“There’s music in his left foot,” said Bayern Munich sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic of Michael Cuisance, the midfielder who flew into West Yorkshire to complete a move that had been agreed between the two clubs.
Leeds were in need of a central midfielder and Cuisance was a 21-year-old French talent who came with plenty of hype and apparent potential. There were question marks, however, as the deal progressed towards its final stages. Why were the German giants so content to sell a player to whom they had given a five-year-deal less than 12 months prior, even with a buy-back clause agreed with Leeds? ESPN’s Bundesliga reporter Archie Rhind-Tutt told the YEP: “I think he’s undoubtedly talented but thinks highly of himself and sees himself at a level which he hasn’t quite reached yet. I don’t think he’s justified the hype. Gladbach wanted him to stay and bring him on further but Cuisance thought he was ready for the next step and curiously, wanted more game time. So you go to Bayern?”
There were those at Leeds who later admitted to some misgivings when Cuisance and his entourage arrived from Germany, but it was a medical, rather than anything the player did or said, that brought the deal crashing down. A planned Thursday unveiling never came and the silent limbo left fans wondering where their shiny new signing was. By the time the news broke, he was homeward bound. Concerns over a scan of his foot spooked Leeds and they ultimately decided to step away and send Cuisance away.
