Leeds United have had mixed success with loan signings from the Premier League over the years, which was perfectly illustrated in the 2023/24 campaign.
Whilst Joe Rodon started 42 Championship matches and then joined on a permanent deal from Tottenham Hotspur, Jaidon Anthony started two of his 32 appearances and went straight back to Bournemouth.
This season, Daniel Farke swooped to bring in Manor Solomon and Joe Rothwell on loan from Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth respectively.
Solomon joined on loan from the Premier League in the summer and is in danger of going the way of Anthony’s loan, as he has struggled to produce much in a Whites jersey thus far.
Manor Solomon's form this season
The Israel international came in from the top-flight with a degree of expectation from supporters, as he had scored four goals in 19 league games for Fulham and provided two assists in five matches for Spurs.
However, Solomon has not been able to step up and show off the quality that allowed him to produce in the Premier League for the Cottagers and the Lilywhites, albeit he is still in the early stages of his career in Yorkshire.
The 25-year-old forward made a promising start to life at the club with a fantastic assist on his debut against Hull, bursting down the left flank before producing a great cross for Mateo Joseph to find the back of the net.
Since that match, however, the Tottenham loanee has struggled badly and failed to nail down a starting berth in the team on a regular basis in the second tier.
Appearances
7
Starts
2
Goals
0
Big chances created
0
Assists
0
As you can see in the table above, the former Fulham star has only started two of his seven appearances since his debut and is yet to contribute with anything meaningful at the top end of the pitch.
Leeds and Farke will now be hoping that he can turn his fortunes around and go on to be a success before the end of his loan, but there are plenty of examples of loanees who were never able or never got the chance to do that.
The tale of Solomon and Antony has been a familiar one for those at Elland Road, with another former Premier League loanee having struggled in West Yorkshire…
Leeds' Premier League loan flop
Another example of a flop from the top-flight is centre-forward Eddie Nketiah, who joined on a temporary basis from Arsenal at the start of the 2019/20 campaign and was the original Solomon.
The England U21 international, who scored 16 goals in 17 games at that level, joined to bolster Marcelo Bielsa’s attacking options but was unable to oust Patrick Bamford from the starting line-up at Championship level.
That was despite being compared to Arsenal and Premier League legend Thierry Henry by pundit Noel Whelan, who said that the Gunners youngster liked to operate in a ‘Henry role’, drifting out to the left to come inside on his right foot.
In 19 appearances across the second tier and the EFL Cup during the 2019/20 campaign, Nketiah scored five goals and missed six ‘big chances’, whilst starting just two of his 17 outings in the Championship.
That was not exactly befitting of a comparison with Henry, who scored 228 goals in 377 matches in all competitions during his time with Arsenal, as he failed to nail down a regular place in the team to score week-in-week-out.
He was incredibly clinical in comparison to Bamford, who missed a whopping 33 ‘big chances’ and scored 16 goals in the Championship that term. However, that was not enough to convince Bielsa to start him over the former Chelsea man.
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Arsenal then decided to recall him from his loan at Elland Road in January 2020, possibly due to his lack of game time, and this meant that the Whites never got to see the best of the young marksman.
After being compared to Henry in the early stages of his loan, due to the Arsenal connection, his style of play, and prolific scoring rate at youth level, the forward simply flopped and did not make a success of his time at the club.
Eddie Nketiah's soaring market value
At the time of his spell with Leeds, Transfermarkt valued Nketiah at €8m (£6.6m) and that value has soared in the four years since his time in the second tier.
After a return of 38 goals and seven assists in 168 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions, including five goals in 27 Premier League games last term, the 25-year-old forward completed a permanent exit from The Emirates this year.
Crystal Palace swooped in to sign the striker in a deal reported to be worth up to £30m and this means that he is currently worth 354% more than he was at Elland Road (£6.6m).
Nketiah, who Athletic Development Club director Chris Varnavas described as being “on another level” as an athlete, has not enjoyed the best start to life at Selhurst Park, though.
Appearances
7
Starts
6
Goals
0
Big chances created
0
Assists
0
As you can see in the table above, the one-time England international has failed to contribute with a goal or an assist in six starts in the Premier League for his new club.
His only goal for Palace so far came against Championship side Queens Park Rangers in the EFL Cup in September, and the Eagles will surely be hoping that there is far more to come from their £30m signing throughout the remainder of the campaign.
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Leeds may not have seen the best of Nketiah, and had him way before his value soared, but the striker is now 25 and still searching for consistency in the final third at the top level, which suggests that it may not have been the club’s fault that he struggled to play consistently in West Yorkshire.
The Whites will now be hoping that Solomon does not return to Tottenham in January, or in the summer, and follow in the footsteps of Nketiah by going on to soar in value and thrive after a spell at Elland Road.