‘He’s got real potential’… Michael Skubala says Leeds United have a really exciting 17-year-old youngster

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Michael Skubala believes Charlie Crew has the potential to make it into Leeds United’s first team within the next two years.

Skubala, who departed Elland Road to take his first role in senior management at Lincoln City earlier this week, was speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post after Leeds U21s’ Premier League cup defeat to Chelsea on Sunday.

Aside from a brief spell as first team caretaker manager in February, Skubala had been in charge of Leeds’ U21s for just over 18 months.

Several young players have gone onto make their first team debuts at Leeds in that time, though Archie Gray is without doubt the biggest success story in that time.

At 17, Gray is actually the same age as Crew but is now a fully established first team player at Leeds, with Daniel Farke having started him in 13 of their 16 Championship matches so far.

Crew could be next Leeds youngster to make senior breakthrough

Speaking on Crew’s potential, Skubala believes he still has a way to go physically before breaking into first team football, but thinks it could happen over the next ‘year or two’.

“He’s got real potential. We have to be careful because he’s got real potential but potential isn’t the end thing. He’s got real potential as a holding midfielder for me, a 6, his range of passing is really good, his aggression is really good. Physically he has still got a bit to go to be in first team football.

“But I think over the next sort of year or two you will really see him hopefully move up and become a really strong player as he starts to get more minutes in this team as well. But his attitude is first class, his discipline is first class and he’s a really good young pro.”

Gray has shown to everyone in Leeds’ academy that it is possible to breakthrough and Crew should be looking at him as inspiration.

Skubala is not the first person at Leeds to speak highly of Crew, with Ethan Ampadu having done the same after training alongside him at Wales.

Leeds are pretty stacked for midfield options in the first team and so Crew may have to be patient, but everything that is said about him seems to be positive.