Leeds have been busy in the transfer market this week, with Jack Harrison, Ben White and Liam McCarron joining the Whites. The trio have now been joined by Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Helder Costa, and former United right-back Danny Mills has told Football Insider that he expects Marcelo Bielsa to give the Portuguese ace a new freedom to deliver ‘something special’.
The club announced Costa’s transfer from Wolves to West Yorkshire on Wednesday, with the 25-year-old signing an initial one-year loan deal, which will become permanent next summer for an undisclosed fee.
However, it is understood that United have paid a £2million base loan fee to secure the Benfica product’s services, as well as taking on his believed £20,000-a-week contract for the 2019/20 term, before his new four-year contract with the Whites kicks in on July 1, 2020.
Wolves and Costa are also thought to have requested lucrative performance-related bonuses during the loan period, with promotion out of the Championship one of the key criteria laid out by the Molineux outfit.
Costa had been Wolves’ club-record signing at £13million upon his permanent arrival from academy side Benfica in 2017, and the now-£13.5million-rated ace will hopefully be able to recreate the form he displayed in the second-tier as the Black Country side dominated the division.
In 36 Championship appearances, the one-time international scored five goals and assisted a further six, with the wings returning all of his goal involvement. The 5 ft 8 forward can play through the centre, however, and Mills expects Bielsa to see his potential impact at the top of the field as exactly what we were missing.
“It’s very exciting for Leeds [to sign Costa],” Mills said. “He has the ‘wow’ factor. He’s a very good forward and will provide something special up front. That’s exactly what they need.
“It didn’t quite happen for Patrick Bamford last season, and Kemar Roofe did a decent job. Helder Costa is a forward who is more reliable and dangerous than both of them.
“You can play him in many different positions in attack, and I can see him being used as a striker. You could play a 4-4-2 with Roofe and Costa up front, and neither of them as an out-and-out spearhead. He gives Leeds options.
“He has played at big clubs in front of big crowds. He has experience of the Championship. Everything he has got is impressive, and he can make other players better.”