Graham Smyth says 23-year-old was ‘sounded out’ about Leeds exit in the summer, now he’s a regular

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Jamie Shackleton was ‘sounded out’ about a potential Leeds United exit during the summer.

That is according to Yorkshire Evening Post reporter Graham Smyth, who was speaking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road Podcast.

It is said that Shackleton was given the option of pursuing a move away from Elland Road but had no interest in doing so as he looked to fight his way into Daniel Farke’s plans.

Shackleton spent last season on loan at Championship side Millwall with it having looked as though his future at the club was over during the summer of 2022.

However, Leeds’ relegation has offered him a way back at his boyhood club, to which he has taken, starting five of the Whites’ seven games in all competitions so far this season.

Smyth says Shackleton was offered Leeds exit this summer

Despite having been given the chance to leave in the summer, Shackleton was always firm in his desire that he wanted to stay, according to Smyth.

He said: “In terms of the players Leeds had, all 40 of them that we looked at, Shackleton was an easy one because while the club sounded him out about whether or not he would maybe like to go this summer, the position from Shackleton was always, ‘no thanks very much, I’m going to stay, I know that I train really well, I know I can impress coming back by being fitter than anyone else in pre-season, then I am going to hope to play my way back into Farke’s plans’.

“We predicted he would be a useful player in the Championship and he has proved so already and he will cover different positions.”

It is always useful to have a player in the squad who is able to cover a variety of positions, with Shackleton someone who very much falls under that category having played central midfield, right wing and both full-back positions already.

While game time may become a little harder to come by once some of the injured bodies return, Farke will no doubt be able to rest easier if an injury crisis does arrive with Shackleton in the squad.