Youth is the way forward

19 year old Sam Byram was unheard of before the 2012/2013 season, and burst onto the scene with a pre-season goal against Preston. Since then he has never looked back. Byram was ever present bar the last couple of games, winning 3 out of 4 main end of season awards. He narrowly missed out on Goal of the Season for his superb solo chip against Oxford, but he did however win  Player’s Player of the Year, Fan’s Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year. Admittedly, given the average age of the Leeds team under Neil Warnock, there wasn’t much competition in the latter category!

Tom Lees was another young player who had a brilliant season, despite what Warnock had to say about him. His fine form saw him playing for England U21s throughout and played 1 game in the UEFA Under 21s Championship.

Chris Dawson is an exciting prospect, who can only benefit from first team experience.  He made his debut v Derby late on in the season, with many fans calling for him to be played much earlier. Being the age that he is, he would seriously reduce the average age of the midfield, with Austin aged 28, Green and Tonge 30, Norris 32 and Brown 36.

Other youngsters that will hopefully get more game time next season are Zac Thompson and Dominic Poleon, who both had successful loans with Bury (Poleon also having a spell on loan at Sheffield United). Thompson won Young Player of the Year at Bury, while Poleon came back from his loan spell at Sheffield United, making a big impact at the Watford game and getting himself a goal.

Brian McDermott has already made 24 year old striker Matt Smith his first signing at Leeds, and we’ve also  been  linked with Alex Pearce and Tommy Rowe (both also 24). As a former chief scout at Reading, McDermott has an eye for young talent. With McDermott signing and promoting young players to the first team, this is a great foundation for years to come.

Wingers, every team needs them

Wingers, forgotten about them? It wouldn’t be hard to forget about wingers after last season, with memories of Gradel down one wing and Snodgrass down the other fresh in the mind it’s hard to believe we’ve ended up with no wingers. Well that isn’t completely true, we have Ryan Hall. Warnock signed Ryan Hall as “one for the future.”  At 25 he should be at his prime, not sitting on the bench or in the stands. I always believed he should be given a chance, but when he was played he didn’t seem like he had it in him apart from half an hour away to Huddersfield where he got two very decent assists.  Why did Warnock sign him? Only he knows, it would take too long for me to go in to that as I really had no idea what Warnock was doing at most times last season.

I think the key to a great side in the championship especially lies in wingers, I know you need a strong defence but without creativity you get nowhere. For example our 2010-11 squad, we had four really good wingers for this league. Snodgrass and Gradel consistently put in good performances and if either of them got injured we had Sanchez Watt and Lloyd Sam available to step in, both solid performers. Compare that to the season after that and even more so last seasons squad and you see the problem. Luciano Becchio managed to score 19 in the first half of the season without any support from the wing, imagine if we’d had a few wingers! There was just no creativity in the side, Ross Mccormack and El-Hadji Diouf were constantly tried in the wide positions and did their best, but without them having the pace needed by modern-day wingers, it was always going to be difficult.

So, in my opinion a couple of wingers should be at the top of Brian McDermott’s  list of transfers, along with a creative midfielder and a centre back.  There have been a few wingers linked with the club so far since the end of last season and a few stand out. Tommy Rowe, I think he would be a great signing and it sounds like he wants to come to Leeds.  He is the exactly the kind of player we need, some pace and creativity!

Rowe himself, I believe, would be interested in a move to Elland Road. He said a couple of years ago “I was a massive Leeds fan when I was younger and have been there to watch a few times.”

Today Barry Fry, Peterborough’s Director of Football has said that Leeds cannot afford Tommy Rowe whilst the Peterborough Chairman Darragh MacAnthony has claimed Rowe is McDermott’s top target but no formal contact has been made from the Leeds board.

Is this going to be another summer where promises are broken, or will GFH stick to their word?

Who do you think we should sign in the wide areas?