Daniel Chapman: Leeds United academy graduate Kalvin Phillips could have survived in the Premier League, he could thrive at Elland Road

It was Alex Mowatt versus Jamie Shackleton in midfield. Mowatt, still with the thick black hair and wide barrel chest of a Donny Diego Maradona, against Shackleton’s short legs and floppy fringe that, if Marcelo Bielsa squints a bit, could be a premonition of the day he finally gets to manage Lionel Messi at Newell’s Old Boys, and convert him to the right-back he should have been all along.

READ: Graham Smyth's Verdict on the Oakwell clash.

Clarke Oduor stayed on the bench for Barnsley, but Mallik Wilks seized his chance to impress against his former club, while giving away an open secret in the programme: that one advantage of moving from Leeds to Barnsley is that he didn’t have to move house.

It’s a repeat of the late 1990s, when David Wetherall, Robert Molenaar, David Hopkin, Gunnar Halle and Lee Sharpe all found an upgrade from United’s reserves by signing for Bradford City.

The day’s main battle was between Aapo Halme and Patrick Bamford, like two teen idols having some drama in a hotly anticipated episode of The OC. Halme’s transfer surprised a lot of fans in the summer, when it looked like Leeds were selling all their defenders, and Halme had played in the first team looking like one of the good ones. But when he kicked Eddie Nketiah it was the second penalty he’d given away in three starts for Barnsley and an insight, without looking too deeply, into why Leeds let him go.

Sometimes these moves only look obvious in retrospect. After the league title win in 1992, the mid-90s at Leeds were fuelled by the euphoria of beating David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Robbie Savage and a couple of Nevilles in the FA Youth Cup final, then waiting impatiently for Leeds’ real Class of ’92 to match their red counterparts’ achievements in the Premier League.

By the time George Graham took over from Howard Wilkinson, Mark Tinkler, Mark Ford, Mark Jackson, Andy Couzens and Jason Blunt were all still trying to establish themselves; all now into their 20s, they were soon following Rob Bowman, Jamie Forrester, Kevin Sharp and the rest out of Elland Road. Only Noel Whelan had a Premier League career after Leeds, and the destinations for the others were revealing: York, Rotherham, Grimsby, Guiseley.

Mark Ford captained the Youth Cup winning side, won two caps for England U21s, started in the League Cup final at Wembley and, within a few years of leaving Leeds, was playing non-league football and working as a train driver.

Ford can be proud of playing in 42 games for Leeds, and none of 1993’s graduates looked out of place alongside Gary McAllister or Lucas Radebe in the first XI.

It’s a concept Marcelo Bielsa has been using to his advantage, trusting that a raw individual – Halme or Shackleton, or Jack Clarke or Leif Davis – can reach the level required if the players around him can raise him while he learns.

Give up that finely calibrated balance – by starting over for Barnsley, or Burnley, or Spurs – and the professional game’s slopes can suddenly seem much steeper.

Perhaps Kevin Sharp, who is now Kalvin Phillips’ agent, has passed on some lessons about the fate of the team he grew up with to his protégé. Sharp was a classy left-back, but Tony Dorigo was that bit classier, and he made an early exit for a good career at Wigan, but never again to the Premier League.

“I felt if I left, I would just be going to be playing or maybe not playing,” Phillips said after signing his new contract last week. He could be a Premier League player now, he could be earning twice even his new wage now, and in what the clichés insist is a short career, it must have been tempting to go for everything, now. But Phillips knows: “I am at a club where I am loved, the manager likes me, and my family loves the club. I always want to be in the Premier League, but I open my eyes to the bigger picture.”

Phillips is one player who would survive in that bigger picture. A move to the top flight this summer would have worked better than it has so far for Jack Clarke or Bailey Peacock-Farrell.

But any footballer can survive. At Leeds, Phillips has the conditions to thrive. Young players like him are told to make the most of every opportunity, that second chances don’t always come. But sometimes the true opportunity is to stay exactly where you are.

Daniel Chapman has co-edited Leeds United fanzine and podcast The Square Ball since 2011, taking it through this season’s 30th anniversary, and seven nominations for the Football Supporters’ Federation Fanzine of the Year award, winning twice. He’s the author of a new history book about the club, ‘100 Years of Leeds United, 1919-2019’, and is on Twitter as MoscowhiteTSB.