Time To Step Up Aidy

Aidy White is a player who divides much opinion between Leeds fans,some say positionally he is woeful and that when he attacks, he attacks in straight lines and struggles to beat the last man and often there are question marks over his end product.

Aidy has struggled to live up to early hype

He broke into the side at the tender age of 16 and was quickly being touted as a star of the future,White was highlighted as one of 20 future England stars with fellow Leeds teammate Fabian in an article in The Guardian in November 2008.He looked to be the next big thing out of the Famed Thorp Arch academy,it seemed his talent was endless and with pace,hunger and the ability to run with the ball, it only seemed a matter of time before Aidy hit the top of his profession.

So what happened? in the 2009/10 promotion campaign Aidy went on to make 15 appearances and subsequently won the clubs young player of the season award.He then had a fairly succesful loan spell with Oldham in the 2010/11 season,where he went onto score 4 goals in 24 appearances with the latics and when  he returned for the 2011/12 at Leeds it seemed that this could be his breakthrough season and that we would see the Aidy White that would turn our fortunes around and help steer us to promotion.Leeds ended up finishing 13th and Aidy went onto make 39 appearances under Simon Grayson and Neil Warnock. At the end of the season There was a lot of speculation over White’s future as he was out of contract and Aidy attracted a lot of interest from clubs such as Arsenal,Celtic,Lille,Werder Bremen and Newcastle United, however Aidy signed a new  3-year deal at his hometown club and Leeds fans expected a big season from Aidy.However Aidy was in and out of the team during the 2012/13 season and only managed to make  20 appearances in the white of Leeds. With Warnock playing Aidy in left back and also deploying him on the wing, his performances were inconsistent and apart from a well taken goal against Everton in the Capital One Cup, Aidy had a poor season.This lead to him coming into criticism from some sections of the Leeds fans. 

Aidy an Ireland u21 international attracted a lot of interest in the summer of 2012

Where’s his best position?

The debate over Aidy is where is his best position. He’s played left back more often than any other position but it’s fairly clear that Brian McDermott doesn’t see him as a left back. Simon Grayson said in the long-term he saw Aidy as a winger and not a left back and Neil Warnock seemed to view Aidy more as a winger and even played him as a right-winger at times. It seems now though Aidy could be set to take up another position and that is in the hole in Brian McDermott’s new look 4-1-2-1-2(Narrow) formation and Brian thinks it could be his best position “I feel Aidy can play in an attacking off-the-striker role and I’ve talked to him about that,” .”He’s really looked after himself over the summer and he’s come back and wants to make an impression. He’s certainly done that to me.

“He scored a terrific goal at Farsley and I think that off-the-striker position could suit him.”

And Aidy himself likes the idea of it “The manager asked me if I’d played in the hole before, it’s something I haven’t done for a while, since I played in the Academy but it’s something I enjoyed”. 

Some think the reason that Aidy hasn’t fulfilled his potential is that his problem isn’t talent wise but his problem is mental.I think it’s not helped being in a side that has spectacularly underachieved over these last 2 years but lets hope this season he can have a starring role.

I personally think Aidy could prove to be a big player this season and can prove his doubters wrong and the in the hole position could be the making of him and the fact that we as a team in attack lack pace, which aidy certainly doesn’t, and with the space he can find in the hole, he can make bombing runs from that position with his pace and also the fact that defensively he doesn’t have to worry, finally we may now see the true Aidy White talent and if we can then he could be as good as a £2m signing.

TIME TO STEP UP AIDY!!

Here scoring his first Leeds goal in a 2-1 victory against Everton in the capital cup 4th round at Elland Road

 

United cruise to comfortable victory in first friendly.

Leeds United 5 – 0 Farsley

Leeds United played their first friendly of pre season today by traveling over to Farsley and securing a comfortable 5-0 win. Brian McDermott named a different side for each half with Kenny, Peltier, Killock, Pearce, Pugh, Brown, Green, Tonge, McCormack, Smith and Poleon starting the game.

Leeds managed to get an early goal when Dom Poleon put United ahead after just 4 minutes. United were 3 up before the game was 30 minutes old when Leeds new boy Matt Smith bagged a brace on his first appearance in a Leeds shirt. Leeds dominated the first half and Smith was denied twice by the goalkeeper and Michael Brown smashed the post from 25 yards out.

McDermott changed his line up at half time and Cairns, Lewis Turner, Lees, Warnock, Drury, Norris, Thompson, Lenighan, White, Varney and Hunt came out to play the second half.

After 50 minutes it was another of the new boys who scored when Noel Hunt headed home from Luke Varney’s cross. Aidy White completed the scoring on 62 minutes when he finished the game off with a fantastic solo effort.

Luke Murphy was handed his first appearance when he came on for the last 15 minutes replacing Simon Lenighan.

All in all it was exactly what the doctor ordered with the vast majority of the squad getting 45 minutes under their belts, Leeds now head off to Slovenia on Monday for their pre season training camp and 3 friendlies against a Slovenian XI on Wednesday, FC Domzale on Saturday and finishing the tour of on Tuesday week against Ferencvaros.