Ajax to Juventus before being loaned to Hamburg, Panithinikos, Zwolle and Palermo…Ouasim Bouy’s career so far. Leeds have today announced the signing of the Dutch centre back and have also announced that he will play on loan at our new partner (feeder) club Cultural Leonesa in Spain.
I’ll say it now before I talk about the deal. This would feel very different if we had already signed another centre back for the first-team, but we haven’t. There will be frustration at this deal but if we look at this deal and focus on it and it alone it seems to be a very positive move. Bouy has been capped at youth level for Holland and was plucked out of the famous Ajax academy to go out to Juventus. He was loaned out to various clubs around Europe, all with some pedigree and spent five years under contract with the Italian powerhouse before leaving this summer. Leeds have wasted little time in signing him up, and there will have been interest in his signature, I guess we couldn’t miss out if we felt the opportunity was right.
Bouy is 24 and can play in the defensive midfield role as well as his natural centre back position. The fact he is a centre back is probably the reason it is frustrating as it’s clear we are short in that area, question marks over Liam Cooper continue to loom and only Pontus Jansson and Matthew Pennington are at the club in that position. If Luke Ayling had perhaps played there during pre-season we would think there was more cover but he seems set to start the game at Bolton in the right back slot, meaning there is no centre back on the bench until Pontus Jansson returns from suspension. One thing seems certain, we will need to keep an eye on a club most of us had never heard of from now on, to see how are loan players are getting on.
