Heckingbottom outlines squad plans at Leeds United; this may please club’s fans

New Leeds United manager Paul Heckingbottom has inherited a squad that is still light in some areas, at a club that largely focused its efforts in the January transfer window on recruits for the development squads. 

That approach has caused concerns among the club’s fans but it does appear well suited to Hecky’s strengths as he brought through and improved a number of young, promising players during his time at Oakwell.

Lots of them ended up leaving the club but it appears that the long-term plan at Leeds is for those players to permeate the first team and strengthen the options available in the first team.

However, Heckingbottom has revealed that he has no fear over giving young players their chance in the first team setup and has revealed how he plans to go about improving the quality of the hottest prospects on the books at Elland Road.

He told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “If they are good enough, young players will get a chance. It’s part of a process, and if you have the structure and set-up right – and you can provide opportunity just by organisation – naturally people will get opportunities.

“That in itself can breed that determination and drive, because you have no-one at the club sitting around and thinking, ‘I am never going to play here, what am I doing here?’.

“Everyone is turning up to work to get better, to improve. You can build an intensity to how you train and play, and then transfer that to the pitch.

People will say Paul developed this player or that player, that comes from this approach but it isn’t me being extra special and turning you into a left winger, all of a sudden.

“They have been part of the process, and I am part of that process. It hasn’t been just down to me. It is a process I believe in.”

The Verdict

There is little point having all those top young talents if they never get a chance in the first team and arguably Heckingbottom’s best quality is his ability to improve players at his disposal.

Leeds fans – let us know your thoughts in the comments below…