Adryan Tavares - 'The Next Zico' brings Brazilian flair to Leeds United

When we were linked with Adryan most Leeds fans had never heard of him, well maybe the younger generation through games like FIFA and Football Manager. They would always say that Adryan had great potential - but this was largely based purely on video games. I'm sure most of us can relate to this - that when we're linked with a player we look them up on YouTube and sometimes draw conclusions. Adryan really had me excited, he had flair, skill and it looked as though the ball was permanently glued to his feet.

The fans of Adryan's parent club, Flamengo, labelled him as 'the next Zico', high praise indeed. However, I never got my hopes up as we've signed numerous players that have looked 'great' on YouTube - but have turned out to be flops.

At the time the Adryan rumour was starting to gather pace and well known Journalists and Pundits made it known that Adryan was a good young talent, that's when hype was fuelled furthermore. Some believed he wouldn't cut it in England, he would be 'too small' or too 'lightweight'.

Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino seems to be a big fan of the young Brazilian with Adryan's former club being Cagliari, which of course is the club Cellino used to own. With all the speculation and rumours Massimo finally landed his gem - at Leeds.

Adryan arrived from Flamengo on a season-long-loan deal and he never really got his Leeds career started until Darko Milanic came to the helm. Before this, he was hanging around the development squad and only ever made the first team bench. It wasn't until Rotherham away that Tavares finally made his debut, he came on when we were losing 2-1 to help salvage something from the game. At the time all Leeds fans were desperately waiting to see what Adryan was all about. Almost immediately he made an impact with his quick feet and ability to beat players and almost saved a point for Leeds with a couple of good strikes. It was a very pleasing debut.

Weeks on, with Redfearn now in charge, Adryan has been a key member of the team. Not only does his skill and technicalities offer us something different - but his work-rate off the ball has been excellent. He's been showing real pride to play for Leeds and he seems to be enjoying himself in the city.

There's been a lot of praise for the Brazilian in the past few weeks and in our best team performance of the season against Derby, he was more than influential. Neil Redfearn is like a father figure to young players and there's not a better time to have him as head coach as he's got plenty of young players to work with. If they're good enough, they're old enough.

Adryan is a player we've been looking for since Gradel's departure. His attacking prowess, flair and work-rate is a combination that is very rare in this league and it's something we really need to keep hold of if we want to go forward. Seemingly his loan deal has a view to a permanent move worth around £3million and we'd be mad not to take it. Given his age, if Adryan keeps going the way he is he'll be capable of big things - something he and Leeds United have in common. He genuinely seems to care about the fans and enjoys and values their praise for him. Let's hope he stays.

I may have doubted him at the beginning, but that's before I had a clue about him. He's showed me what he can do and I hope he keeps it up. Maybe GFH's method of signing players based on Football Manager wasn't such a bad idea.