Leeds United tooling up with youth has got to be praised - David Prutton

You can tell by how many debuts that Whites head coach Marcelo Bielsa has given to young kids that he quite obviously has an eye on the future which is a fantastic way of approaching things.

That’s not to say that other clubs’ youth squads and Academy parts are different to Leeds’ because many have a lot of similarities.

But this is definitely something that seems to be in Leeds’ DNA and they seem to cherish young lads coming through which is understandable as the lads that have come through recently have done particularly well. There’s an eye on that and tooling up with youth has got to be something that is commended.

Whether we are looking at kids that are box fresh and ready to play in the Premier League I don’t know and if you are looking at where these players have come from in Wigan Athletic, Fulham and Linfield, respectively, then it’s certainly going to be a jump.

It will be a test as and when they get their chance but Leeds do not strike me as a set-up that doesn’t do its due diligence.

With United’s signings, director of football Victor Orta’s success rate has been nowhere near 100 per cent but he appears to have got the majority of them right – with the odd unfortunate situation such as the Jean-Kevin Augustin one.

You look at where a player comes from and you look at the CV that Augustin had and the age he was and then you look at perhaps a younger player that has been playing in Northern Ireland but comes recommended by someone who knows exactly what it takes to play for Leeds in Linfield manager David Healy.

You have to give these players the benefit of the doubt and let the player be in a position where they can prove to the fans how good they are and what they can do... and what they can’t do.

You would like to think that all three are hungry players that would love to play for a big club in the Premier League which is what Leeds United are.

And you can’t underestimate what young hungry players who are relatively unproven can do to a side and a club that is very well-oiled at this moment in time and that fits together, having been worked thoroughly hard over the past two years.

There’s no resting on laurels.

Leeds don’t appear to be an arrogant bunch at all but everyone subliminally and subconsciously needs a kick up the backside and somebody to chase them down.

If you get these three lads in and around the first team, they have got to show respect to who is already there.

But they also have to go in relatively fearless and I think that’s good at keeping the chemistry and the dynamic of the changing room hungry and eager to succeed.

Whites chairman Andrea Radrizzani and chief executive Angus Kinnear have already talked about the Sheffield United approach upon promotion to the Premier League and the proof will be in the pudding of what we see on the pitch – a month into the season or by autumn or by Christmas or by Spring.

If you look at what Sheffield United have done, I will be intrigued to see how they develop this next season and how boss Chris Wilder will go about tooling his side up for that.

Chris will know that you can only take people by surprise once and after that you would like to think that the teams in the Premier League with a bit of nous will know exactly what Sheffield United bring.

From Leeds’ point of view, there has already been a lot of attention on them and focus on what they can do and specifically in the game against Arsenal in the FA Cup.

People looked at them and probably thought, ‘crikey, this lot are actually really good’ but on that night in the first 45 minutes they just couldn’t finish Arsenal off.

Gunners boss Mikel Arteta then proved himself at half-time by being able to manipulate his squad and basically just giving them a massive kick up the backside and saying ‘what on earth are you doing?’

Then they came back for him in the second half.

I think the Sheffield United approach is to be absolutely respected and looked at. I wouldn’t say you would copy it but you take elements of it.

Chris has achieved what he has managed to achieve with a squad of players that he has had for four years now whereas Marcelo has only had his players for a couple of years.

But Marcelo knows the strength of his players and more often than not what they can and can’t do and he asks them to do what they are very good at which fits in with the side.

Going back to the younger players and what they might bring functionally, what Chris did so very well was bring players in that knew with the greatest respect that as individuals they probably couldn’t get to the Premier League but as a collective they have done exactly that.

I think there are parts that Leeds can look to and replicate but it’s the innate chemistry of a football team and a squad of players that counts so it will be intriguing to see.

You can look at other recent examples of teams promoted to the Premier League and Fulham were the big ones who went up and spent a lot of money and then came back down and then got promoted again with a team not too dissimilar to the one that initially went up.

Then there are Wolves who are just in a different bracket financially from the point of view of who they can bring in or how they can bring them in more importantly and look where they are now.

They have done wonderfully well in the Europa League and have drawn plaudits from all over world football.

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Thank you Laura Collins