Sky Sports pundit predicts potential bust-up between £35k-a-wk Leeds star and Bielsa
Michael Brown has predicted that there could be a bust-up on the cards between Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa and January signing Jean-Kevin Augustin.
Since joining the Whites on loan from RB Leipzig last month, Augustin has made just three appearances off the bench and is yet to be named in Bielsa’s starting line-up.
Sky Sports pundit Brown has suggested that tensions could already be high between the Argentine and the French striker due to him not being seen as a key player straight away.
“He’s already, I think, tethering with Marcelo Bielsa,” the ex-Leeds player told Football Insider. “So we might see a clash straight away, that we don’t even see him [playing] because Bielsa will not have it if you don’t conform to his ways.
“Augustin is not at the level of fitness and that’s going to be the one to watch.
“That could fall out with him and Bielsa because he probably didn’t agree with the manager’s reasons for him not to play to get him to that fitness.
“He’ll be saying: ‘Well I’m fit, I’ll give you 10, 20 minutes and I’ll nick you a goal,’ but has he lost him already?”
It is likely that when Augustin agreed to join Leeds, he knew that Bielsa would not throw him straight into his starting line-up.
Bielsa has already shown that he needs players to be at peak physical condition and fully up to speed with his tactics before he’ll include them in his matchday squad – let alone in the starting line-up.
Augustin has not exactly shown in his three appearances off the bench that he is ready to start yet but, to be fair, the Frenchman has not played more than 19 minutes of a match so far.
We should see the £35,000-a-week striker [Football Insider] start a match soon but to suggest that there could be a fall-out between him and Bielsa is nonsense.
In other Leeds United news, there has been an update on Jack Harrison’s future at Elland Road.