Leeds United winger Helder Costa is ‘gaining confidence’ at Valencia after turning things around in the last few weeks.
That’s the encouraging report from Levante EMV today, who detail how the Leeds loanee has turned things around after a bit of a disastrous start to life at his new club.
Costa joined Valencia on loan at the end of the transfer window when Dan James’ arrival from Manchester United pushed him down the pecking order under Marcelo Bielsa.
Things did not exactly get off to a good start for him at his new club, though, with reports in Spain stating he had to ‘wake up’ and get his ‘act together’.
That was followed by a nice dose of COVID chaos during the last international break, with the forward airport hopping and missing out on games for his country after the pilot of his flight tested positive.
Basically, things were going from bad to worse, but it seems he’s now managed to turn things around.
Levante EMV state that it was always the plan for Valencia to integrate Costa slowly as a signing ‘on the spur of the moment’ always needs time to adapt.
That’s especially the case if that player comes from playing under Bielsa and is then working for a manager like Jose Bordalas.
In that sense, his lack of appearances at the beginning of the season has ‘nothing to do’ with his level or his lack of work. In fact, the Valencia coach has been ‘happy at all times’ with the Portuguese forward.
In other words, those reports demanding more from him were very wide of the mark, and as far as everyone at the Spanish club are concerned, the loan ‘is on track’.
They were aware Costa would need time to ‘mature’ and hit 100% as they’d scouted him before his arrival. The Leeds man is even showing improvement defensively, which was one of the major issues Bordalas wanted to fix.
In short, his signing was always going to be a ‘slow-burn’, and now we’re properly into the season, things are starting to look up.
That’ll come as good news for Leeds, whose prospects of getting a permanent deal at the end of this loan are starting to look up.
