Crikey, it’s been frustrating being a Leeds fan over the last couple of decades, right? The number of young stars we’ve let go, some for a bargain price as well and, who if we were in the Premier League, we’d probably have been able to keep hold of – at least for a couple more years until it made sense to sell at a premium.
I know we could have become an elite production line if we’d have been in the Prem all this time and, probably been able to make a fortune as well! Thorp Arch has churned out quite the gems o’er the years.
But, quite a lot of clubs go through this – unless you are a top club (Arsenal have a great reputation for bringing through young talent, developing and even being able to keep hold of them), then you probably have no chance.
When I think about the number of ‘kids’ we’ve sold either as a Championship or League One club and for a nominal fee as well, it’s a bit sickening – especially because most of them didn’t really fulfill their potential, but were seduced by the Premier League, regardless of how good the club was that they went to.
Anyway, I’ve managed to come up with a few – without the help of Google actually as well (minus the stats part). So, put ‘kettle on, do yerself a brew and enjoy the peruse through!
Charlie Taylor
I’ve got to admit, I was gutted when we let him go to Burnley – for me, he was one of the best left-backs we’d had since the days of Ian Harte and had a lot of potential. I knew we’d struggle to keep hold of him, but I thought he could have done another season with us and made a more ambitious, exciting move, instead of just ‘settling’ to play in the Premier League.
To be fair, I thought £7 million wasn’t a bad fee for him – being under 24, obviously, we were always going to get a compensation package. But, yeah, definitely a good talent that, if we were flying high in the Prem, we’d have had a stronger hand.
Lewis Cook
Cor blimey, he was good’un weren’t he? Look at him now – smashing it for a very good Bournemouth side playing attractive football. And, it’s the type of football that he we’d drilled into him at youth level as well. The fee really peed me off though – just £6 million it seems (rising to 10 – and it probably did as well), but he’s a class act. I think he should have been given more of a chance for England to be fair.
Aaron Lennon
For me, one of the bargain’s of the decade and to be honest, absoutely, bloody cheeky from Tottenham – £1 million he cost them – easily worth at least five times more than that. Though – a player who I think should probably have scored more goals to be fair.
He became a regular for Spurs, especially under Harry Redknapp, but 26 goals in 266 games I don’t think was enough. And, he has 21 senior England caps as well (no goals), starring under former manager, Sven Goran-Eriksson and he was tricky to play against, fast, could sell a foul and . If we hadn’t been in the position we were in (2005 and financially screwed), we’d have kept him.
James Milner
Well, what a player who just got better with age. Still going for Brighton, in the Prem and at 39 years old an’ all! He’s played at the highest level his whole career (apart from when we sent him to Swindon Town on loan as a kid), I mean, who can say that about these days really? Very few.
It didn’t really come as a surprise to me when we sold him. Afterall, we’d just gone down and we needed cash. Still, £5 million wasn’t bad to be fair, though again. One of those, who if we’d have been up the top end of the league, we could have kept him and named our price eventually. He’s won everything there is to win as well – at least domestically.
Fabian Delph
Another, like Milner who, for me, was a class act. It’s pretty funny that Delph took over from Milner at Aston Villa when he went to Manchester City, then followed him there as well!
Reports say he we sold him for £8 million, but when you think about the impact he went on to have at Villa, if we’d have been up there, we could have probably got a lot more for him and dictated when he left.
But, again, he was actually decent in a top notch Man City squad and played pretty regularly – being able to play at left-back, probably meant he got more games than he would have as well. And he played 20 times for England, so not a bad career. I guess if it wasn’t for injuries, he’d still be playing today – he’s only 35 afterall.
