Leeds hit the jackpot with “underrated” academy star who left for £7m.
The Whites struck gold by bringing the talented left-back through the youth set-up at Thorp Arch.
Leeds United head coach Daniel Farke has showcased a willingness to bring through and develop young academy talents throughout the season.
Teenager Archie Gray won the Championship Young Player of the Year award on Sunday, ahead of Birmingham’s Jordan James and Norwich City’s Jonathan Rowe, and has the German boss to thank for placing his faith in a 17-year-old out of position at right-back at the start of the campaign.
Many talented gems have come through Thorp Arch and gone on to enjoy successful careers, at Leeds or away from Yorkshire, including the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Jack Clarke and Lewis Cook.
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A player the club hit the jackpot with after bringing him through the academy and into the first-team was left-back Charlie Taylor, who currently plays in the Premier League with Burnley.
Charlie Taylor’s Leeds career in numbers
The left-footed battler came through the youth teams at Leeds, which meant that the club did not have to spend a penny to sign him as a youngster, and made his senior breakthrough in the 2014/15 campaign.
After loan spells with Bradford, York, Inverness, and Fleetwood in the previous three seasons, Taylor was given a chance to play regular football in the Championship and 23 league appearances in total.
As you can see in the table above, in his first two full seasons of second division football with Leeds, the left-back provided an impressive attacking outlet for the team with 11 assists.
However, a contract dispute with the club, with Taylor refusing to put pen to paper on an extension, towards the end of the 2016/17 campaign resulted in the defender asking not to play against Wigan on the final day, and manager Garry Monk suggested that the defender has been “terribly advised all season”.
How much Leeds received for Charlie Taylor
In the summer of 2017, the Leeds academy graduate’s contract expired and Premier League side Burnley swooped in to sign him to bolster their squad.
As the then-23-year-old was under the age of 24, a tribunal was needed to decide how much the Clarets had to pay in compensation and the Yorkshire Evening Press reported that a deal worth up to £7m was settled on.
