Wober may have been the partner Diego Llorente always needed at Leeds

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As things stand, it is hard to see Diego Llorente playing for Leeds United again.

Despite signing a new contract this season, Llorente is currently out on loan at Roma. His most recent start in the Premier League came on a day when the Whites endured a nightmare night at Leicester City.

It seemed to be a smart move to offload the Spaniard. Unfortunately, his time at Elland Road has been plagued by mistakes and injury.

Llorente surely likely to return to Leeds this summer

But the chances of the Giallorossi making the move permanent appear to be diminishing with each game. Llorente has been an unused substitute in their last four Serie A games. His only appearance for Roma came right at the very end of their win over Empoli.

It is way too soon to predict what the future holds for Llorente. But one thing that is surely in little doubt is that it looks highly unlikely that Leeds will recoup anything like what the £18 million they paid for the centre-back in the next window.

And with that, there does seem to be a world where Llorente ends up back in the Leeds squad next season.

That may strike fear into some supporters’ hearts.

And it seems that he may be in line for a more prominent role – if reports on Monday are to be believed. According to Sport1 in Germany, Robin Koch wants to leave with Newcastle amongst a host of clubs keen.

Like Llorente, Koch has not had the best time at Leeds. He has had good runs in the side. But he has never really cemented himself in the team for months at a time.

However, he appears to have turned a corner in recent weeks. In fact, he is probably in the best form of his spell so far. And for many, that is largely down to the January signing of Max Wober.

Wober has been excellent for Leeds. He has quickly established himself as our best defender. And Leeds now look a lot better at the back with the Austrian in the side.

Remarkably, Leeds are doing well defensively when three of the back four are Luke Ayling, Robin Koch and Junior Firpo.

All are talented. But all have endured tough spells for Leeds. So it really does appear that Wober has made a massive difference.

And thus, you have to wonder if he could have had a similar impact on Llorente.

It would have been a gamble. Llorente is mistake-prone. But he has also produced some brilliant performances on a few occasions.

And if Wober can get the best out of Koch and Firpo, then maybe there was a chance that he could actually be the kind of partner Llorente had needed all along.

Llorente is clearly a lot better than he has been for much of his Leeds spell.

Maybe Wober was the man to help him show it at long last – had he stayed.