Leeds United’s director of football Victor Orta has revealed that the club decided to loan out Yosuke Ideguchi because of the fierce competition for places within the first team.
The Japan international completed his move to Elland Road this week but was straightaway sent out on loan to Cultural Leonesa in the Spanish second division.
The 21-year-old Ideguchi is seen as one of the best young football talents in Japan and is expected to be playing at the world cup this summer.
Had Leeds opted to introduce him to the first team straightaway, he would have been competing with Kalvin Phillips, Eunan O’ Kane,RonaldoViera and Mateusz Klich for game time.
Orta has revealed that Ideguchi was allowed to go on loan in order to ensure that he has a good chance of playing at the world cup.
He said: “We chose this moment to sign Yosuke because if he goes to the World Cup and does as well as we believe he can, then the competition for his signature would have been much higher.
“It is important that we anticipate the right moment to sign a player, we felt that waiting another six months could have been a risk – as we knew approaches had already been made by clubs in France and Germany and we have taken our opportunity.
“Yosuke has been in pre-season as the Japanese league ended in December and at this moment in time we already have good competition for places in our midfield.
“We have seen good performances from EunanO’Kane, Ronaldo Vieira and Kalvin Phillips, with MateuzKlich also available for selection – therefore it might be hard for Yosuke to get the game time he needs in the build up to the World Cup.”
