Leeds United fans have every right to feel miffed after their move for Michael Cuisance collapsed at the 11th hour.
The Whites looked to be on to a winner when trying to sign the former European Golden Boy nominee, but the deal fell through due to problems with his medical.
We don’t have all of the information at the moment about why his medical went awry, but we can only assume that Leeds had a good reason to pull the plug.
While missing out on Cuisance is something of a blow, the fact that the club haven’t jumped the gun and signed a player who may have fitness problems is a good sign.
The Whites have been stung before when signing a player who wasn’t fit enough to come into the team with Jean-Kevin Augustin’s fitness being questioned by Marcelo Bielsa almost immediately after he signed, and a string of further problems meant that the RB Leipzig man failed to start a single game during his loan spell.
Perhaps a medical that didn’t take place in a hotel room would have seen these problems come to light before Leeds agreed to sign him, giving the Whites time and money to spend on another striker who could’ve made more of an impact.
In the end, it didn’t matter too much, as Patrick Bamford proved to be good enough to lead the line in United’s promotion push, but Augustin’s failing still has to go down as a black mark on Leeds’ recent transfer record.
Luckily, Leeds seem to have been a lot more stringent this time around, and they may well have just avoided another Augustin-type scenario by doing their due-diligence on Cuiscance’s medical.