinstate the Whites as one of the Premier League’s mainstays for years to come.
Loan deals for both that season and the title-winning 19/20 season indicated City’s standing on Harrison’s future, meaning he’s probably better set on moving away permanently to settle and kick on with his English footballing career.
Ever since his first appearance, its been clear to see that he’s constantly improving under Bielsa, contributing more and more each season. His first campaign yielded just four goals and three assists, with his second much improved at six goals and eight assists.
What we’ve seen is a player who’s growing in confidence and conviction to pull the trigger in the final third and deliver that killer ball at the right time, rather than dallying in possession and seeing the opportunity go begging.
The Premier League has seen him improve more, where his superb goal against Liverpool was Leeds’ first back in the big time.
Controlling a brilliant long-ball from Kalvin Phillips, he beat both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez before firing past Alisson with his weaker right foot.
He’s managed one goal and two assists so far in the league this season (assists against Sheffield United and Leicester City), and will certainly be in for a lot more involvement if Patrick Bamford’s form is anything to go by.
Despite not yet permanently being a Leeds United player, Harrison has become part of the furniture at Elland Road and the reports of him becoming a full-time Leeds man are strong.
The Atheltic reported that Leeds’ loan deal holds a £10million option to buy, which would be extremely smart business.
Harrison had a bad day at the office against Crystal Palace last time out, struggling to get the better of Nathaniel Clyne at right-back and looking uncharacteristically shaky in possession.
However, as we’ve mentioned, it shouldn’t be a bad mark against his overall growth at Leeds since he first set foot in Thorp Arch back in the summer of 2018, and we have a player who is only going to get better in our ranks.
At just 23-years-old, he’s obviously got time on his side to develop into a top drawer player, but his development is still behind his counterparts considering he only began in the English game just under three years ago.
There won’t be many players you could sign that have the quality Harrison does in the final third, along with the fitness and positional intelligence he possesses (see his comments following his brilliant winner at Reading in November 2019) at the relatively modest price of £10million.
A third loan deal made sense considering the financial battering that the footballing world sustained this calendar year, but it only serves as a mere delay to Leeds tying up a fan-favourite after three seasons here, and it should be the first deal we complete after his start to life in the top flight.