A fit Poleon can be a major asset for us - Mac
YEP 6/5/13Dominic Poleon has been told that a hard and committed summer will earn him a place in Leeds United’s plans for next season after making the most of an unexpected opportunity on Saturday.
The youngster’s goalscoring appearance helped Leeds round off their Championship campaign with a 2-1 win over Watford and secured a promise of future involvement from manager Brian McDermott.
Poleon stepped into the breach after Steve Morison suffered concussion eight minutes into a bizarre and dramatic game and he opened the scoring with a simple tap-in following a mix-up between Watford goalkeeper Jack Bonham and defender Joel Ekstrand.
The outing was his first for Leeds in more than seven months and a positive step forward by an academy product who made his senior debut on the first day of the season.
He started and scored in a 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest on September 22 but failed to feature again under McDermott’s predecessor, Neil Warnock.
Poleon was sent on loan to Bury before Christmas and moved to Sheffield United in February but was recalled from Bramall Lane less than 48 hours after Warnock’s sacking on April 1.
McDermott said: “He’s a young boy from the academy and he’s got pace and power. What we need to do is get him really fit.
“If he can get fit through the summer then he can be a real asset for us. He scored his goal on Saturday and I’d spoken to him after he scored a goal for the reserves last weekend.
“The younger ones coming through here – if they’re good enough, they’re old enough.”
United are speaking in increasingly optimistic terms about their junior ranks and particularly of their Under-18s side who won the northern League Two title last month and were beaten 1-0 by southern runners-up Queens Park Rangers in a play-off semi-final on Saturday.
McDermott attempted to field midfielder Zac Thompson from the start against Watford but replaced him with Michael Brown shortly before kick-off after learning that Thompson was ineligible due to his recent loan at Bury.
United’s 2-1 win at Watford –sealed by a last-minute chip from Ross McCormack – lifted them to 13th in the Championship table and resigned Watford to the play-offs on a day when Gianfranco Zola’s side threatened to snatch automatic promotion.
McDermott, who took charge at Elland Road three weeks ago, will attempt to edge United into a more prominent position next season but the Leeds boss was reluctant to make predictions about the club’s prospects ahead of a summer when changes to his squad are likely to be substantial.
The 52-year-old has spoken repeatedly of improving United’s infrastructure and addressing issues beyond the rebuilding of his squad, with a review of operations at the club’s Thorp Arch training complex already in progress.
McDermott said: “It’s really easy to talk about what you could do or what you might do but it’s just words and it means nothing to me.
“We have to build something here. We’re trying to build a club. We also need the players to come back from the summer absolutely tip-top.
“We come back on the June 27 and we’ll be going somewhere to train. Then we’ll have pre-season and then we’ll kick off. Then we can start talking about what might be done. But everything else is just words at the moment. It doesn’t mean anything.
“It’s 10 years since Leeds were in the league above (the Premier League) and we’re trying to make something solid, trying to build something with foundations.
“It’s not just a case of putting 15 or 20 players together and forgetting about everything else. There’s a lot to be done here and we’ll be doing it through the summer.”