‘I was released’… 33-year-old now shares real reason Leeds United got rid of him as a teenager

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Leeds United have always been famed for the success of their academy.

It is not often you find a Leeds squad that doesn’t consist of a graduate from the club’s youth system, and this season, it is without doubt Archie Gray who has been the club’s breakthrough star.

Rewind a few years, Leeds had Kalvin Phillips as the lynchpin of their Championship title-winning season, while the likes of Jamie Shackleton and Jack Clarke are others who have gone onto be successful.

However, as is the case with every academy across football, they do often get some wrong. One example that has come back to bite in Leeds in recent years is Tom Cairney.

Cairney was released as a teenager by Leeds but has since gone onto enjoy a brilliant career in the top two divisions of English football, and speaking in the latest episode of the ‘Player’s Channel Podcast’, the 33-year-old has shared the reason he was let go by the Whites.

Cairney shares reasons Leeds let him go

He said: “Academy days I started off at Leeds United. A well-known academy, a very good academy. Looking back I’d say I started the academy a bit too early. It felt too serious too young.

“It felt like a job from a young age. An amazing academy, amazing coaches, but I was released at 16 because of the physical side of the game, I was very small, very slight.”

This is definitely one Leeds will look back at with regrets, as Cairney has gone onto make almost 500 appearances at club level, 106 of which have come in the Premier League.

Cairney is one of the most successful midfielders in the history of the Championship, scoring 45 goals and providing 51 assists in 318 matches, winning promotion three times with Fulham.

Ultimately, though, you cannot get every decision at that level right and failures such as this one are only cancelled out when players such as Phillips and Gray come through.