'Perfect for me' - Leeds United teenager discusses £5m summer transfer and Elland Road fit

The former Manchester City youngster swapped Millwall for Manchester at the age of 14, before embarking on another switch shortly after his 18th birthday joining Leeds this summer, undoubtedly a daunting prospect. Young players’ pursuit of first-team football is relentless and can be unforgiving, especially at a Premier League giant such as Man City, but Gyabi appears to have found a path towards it at Elland Road.

It will not be until the New Year that Gyabi celebrates his 19th birthday, but it’s perfectly plausible that he will build upon his one professional appearance before February 18. An FA Cup Third Round tie against Championship side Cardiff City is finely poised for impressive young trio Gyabi, Mateo Joseph and Sonny Perkins, currently unbeaten in Premier League 2 with the Under-21s, to cut their teeth in senior football once more, all of whom made their Leeds bows last month.

A senior debut for his new club inside four months was precisely the opportunity Gyabi sought upon moving on from Manchester City.

“Me and my agents we spoke, my family we spoke, and I think for me for the next step of my career, I think this place is perfect for me to learn,” Gyabi tells the YEP, on location at the senior squad’s mid-season training camp in Spain, a short drive from the Under-21s’ own Spanish base this week.

“Being around people who've done it for so long, I think I can only get better, and that's the point of view that I saw it from.

"It was a very welcoming environment. And I feel like I'm gonna learn a lot here.”

Gyabi’s focus is squarely on learning the ropes, absorbing knowledge and wisdom – practical or otherwise – from his peers, many of whom are several years his senior. In Gyabi’s short time at Leeds to date, there has been no better environment to learn the harsh realities of senior football than last month’s Carabao Cup defeat to Wolves, where the Whites’ concession of a late equaliser eliminated them from the competition. Undeterred by the misfortune of his debut, Gyabi also conveys that while learning is an integral pillar of developing as a professional footballer, so too is self-belief.

"I think obviously, if I wasn't up to it then I wouldn't be here. So I think I just need to trust that and just trust what I'm doing and just continue to learn,” he adds.

“Being around it [senior environment], you will see little things that you wouldn't see if you are training with maybe 21s or below.

"With Sam [Greenwood], Joffy [Gelhardt], with other players as well, I think there's an opportunity if you're ready for the challenge. But it's also another thing being ready for the challenge as well,” the 18-year-old insists.

Gyabi arrived in a £5 million transfer from the Premier League champions where the chances of senior football were slim, through no fault of his own, it must be said. Alongside him, fellow England Under-19 international Sonny Perkins signed on the dotted line at Elland Road. Both have taken to life in Yorkshire with aplomb, singled out by head coach Marsch on a number of occasions in press conferences, promoted to first-team training and this week, to the senior group’s Spain camp.

“We've been playing together from the start of the season,” Gyabi says of teammate Perkins, reflecting on the settling in process.

"I've known Sonny for a long, long, long time. So we played England together, even when we were younger in London, so it's kind of good to have people that you know, around so it makes everything easier.

"Tyler [Adams], Marc [Roca], Klichy, all the midfielders just learning the little details like what their positioning is when we don't have the ball. And when we do have the ball back, which spaces that they're picking up to receive [possession]. It's like checking their shoulder scanning and trying to receive and trying to play forward, [I’m] just trying to take it all in,” he adds.