How Jean-Mattéo Bahoya Can Excite Elland Road: Shades Of Raphinha & Gnonto Upgrade

Well, wow. Myself along with probably the rest of the Leeds United fanbase wanted an attacking signing and our owners delivered, completing an action-packed transfer deadline day.

The arrival of Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, initially on loan, due to the time-sensitive nature of the deal has been met with considerable excitement, from what I can gather from social media and personally, I think this could be a stunning piece of business and Daniel Farke has every reason to be happy.

A loan fee that totals just £1.7 million for the season, on top of a £19.7 million option to buy represents incredible negotiation from the 49ers, with the player’s parent club, Eintracht Frankfurt reportedly quoting Arsenal in excess of £70 million for him last summer.

With Wilfried Gnonto in Florence waiting for the ‘green light’ to sign for Fiorentina on loan, I wondered the profile of player we would be looking to bring in to replace him; certainly I figured it would be an upgrade because this has represented every piece of business we’ve done this summer.

One thing I should mention about Bahoya, which our fans were eager to point out on social media channels, is the player’s pace. Last season, he recorded the fastest sprint speed ever in the Bundesliga at 23.09mph/37.16kmph, which is a significant representation of his development across a total of 59 appearances for his club.

The 11th-Hour Domino: Bahoya Arrives as Gnonto Departs for Fiorentina

Once news of Bahoya’s impending arrival reached my ears, it was obvious that Gnonto’s loan move would be rubber-stamped (I actually wish him well) and I started to gradually become excited about what this could mean for us.

The Transfer Breakdown: How Leeds Landed France’s U21 Star

To the outside spectator, this move happened very fast, though I had a sneaky feeling on Tuesday morning that the owners had a couple of tricks up their sleeve that they had kept quiet – as has often been the case with the 49ers.

In almost quick succession, left wing-back, Melvin Bard signed from OGC Nice, before it was revealed we had reached an agreement with Bahoya’s camp, essentially simultaneously silencing a few nay-sayers.

I know that we were reportedly looking at Mykhailo Mudryk, which, to be honest, felt a bit forced – sure, we had two loan approaches rejected, though I have a feeling that the board knew what they were doing here.

They probably had a feeling that Chelsea would reject these, though used this as a smokescreen to begin negotiations with their true target behind the scenes, while keeping the media distracted with a widely publicised pursuit of Mudryk, who eventually went to Tottenham on loan to re-unite with Roberto De Zerbi; his former manager.

Over the last few seasons, I’ve begun to get a feel for how the 49ers operate and the way they go about business to make sure they get what they want is how elite American companies operate. Effectively, Mudryk was a stalking horse and I’m not convinced he was ever their true target. If this is the case, they’re hardly going to admit this are they? No, they’ll persist with the official line that there was a dispute over guarantee of appearances for Mudryk, which is of course, perfectly plausible.

Why Bahoya Fits Farke’s Ideal Profile

I don’t think there is currently another attainable attacking player out there who currently fits what Farke is looking for in terms of fitting how he wants us to play.

Bahoya’s experience in high-pressing situations during his Eintracht career and his ability to showcase this consistently automatically make him a fantastic addition, while this combined with his other raw attributes could mean we have one heck of a player on our hands.

Tactical Blueprint: Inside Number 10 Fluidity In The 3-4-2-1

What I’m envisaging Bahoya to be is essentially ‘the next Raphinha’, but someone who can make an even bigger impact due to his unpredictability.

The Inverted Left-Sided Threat

There’s no doubt in my mind that he has been brought in to compete for the left-sided number 10 role and I don’t think it will be too long before he’s causing Farke a selection headache. Of course, we have Noah Okafor and even Brenden Aaronson who can play there and different profiles will likely be needed depending on the opposition.

However, with his pace, trickery, pressing ability and direct approach to playing, I believe Bahoya will cause opponents genuine problems and could even turn out to be the difference between a draw and a win; the same way in which Anton Stach invariably is from direct free-kick situations, as he showed against Nottingham Forest last week.

Should Farke decide to switch to 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 in some games, Bahoya is more than capable of playing wide left, while even being the lone 10 due to his flair and movement.

The Raphinha Comparison

While the Brazilian obviously operated from the right, cutting in on his left foot and Bahoya does this from the left, there is an argument to suggest any similarities between the pair, particularly when it comes to statistics. Below, I’ve compiled a table to illustrate the Brazilian’s output during the season prior to joining us and his debut campaign at Leeds, while I’ve also listed the same statistics for Bahoya and a projected calculation of what he might achieve in his first season with us.

What you can see in the table above is that both players posted very modest numbers before joining Leeds, albeit Raphinha’s coming in a less competitive league, with no disrespect to clubs in France. In addition to this, both players arrived into a highly organised and disciplined system where every player knows their role. I doubt either Rennes during Raphinha’s time or Eintracht last season were as systematically organised as Leeds were last season under Farke once transitioning into our 3-4-2-1 or Marcelo Bielsa’s system during his first campaign in the Premier League.

This, I’ve got to admit, fills me with confidence that Bahoya (who is also a lot younger than Raphinha was when he arrived, so potentially could have a higher ceiling), can at least equal, if not exceed what Raphinha did during his first campaign with us, which was enough for many in the game to start heaping praise on him.

I’ve ultimately calculated Bahoya’s projected stats applying a similar 20-start baseline and 10-12 percent efficiency hike in goal contribution frequency, due to him transitioning into Farke’s high-vertically oriented 3-4-2-1 system.

The Final Verdict: An Elite Summer Window Concluded

With the addition of Bahoya, the owners really have come up trumps once again and I’m a huge advocate of what they’re doing in terms of building something special and unique. Farke is also fully board, which is amazing to see, because I love his approach to the game and his passion and commitment towards our club.

The Attacking Trident Is Complete

For now at least, what we have in attack is a considerable upgrade on what we had last season, when you factor in the spectacular free transfer of Harry Wilson (who once he settles in, will definitely make his mark) and now with Bahoya who, like Raphinha was, I think could be the surprise package of the window.

How he combines with the likes’ of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Lukas Nmecha, Wilson, Okafor, Aaronson and Dan James (imagine those two together on the counter-attack!), is going to be exciting to watch, I think and, even then when I was recalling those names, I was thinking that we now have the makings of a very effective attack and definitely the creativity we’ve been crying out for.

True, we could maybe do with another out-and-out striker, though the 49ers, along with Farke are demonstrating superb judgement I think, in the transfer market and won’t bring in just anyone. Time, of course will tell, but Bahoya, in my opinion will prove to be a superb signing (I predicted this with a few of last summer’s signings) and also, a steal for the £25 million buy option.