Leeds United: Monk a lucky man to have Sacko's verve and vivacity

They called it 'vivacity'; the trait which made coaches look twice at Hadi Sacko in his formative years. In 2010, when Sacko had turned 16, he was one of only two amateur players included in France's squad for the Tournoi de Montaigu, a competition contested annually by national Under-16 teams.

The rest of the squad, the bulk of it, was filled by the powerhouses of French football: PSG, Lyon, Auxerre and the like. Sacko, who played for a little-known club by the name of Brétigny, took the vote of confidence in his stride. “If I’m here, it’s not by chance,” he confidently told Le Parisien.

That much is true of much of his short but intriguing career. Bordeaux, his first professional side, did not randomly stumble across him. Sacko was being heavily scouted when he joined as a youth-team player that year. It was not by chance that he rolled up at Sporting Lisbon with a six-year contract and a 60 million Euro buy-out clause in 2014. And by no means was Leeds United’s offer of a loan in England a wild or uninformed stab in the dark.

Sacko is raw and unfinished; electrifying in some ways, mildly infuriating in others but capable of big performances like that served up in the second half of a critical victory over Blackburn last month. His verve and “vivacity” – a word applied to him by one of his old national coaches – might already be making Leeds think about their next move. Sacko would not cost anything like the value his buy-out clause and at the right price, he is a tempting investment.