Brain McDermott had led Leeds to a ninth place in the Championship after 34 matches, and with a quarter of the season left, they were still in with a shout of the play-offs.
The January transfer window had passed, but loans deals were still able to be sanctioned and sealed for the rest of the season.
To try and reach the play-offs from an outside position, McDermott moved to secure the services of a striker to get the goals to move Leeds up the table and boost their promotion chances.
And the Whites’ boss managed to pull off somewhat of a coup on February 24, 2014, when the club announced their newest addition.
Signing on loan to the end of the 2013/14 campaign, Connor Wickham moved to Elland Road from Sunderland.
Officially unveiled as the club’s new number nine, the loan deal was received well by the Elland Road faithful with the club seeing off fierce competition for his signature.
He made his debut on 1 March 2014 in a one-all draw away to Queens Park Rangers, starting and playing the full 90 minutes.
Having played a handful of games for Sunderland at the start of the season before a successful loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday after that, his form for their local rivals made him a key target for McDermott.
Wickham made his Elland Road debut a week later in a match with Bolton, but that would not end well.
A 5-1 reverse was played out in what was a poor afternoon with the then 20-year-old striker playing the full 90 minutes once more.
Two more starts and full matches would follow, but so would two more defeats.
His short time at Leeds was not going to plan - no goals and four games without a win - including three consecutive defeats that effectively ended the club’s chances of making the play-offs with them sitting tenth in the division and seven points off the top six.
It was not mathematically impossible, but it was a long shot.
A 2-1 win over Millwall would see Wickham make his fifth appearance for the club but still failed to score any goals.
The side were desperately out of form despite the win over Millwall, and Wickham played well in a side bereft of confidence, even playing out of position on the left side of midfield.
After a handful of appearances, on 24 March 2014, Wickham was recalled from his loan after playing five games for Leeds to bolster Sunderland's goal-scoring options, with Steven Fletcher injured and Jozy Altidore badly out of form.
That would be the end of his time in the Championship with the club announcing he had been recalled.
There was some displeasure to the announcement as no recall clause had been made public knowledge upon Wickham signing and free shirt printing on offer with the arrival for the striker.
And with that already a negative to the club, the fans’ reaction to his early exit for Elland Road was that of annoyance and apathy to Sunderland recalling their player after just a month.
A five-game losing run started after Wickham’s departure with the club only winning three of their final 11 matches as they finished 13th in the division after a horrendous run of form put to bed their faint hopes of a play-off push.
The reaction to Wickham’s signing was positive and got the fans on board heading into the business end of the season.
But with Sunderland recalling the striker after five matches, the supporters were left speechless that a signing that looked so positive was not given the chance to thrive.