Grant Leadbitter has joined the Middlesbrough academy as the club's Individual Development Coach, as was confirmed on the club's website this afternoon.

The 36-year-old retired last summer following an unsuccessful play-off campaign with Sunderland, but arguably enjoyed the most successful spell of his career on Teesside.

Leadbitter made 244 appearances for Middlesbrough, including some in 2016/17, the club's most recent campaign in the Premier League, and will offer an excellent role model for younger players to look up to at Rockliffe.

The likes of Djed Spence, Josh Coburn and Hayden Coulson have broke into the first team picture from the Boro youth setup in recent years, and an Individual Development Coach sounds like a very progressive role to have within it.

There is gradual progress being made in terms of the sustainability and support for academy footballers at the moment, with such a small portion of players involved in the system actually going on to play professionally.

Leadbitter's leadership qualities, that were so pivotal on the pitch at The Riverside, can now have an even greater impact off of it, with pastoral care clearly of higher priority than it has been in years gone by.

The 36-year-old was in and around the academy as a regular visitor last season and therefore relationships may have already been built with some of the club's academy players.

The Verdict

It is always nice to see someone returning to a club that they had great success with as a player after they have hung up their boots.

Leadbitter was not the most technically gifted midfielder that Boro have had over the years, but he made up for that with his dedication and the positive influence that he had on the other players around him.

Chris Wilder has not built a reputation for integrating younger players into the first team in recent years, and for that reason Leadbitter's role within the setup could take on increased importance in years to come.

With the chances that an academy player's route to the first team being blocked arguably increased under a manager like Wilder.