Ex-colleague reveals insight on Leeds United man integral to Victor Orta's UK transfer project

Head of emerging talent at Elland Road, or rather Thorp Arch where he now bases himself, Dean is integral to Victor Orta's 'anticipate talent' project.

The club's director of football has made no secret of his desire to find and secure teenage prospects before their development reaches a stage that gives them an unachievable price tag.

Speaking to Radio MARCA he used Nottingham Forest star Brennan Johnson, now a £20m-plus player, as an example of the kind of talent Leeds identified early.

"We had to reach the player much earlier because if we waited for him to debut, have minutes in the Championship, it would be more difficult," said Orta.

"My role model was to have Brennan Johnson come when he was 16 and we tried but it could not be."

There are, however, plenty of examples of the project's success already in place at Leeds.

Last week's release on Amazon Prime TV of the Academy Dreams documentary showcased several of them and focused heavily on the likes of Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood, a pair purchased for sub-£2m sums who have already made significant first team contributions before their 21st birthdays.

Leo Hjelde, Lewis Bate and Amari Miller are also Dean signings, so his fingerprints were all over the six-part series, but he himself was not featured in it.

The former Manchester United academy player, who featured at left-back for non-league clubs like Nuneaton and Gresley Rovers before stints abroad, has scarcely said a word publicly since arriving at Leeds from Oxford United in 2017.

Instead it is left to Orta to blow the trumpet of what he believes is the best English scouting group 'in the country' while Dean manoeuvres behind the scenes alongside Alex Davies and Alberto Cordero in the club's recruitment department.

For many fans, recruiters are little-known-entities but for Premier League clubs Dean is a name on many lips and Leeds are well aware of interest among 'big six' outfits.

Dean's post-playing career has always been building towards the kind of role he holds now with Leeds.

Time with the FA's football development division was followed by six years as Newcastle United's head of player development, but it was his work in three years at Oxford United that caught Orta's attention.

Derek Fazackerley was Michael Appleton's assistant when Dean arrived.

"I didn't know a great deal about him when he came to Oxford," Fazackerley told the YEP.

"Michael knew him as a kid at Manchester United and brought him in from a job at Newcastle, where he was looking out for the younger end of the age spectrum.

"In his time there he had built up a decent network of people and at that level you have to because you haven't got the sort of analysis that there is at the more senior level. With the younger age groups it's more about your network."

Fazackerley worked with Kevin Keegan at Newcastle and with England before coaching at Blackburn, Bolton, Grimsby, Huddersfield and Leicester City before joining Birmingham. Put plainly, he has been around the block.

Dean impressed him.

"He was very good to work with," said the 70-year-old.

"He was diligent. He knew people, he was connected within the game, certainly in the north of England, which was probably his strong point, but very soon he started to expand into the south of England as well."

Two signings in particular stood out for Fazackerley from Dean's spell with The U's.

"He was instrumental in bringing Kemar Roofe to the club," said Fazackerley.

"He had been on his radar for a while. He came and helped us get promotion from Division Two, scored goals and then went on to play for Leeds, Rangers and had a spell abroad.

"Chey Dunkley was out of non-league, an excellent centre-half who left us and went to Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan.

"There were several players Craig had influence in bringing in and they not only did well for us but went on to have good careers as well above and beyond Oxford.

"You never get every one right and fortunately at the time we had a chairman who understood that. If you're working on a percentage you're probably looking at getting something like 60 and 70 per cent of your decisions right because that's a big help to the team in terms of results and also to your own personal profile and reputation. We managed players Craig brought in to get promotion and he gets quite a bit of the plaudits for that."

The move to Leeds was perfectly 'understandable' from Fazackerley's point of view and Dean's exit was amicable.

"He went with our best regards, with the right terms and in fairness to him a couple of people working beneath him at that time took up the reins and we managed to continue in a very similar vein," he told the YEP.

"There were players left at the club beyond his period there, people he had influenced and brought to the club who did a good job.

"Generally speaking just a top man really who was very good at his job, did well for us and then continued that in his spell at Leeds where he's brought some very talented young players who have started to make their mark."

Although, like any recruiter, Dean would have gone into the transfer window with an extensive list of targets, he got two of his big wishes when Darko Gyabi and Sonny Perkins arrived. The former is, as Gelhardt and Greenwood did previously, making Under 21s football look very comfortable. The latter, a talent Dean was most insistent Leeds should go and get, is scoring goals for fun.

If the club’s latest 18-year-old recruits do follow in the footsteps of Gelhardt and Greenwood then Dean’s work will continue to speak for him.