Very few things will make Sam Byram feel older than the photograph Leeds United dug up last month.
It was taken a decade ago and it shows Byram, in his first stint with Leeds, lining up for a night game at Elland Road with a primary school-aged mascot in front of him. The mascot is Archie Gray and the club used that image on their social media channels when Gray signed a new deal with them a few weeks ago. Time flies and these days, the two of them share the same pitch in a different way — as team-mates and peers.
😍 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 #LUFC 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿!@ArchieGray06 #OneOfOurOwn pic.twitter.com/zUoxOZIUU0
— Leeds United (@LUFC) January 16, 2024
Gray looking as young as he did paints its own picture of how long some of the best home-grown footballers at Leeds reside in their academy. The crop who came through with Byram from 2012 onwards — Lewis Cook, Alex Mowatt, Charlie Taylor — were in the category of kids who had been on the scene from the earliest opportunity, well before secondary school. Kalvin Phillips was a bit of contrast, a later arrival to the academy world, but, as a rule, the pick of the production line were usually those who were part of the furniture at Thorp Arch.
To an extent, the same is true now. Gray is the outstanding player in his age category, the prodigy Leeds have long been most excited about, and they are seeing the benefits of investing in his ability. But several years ago, and in the aftermath of ownership of Leeds passing to Andrea Radrizzani, the club started looking at youth development through a new lens.
The academy would continue to operate as it had before, with cohorts moving through traditional age groups, but to supplement that, United would step up recruitment of prospects from elsewhere. In effect, they would cherry-pick from other youth-team systems and create a pool of potential that was not immediately first-team ready but not necessarily a mile off either.
Scouting resources were devoted to the idea, and Leeds appointed Craig Dean as their head of youth recruitment in 2017, in the team headed up by former director of football Victor Orta. Transfer funds were set aside and the project and the footballers it brought to Elland Road came to be known as “emerging talent”.
The theory was that time in Leeds’ under-21s and on the fringes of the senior side would bring a good number up to a level where they were genuine, regular first-team assets — but this year’s winter transfer window saw a clutch of those signings moved on without leaving much of a mark behind them.
It would be hard to argue the emerging talent strategy has truly thrived. Sean McGurk was the last to depart, joining Swindon Town permanently just before Thursday’s deadline passed.
📰 Best of luck to Sean McGurk, as he joins Swindon Town on a permanent deal
— Leeds United (@LUFC) February 2, 2024
On the list of the deals done by Leeds are some definite success stories. Pascal Struijk and Illan Meslier were pre-promotion recruits who made the cut and have since become first choice in their positions. Crysencio Summerville, one of the club’s most influential players this season, is an example of the type of footballer Leeds were after in the academy market: an 18-year-old at Feyenoord who could conceivably train on and come good in the not-so-distant future. But since United went up from the Championship in 2020 and intensified their spending on the emerging talent crop, Summerville is almost alone in coming to Elland Road and making himself stick.
Willy Gnonto made an encouraging impact too but he was already a full Italy international before Leeds bought him from Zurich. Many more have drifted from view or gone completely. Certain others, Joe Gelhardt being one, are trapped in a cycle of waiting for it to properly happen for them.
In the case of McGurk, the club spent time tracking him and persevered in signing him from Wigan Athletic. The transfer was done in the summer of 2021, but McGurk did not play for United’s first team. He was gifted and scored goals for the under-21s but there was never any sense of him taking the next step.
Beyond McGurk, Leo Hjelde left for Sunderland last month with one league start for Leeds on his record. Ian Poveda joined Sheffield Wednesday, his contract running down and United inclined not to extend it. People who have coached Poveda describe him as exceptionally talented but he turns 24 this week and a tally of two league starts in four years at Elland Road tells its own story.
Darko Gyabi was allowed to go on loan to Plymouth Argyle, and Lewis Bate’s switch to MK Dons will take him to the end of his deal in Yorkshire. The investment in those two totalled £6m, in return to next to no impact so far.
Poveda after facing Burnley in the Premier League in 2021 (MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Cody Drameh, Sam Greenwood, Sonny Perkins, Amari Miller, Diogo Monteiro; the list goes on of burgeoning footballers Leeds hoped would give them an edge. Some, like Monteiro, are still in the building but yet to show signs of starting to break through.
Those targets were supposed to grow to the point of either significantly strengthening the first team or yielding meaningful resale value, or both. Were United to sell Struijk and Summerville tomorrow, the levels of profit made on them would be high and they have been so important to manager Daniel Farke that their retention last month was essential. The club have backed Mateo Joseph, signed from Espanyol’s academy in 2022, with a new contract to 2028.
No recruitment strategy was ever going to deliver perfect results but on the departure front, January painted a picture of development gambles not quite working and begged the question of whether the emerging talent strategy still has legs.
Now and again, that corner of the market still tempts Leeds to act. In July, they struck a deal with Aberdeen for Lewis Pirie, a 16-year-old forward who is playing for their under-18s.
Dean remained in post as head of youth recruitment after Orta resigned as director of football in May but the recruitment department at Elland Road has been changing in no small way, bringing Gretar Steinsson and Nick Hammond to the fore last summer and giving Farke major authority over targets and signings. The scouting structure will expand again in the next few weeks when Jordan Miles, formerly of West Ham United, leaves his role as Aberdeen’s head of recruitment to join United.
Drameh was signed from Fulham in 2020 (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
On Farke’s watch, so much of Leeds’ transfer business has focused on targets capable of making an immediate or rapid impact. Connor Roberts, the right-back loaned from Burnley last week, was an extension of that, and the mindset tallies with the priorities of a club anxious to return to the Premier Laegue. Farke took a close look at Hjelde, Drameh and Greenwood in the summer but once his mind was made up about them, he was quick to say that all three should be allowed to leave.
“It’s important you judge every player carefully,” Farke said last week. “What’s best for him while keeping in mind what’s best for Leeds United too. That’s even more important.”
In that spirit, Leeds have had little choice but to move from being forthright in investing in emerging talent to being forthright and uncompromising in subsequently judging it, with too many misses alongside the hits. For all the money pushed in that direction, the most prodigious of their youngsters is still one of those who was in the system from the very start.
(Top photo: Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
