It looks like 20-year old left back Charlie Taylor will be getting a new 3-year contract. That is fantastic news for us, and I expect he will become our starting left back at some stage next season, if not from the start. Taylor has had a sensational season at Fleetwood, and he has grown both physically and mentally. He shows great composure in defence, gets forward well, and has that sweet left foot as well. A full season at the tip end of Lge Two has helped him a lot, playing in a team fighting for promotion, and now one game away from a play-off Final at Wembley. We are definitely getting a stronger, much improved player back for next season. I also expect that Chris Dawson, Sam Byram and Alex Mowatt, with a proper pre-season under their belts, to play a part next season. That will be good news for Leeds if we can get our youngsters fit and strong for next season, and allow us to have a bit more money available to add some genuine quality. For now, let's toast the emergence of another talented youngster from our Academy. Good luck Charlie Taylor, may you become a major contributor to success at Leeds. "For the sake of Leeds United he would break himself in two"
Now now Jock. Play nicely. If Taylor has improved that much, I would expect Drury or Warnock to be moving on. It could just be that White and Taylor could dove-tail at LB/LWB/LM
Guys lets try to keep some perspective here, great news for the kid but ..... He's 20-year old and playing in L2 ffs, young Shaw is in the England squad for the world cup and wanted by Liverpool/Scum for £27m. Poleon another young kid who's much older than Berahino at the baggies and the other kid scores goals in the prem and for the England u21 squad. We have not produced anyone of note from our academy since Delph who is wanted by the bar-codes now. Our academy and coaches do not cut it any more and the best kids go to prem clubs
Delph has been crap for Villa up till this season,and now he's mid 20's.some players mature slower there's plenty of time for our young lads yet.
Doc ... Taylor went on loan to gain experience and bulk up ... he's done that, and also shone at Fleetwood ... add to this the fact that he's played under Graham Alexander, a man who knows the full back position, it all means we're getting back a young talent who will only get better, and who is now equipped to step up for Leeds ... fcuk Shaw and Saints, who cares about them ... Taylor clearly has the ability and potential, hopefully he will realise it at Leeds ... every time I've seen him on the box he has impressed massively so there is every chance scouts from other clubs will have taken note of his consitency and quality, and there may well be more than one offer for him to consider ... really hope he returns to Leeds and builds his career with us "For the sake of Leeds United he would break himself in two"
Its pretty hard to compare any youngster from england at the moment with Shaw, he is looking more and more likely like he is the next big player for england and will become world class. Berahino is pretty crap to be honest and he may be above Poleon but I wouldn't even say by much and even then Poleon isn't exactly the best player we have coming through at the moment. Byram, when 18 was considered by Man City around the price of 10m, he is a player that has clear prem potential. So there is the latest player that we have produced of note which so happened to be last season and not Delph. We also brought through Howson since then which I think he has played more prem games this season than Delph, Lees depsite people's doubts is a consistent starter for us under three seperate managers. I actually wouldn't mind betting that Mowatt is going to become a fantastic player also, has so many qualities to his game that you wouldn't expect of someone his age, does need to work on stuff but I wouldn't include technical ability in that. Dawson is considered by many to also have fantastic technical ability and a big future. Don't we also have Lewis Cook on our books at the moment, has played an instrumental role in getting the England U17s into the semi finals of the euros. I don't think, for our current club position that there is anything wrong with our academy. Happy for it to improve of course but it is producing more than I would imagine any other club in this league is currently. I think this is great news if we can get Taylor signed up to a longer term deal, whenever I have seen him this season he has looked very good. Championship is a big step up but hopefully he can do it and he has never played badly in a leeds shirt that I have seen anyway. I'm hoping he becomes a first team player next season
Thanks Josh .. good post and agree with you ... we still produce players who end up having careers in the game "For the sake of Leeds United he would break himself in two"
Great post Josh. Hope it all pans out. Without unlimited cash to throw around our future will depend very much on what the academy produces, both in what the players carry on to hopefully produce for us or failing that, some hefty transfer fees that for once, may get reinvested in the playing side of things
Morning all. Thing to remember is we are no longer a selling club. If the kids coming through are good enough, they'll make it and progress to the first team. All we need is to get back into the PL. No mean task I'll grant you. But not all the players who've left Leeds recently for supposedly greener pastures have flourised. Just ask Becchio and Beckford. So long as this season we finish top 6 and give a good account of ourselves, we'll be on for autos in 15/16 and all our best kids will stay. Just remember, the England midfield could easily have been Delph, Lennon, Milner, & Howson. Sound familiar???
I hate to say it but with things as they are at the moment, Cellino prioritising finances etc, I think a top half or top 10 finish to the table would be more of a realistic aim. I can't see the money being ploughed into the team which would be needed to get us into top 6, nevermind autos. We will have to see how far we progress with stemming any financial leaks for the season after before I would say we could get autos then either... it ma be that this 2 year plan gets pushed back to a 3 year plan with play offs the season after next and then maybe autos the season after that. It all depends how much money MC puts in of course, however, the sounds coming out of ER at the moment would lead me to think that is a fair assessment of how things might pan out. It's disappointing for everyone, that's for sure, especially Ross with his last interview wanting to push on but If MC is open with us regarding the severity of the situation and we really see some improvements with the finances, if we buy buy ER and TA this year, if the academy lads start pushing through into the first team and we put in some decent performances then I for one am prepared to go along for the ride with this new timeframe.
Together, I really feel like Cellino is a liar and manipulator. I know it is very early in his Leeds colours and perhaps too early for this sort of post but I have had a bad feeling about him ever since his name was being rumoured. What I think is that Cellino wanted to get fans on side after wrongfully sacking BM (talking about in regards to the way he did it, not whether it was right decision or not) and ever since then tried to say the right things with regards to buying back ER and TA and putting money into the playing staff and saying huge great things about the club. As soon as the takeover went through all he has talked about is how bad the finances are, I'm not saying he is lying about this but he has very very quickly changed his tune when he had already done due dilligence, he already knew the state of the club when he was trying to takeover to begin with (if he didn't then he is no kind of businessman whatsoever). He never planned on spending money on playing staff and never does plan on it imo. And after continually promising to buy back elland road the next day after takeover, he still hasn't done it and he keeps putting it off saying he will do it at a later date. We are in the same position as when Bates was running us, difference is we've had a year or 2 of completely stagnating in the championship to get here. Ofcourse he can change my mind on him, I'm very flexible with my opinion on people as long as they do what it takes to change my view. The point of that anyway is more to say that I've been very realistic in my expectations of last few seasons, saying mid table to challenging for play-offs etc. but I now feel like we have been back in this league for a while now and we still look nowhere near like challenging, its not good enough. We need to start challenging now and everything that Cellino has been saying has gone against that view.
A lot of sense in what you say Josh. When GFH took the reigns, I said Id judge them on what they actually did in transfer windows. As it turned out, that was minimal but not as bad ad Bates days. They managed to **** us up in other ways. For me, I am taking same approach with Cellino. If he produces the goods on the field, that'll do for me. To be fair, he's really only been in charge a month yet and has spent significant cash already
Wow Josh, that's a very strong view, but I can understand how the past decade has helped you form that ... I feel Cellino will do one thing right, and that is to clean house and get the club back into profit ... as far as how he does regarding the team, well that's going to be very eventful and unpredictable, because he makes up his own rules as he goes along ... take our situation right now for example, McD has basically been ignored by Cellino thus far,and the retained list hasn't even been discussed yet, even though the club has until Saturday to make any offers to out of contract players ... already our off-season is messy, and it will probably continue this way with no news at all and then suddenly a bunch of surprises ... one thing is a given, Cellino will always make things interesting, be it good or bad "For the sake of Leeds United he would break himself in two"
I knew GFH were bad for us and I said so from day one, a bit like you and Simon in regards to Cellino - The difference is I do believe we would have collapsed without his involvement. I was all for Cellino but already I am edging towards that fence and sitting on it. Everything coming out of the club is negative at the moment, culling players, redundancies, cost cutting, closing the training ground for the first time I am just a little worried about things. I know many on here like McD but if there was one thing we were all 100% sure of - right or wrong McD was going to get the sack. He hasn't been and that can only mean we can't afford to get rid of him, Cellino doesn't have any respect for McD yet he has kept him on? Alarm bells being wound up....
