Key transfer window decisions ahead after plans went awry for Leeds United academy graduates - YEP 14/6/22

The 2021/22 season did not go quite as planned for a trio who grew up together at Leeds United.

By Graham Smyth

On the night that the Championship title was celebrated at Elland Road, Jamie Shackleton, Robbie Gotts and Alfie McCalmont were always going to pose for a trophy photo together.

Having accompanied each other up through the ranks, from baby-faced young boys to baby-faced young men, they had been pictured together for years. What their boyhood club achieved that night, the very thing that all three had been dreaming about since they signed forms at nine, was the thing that essentially brought an end to their time as team-mates. Amid the champagne-soaked celebrations, the sobering thought that things could be about to change likely dawned briefly on all three.

Neither McCalmont nor Academy Player of the Year Gotts were going to get Premier League minutes so, in the autumn of 2020, they moved out on loan to Oldham Athletic and Lincoln City respectively, leaving Shackleton as the lone member of their little gang involved in Marcelo Bielsa’s plans.

They were all still living the boyhood dream of being Leeds United footballers but, for the duration of the 2020/21 campaign, only Shackleton wore the colours and the badge.

What we dreamed of 💙 pic.twitter.com/9IUuoSHzde

— Jamie Shackleton (@jamieshackk) July 23, 2020

Last summer was a big one for all three, with huge career decisions and implications. Gotts departed permanently to try and kick-start his career in the men’s game elsewhere and McCalmont could have - Leeds were open to that - but the Northern Ireland international and his advisors preferred another loan move.

Barrow snapped up Gotts, who said an emotional goodbye after 15 years at Leeds and set about League Two like a man possessed. Even in a relegation-threatened team who, like Leeds, only secured survival on the final day of the season, Gotts shone and scooped up an armful of individual trophies. He was the Players’ Player of the Year, Fans’ Player of the Year, BBC Radio Cumbria Player of the Year and the Bluebirds Trust Player of the Year. He was Barrow’s best player.

Scrapping it out at the very foot of the EFL and risking a fall into non-league was not among the midfielder’s plans when he signed a two-year contract last summer but ended the season with more than just silverware, racking up 3,316 minutes of men’s football and proving he belongs in the Football League. Having clung on to the bottom rung, he can now focus his endless energy on climbing it again.

As for McCalmont, who had lashed in eight 2020/21 goals and added five assists in League Two for Oldham, a step up was required and so League One new boys Morecambe were seen as an ideal loan club.

Newly-installed boss Stephen Robinson told The YEP he wanted to make good use of McCalmont higher up the pitch than the defensive midfield role Bielsa had envisaged for the youngster. But Robinson left the Shrimps in February, in the drop zone, and the rest of the season might as well have been written off for McCalmont the second Derek Adams and his direct style of play made a return to the Mazuma Stadium. He played just four more games between February 26 and the end of the campaign so his camp, recognising that last summer’s decision wasn’t quite the right one, are keen to find a move this summer that will more closely resemble his time at Oldham than his time at Morecambe.

The desire is for another loan deal, in League One again if possible but a bigger League Two club won’t be ruled out. The bottom line is that McCalmont, who continues to be highly thought of at international level with Northern Ireland, needs to be playing football and scoring goals again.

And what of Shackleton, this summer? With Bielsa gone, Leeds anticipate making more use of the loan market and the addition of midfielders and a right-back in the transfer market makes it harder to see where the 22-year-old’s minutes are coming from next season and easier to see the squad coping without him. Jesse Marsch will have Kalvin Phillips, Mateusz Klich, Adam Forshaw, Sam Greenwood, Brenden Aaronson, Marc Roca potentially and even Robin Koch or Pascal Struijk among his midfield options, while Rasmus Kristensen will battle Luke Ayling for the right-back slot. Shackleton has put side before self but could now plot a course that benefits him without hurting his club.

Unless a permanent move presents itself, one that would guarantee game time and sufficiently compensate Leeds financially, a Championship loan would look ideal. It certainly did this time last year because it might have allowed him to build up a head of steam that stop-start involvement and a series of niggly injuries have kept from him at Leeds. He stayed put though and, even if he might not swap for anything in the world the 705 minutes of Premier League football he played, his career could have been better served with more minutes in the second tier.

Shackleton will return to pre-season flying - he’s always among the leaders in the running tests and is already working on his fitness during the break - but he needs to put that conditioning to better and more regular use next season.

He’s not alone. Others will be dreaming of Elland Road heroics but thinking long and hard about a temporary stint away from LS11. Charlie Cresswell is one who, especially as a defender, needs to gain more in experience than Premier League 2 second-flight football can offer.

Crysencio Summerville will no longer see himself as a PL2 player, if ever he did, and, with Kristensen arriving, there’s still no certainty that Cody Drameh will stick around to be a substitute now that he’s had a taste of Championship football.

Prior to Marsch’s arrival, a summer 2022 loan exit appeared nailed on for Greenwood, yet his emergence as a player who adapted quickly to the American’s system has painted his squad place in a different light and, in turn, potentially bumped Tyler Roberts into a place where regular football might best be sought elsewhere. This is not the first time that a loan has looked a good option for the Welsh international but the timing might now finally be right.

Ryan Edmondson, who has spent the last two seasons with four loan clubs, will head out again, possibly on a permanent this time, Helder Costa will be welcomed back to Thorp Arch should a move not present itself but, given his agent’s identity, a taker should be found, and Kiko Casilla’s time with Leeds could officially come to an end with the form of a salary settlement. Marsch is also content to look at Ian Poveda and Leif Davis in training and, with loan business generally playing second fiddle to clubs’ permanent deals, their destination may not be known for weeks yet.

Whatever plans any of the aforementioned may have, football and the 2022/23 season could have any number of possibilities in store.