Leeds' January Signing Sol Bamba Wants To Settle In England

Leeds defender Sol Bamba says he can't explain why he didn't receive the game time at Palermo he'd hoped for, insisting he wants to move to his current club on a permanent basis.

Bamba sealed a move to the Italian outfit from Trabzonspor in 2014 but featured just once for the side in September before signing a loan deal to go to Leeds this month.

It is likely that if he performs as promised the contract will be made permanent when the transfer embargo is lifted on the struggling Championship club. But while Bamba says Palermo want him back in the summer he revealed his family is planning on settling in England.

"We (his family) want to settle here if we can and get a deal done as soon as possible," he told the Yorkshire Post. "It's up to me. I need to show what I can do on the pitch to make the president (Massimo Cellino) buy me. But I'm not thinking about that right now. I just want to play and do well."

He added that he wasn't planning a return to Italy, explaining: "Not unless the manager changes. The club made it clear that they want me to come back and play but I don't see that happening."

The move to Palermo was believed to be a step up in Bamba's career but the 30 year old said a constant lack of game time, despite encouragement from manager Guiseppi Lachini, meant a move to Leeds was the perfect solution.

"I moved there and I was expecting to be playing in Serie A," Bamba explained. "It didn't work out for some reason.

"I really don't know (why). I used to train well and if you ask the manager, he always told me 'you're doing absolutely everything right.'

"I'd just arrived at the club and people in front of me had been in Italy for two or three years. The manager would say 'you're not far off, keep doing what you're doing and you'll be playing.'

"Well, after one month then two, three and four you start to get worried. So when I had the chance to move to Leeds, it was an easy decision."