Leeds manager Simon Grayson has confirmed striker Davide Somma will not be sent out on loan during the coming season. Somma failed to make the break through to claim a first team place at Elland Road last season, but he was a revelation once he’d gone to Lincoln City on load.

The 25-year-old scored nine goals in 14 games for Lincoln during the final three months of the last campaign and it’s no surprise that the Imps wanted to sign him permanently, but Grayson is now going to give the South African the opportunity to challenge for a first-team place at Leeds.

Grayson told the official site "He's looked fit and strong since he came back. He missed four or five days, but he's come back fit and strong and his confidence levels are high. He got goals last season and we know we have a player there. He'll be pushing players and he won't be going back out on loan anywhere. The purpose of him going out on loan last season was to play games and score goals."

And Somma was impressive when he took to the field in the second half of last night’s game against MFK Ruzomberok in Slovakia. He had a goal disallowed after a contentious offside decision, and also thought he should have won a penalty after his trickery caused a bit of panic in the home defence.

It will be hard for Somma to get too many games next season, as we already have several strikers in the squad, but we can hope that he is good enough to make an impact a Championship level.

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