Leeds United fans were surely embarrassed by the frivolous incidents that prolonged the saga of Bundesliga forward Pierre-Michel Lasogga joining the Whites. The striker had to return to Germany after landing in England owing to some missing paper works while the signature still waits with just hours to go.
Previously, Sky Deutschland reporter Jurek Rohrberg had claimed that it was the fault of Hamburg who had forgotten to send something, or something had been filled in the wrong in the paperwork. However, they have rectified themselves now stating that it was Leeds United, who didn’t go through the formalities properly resulting in the delay.
However, the deal looks imminent as Leeds have agreed to get the 25-year-old on a season-long loan filling in the void that made by their star striker Chris Wood, who left for Burnley a few weeks back. Lasogga’s hefty wage was initially a big problem for the Whites, who were unwilling to pay £50,000-a-week for the forward. Even their star forward from last season, Wood, was earning £15,000-a-week and the Yorkshire club wasn’t willing to break their wage structure.
However, a loan move looks a win-win for both the sides. Lasogga would be a huge upgrade for Leeds’ attack that has already seen the likes of Samuel Saiz, Pawel Cibicki, Caleb Ekuban and Jay-Roy Grot arriving this summer.
A centre forward by nature, Lasogga is 189cm tall and could easily cope with the physicality demanded by the Championship football. He will be the proper target man for Thomas Christiansen in the truest sense as he excels in holding the ball facing the goal backwards. His combative nature in and around the D-box would also be helpful for the tussle.
Although the player has been subjected to a lot of criticism in Germany of late, many believe that the Gladbeck-born forward can really flourish if provided the right kind of delivery. An academy product of FC Gladbeck 1920/52, he was picked up by FC Schalke back in 1999 when he was quite young. A number of free transfers saw the player play for clubs like Rot-Weiss Essen, SG Wattenscheid 09, VfL Wolfsburg, Bayer 04 Leverkusen before he joined Hertha Berlin in 2010.
He had started scoring goals for fun by then and was touted by many as the next big thing in Germany. The big-framed striker had a decent record with Hertha Berlin, where he managed to score 24 goals and provided 11 assists in just 69 appearances. For Hamburg, however, he saw a slump in form managing to score just 30 goals in 100 games.
