Source discloses THREE secrets behind Bahoya’s Leeds transfer with exact appearance trigger clause revealed
Full details have finally emerged on the deal that brought Jean-Matteo Bahoya to Leeds United this summer, and with the three critical conditions that must be met if the Eintracht Frankfurt star is to make a permanent move to Elland Road now coming to light.
The Whites used the summer window to land some serious upgrades to their squad.
Tarik Muharemovic and Nico Elvedi look like very capable additions in defence, while James Trafford is a very clear improvement in goal, with the £40m club record signing already named in their top 10 signings in the Premier League era.
But while those three signings have helped Leeds concede just three times across their five Premier League games to date, ensuring Daniel Farke’s side have the joint-best defence in the division, it is at the other end of the field where the jury is still out on their summer signings.
Indeed, neither Harry Wilson, nor Bahoya have managed to positively impact Leeds’ results so far. And while Wilson missed their last game – a frustrating 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace with a leg muscle injury – there remain high hopes that he will eventually hit the heights for the Whites.
Bahoya’s situation, though, remains a lot more precarious. Signed as a direct replacement for Willy Gnonto, who joined Fiorentina on loan, the winger has managed just one minute of action thus far, with Farke choosing to bide his time with the 21-year-old French speedster.
As a result, speculation has been raised about whether Leeds will make the deal permanent, even at this embryonic stage of the season, with certain triggers needing to be met if the player is to make his stay permanent.
According to BILD, though, Leeds will be obliged to make Bahoya’s stay permanent if three conditions are met, with the player needing to make 10 appearances this season, and with any minute of action counting towards that 10. As a result, he just needs to appear on nine more occasions – even if just stepping off the bench for a minute at a time.
Furthermore, they state the obligation to buy has been fixed at £25.8m (€30m, $34.2m) once those triggers are met.
TEAMtalk also understands that, as part of the arrangement, Leeds would also need to have secured their Premier League status for another season before being required to make that payment.
READ MORE: ‘Excited’ Jean-Matteo Bahoya drops five reasons for joining Leeds as Romano confirms blocked £35m bid
Leeds boss Farke happy to bide his time with Bahoya
While some may draw comparisons between Bahoya’s situation and the miserable scenario Harvey Elliott found himself in at Aston Villa last season – with Unai Emery ultimately failing to pick the Liverpool loanee 10 times to trigger a permanent move – we understand that Leeds are very much focused on developing the player and affording the 21-year-old all the time he needs to acclimatise to a new league and new surroundings.
Indeed, rather than rush his development, Farke plans to work tactically on his demands with the player on the training ground first and ensure that, when he does get a longer taste of the action, Leeds fans will see the very best version of the player.
One factor against him, perhaps, is that Leeds no longer operate with out-and-out wingers, instead using their wing-backs Jayden Bogle and Gabriel Gudmundsson to provide width down the flanks; a system that has got the very best out of both players and helped Leeds excel in their 3-4-1-1 formation Farke now deploys.
However, the Leeds boss insists he is right to bide his time with Bahoya, recently explaining to the Yorkshire Evening Post: “Obviously with Jean-Matteo he came more or less from the bench, he was sitting on the bench at the end of last season also, and at the beginning of the season in the Bundesliga, and especially with a young boy, I have to look after them that they are really well-prepared when I throw them into the cold Premier League water.
“I know how this league is; it is unforgiving, and if you put a player in and it’s not a good performance on the debut, then pretty quickly a player is buried already.
”I have to make sure when I bring a player in that he’s really ready, physically and mentally ready and performance-wise ready for the Premier League level. This is what we are doing with Jean-Matteo.
“I have to say he is a top character, a player with lots of potential, lots of skills.
“Obviously, he came with not with the highest confidence and not the highest rhythm and also like not the physical fitness level to start games because he hasn’t played many games in the starting line-up recently.
“But you can see him growing on the training pitch more or less from day to day, and for that he edges closer, and he was also picked for the matchday squads, and he has also all chances to be involved if he works further on like this then he comes closer and closer, and I like at the moment what I see on the training pitch.”
“This doesn’t mean that we change straight away, more or less our pecking order there, because of all the excitement about new signings.”
