Leeds United have some exciting talents brewing in their academy system who could look to make the step up to the first-team in the years to come.
Archie Gray is the most recent example of what you can achieve after making that step from the academy to the senior side, as he emerged as a genuine option in Daniel Farke's first season.
The English talent then earned a £30m move to Tottenham Hotspur in the top-flight and went on to win the Europa League in his first campaign in North London.
Leeds-record-sales-Archie-Gray-Raphinha-Phillips
At the time of his exit, before Georgino Rutter's move to Brighton & Hove Albion for £40m, the England U21 international was the third-most expensive sale in the club's history.
Leeds already have their next Gray in the making
Archie's brother, Harry, may be the next Gray to make that step up from the academy because he has been in impressive form at youth level, and made his senior bow in the Championship as a substitute last season.
The 16-year-old centre-forward scored a stunning hat-trick for the U21s in the National League Cup on Tuesday night against Scunthorpe United.
That took the teenage talent's tally for the season to seven goals in all competitions, having scored four goals in the Premier League 2, per Transfermarkt.
Gray, who scored eight goals in 11 games for the U18 side before his step up to the U21s, is an exciting young talent who the club should be looking to create a pathway to the first-team for, as they did with his brother.
Harry-Gray
Leeds, though, did have an even bigger homegrown talent than Gray brewing in the form of Charlie Cresswell, before Farke decided to cash in on him last year.
Leeds messed up by selling Charlie Creswell
The central defender came up through the youth ranks at Thorp Arch, joining at the age of 11, and progressed all the way up to the first-team.
charlie-cresswell-leeds
Cresswell made five Premier League appearances for the Whites as a teenager in the 2021/22 campaign, before being sent out on loan to Millwall for the 2022/23 season.
The young defender scored five goals in 28 Championship matches for Lions, per Transfermarkt, but only played 135 minutes in the division under Farke in the following season.
Charlie-Cresswell
Leeds United's head coach then decided to bin him in the summer of 2024. The club cashed in when Toulouse came to the table with an offer of £4m for the English titan.
That turned out to be a mistake by the Whites because Cresswell has proven himself in one of Europe's major leagues and was linked with a big-money move away from France in the summer.
24/25 Ligue 1 Charlie Cresswell Percentile rank vs CBs
Goals 3 Top 8%
Tackle success rate 65.7% Top 36%
Duels won 151 Top 4%
Aerial duels won 99 Top 1%
Aerial duel success rate 66.4% Top 26%
Shots blocked 28 Top 5%
Ball recoveries 103 Top 26%
Stats via FotMob
As you can see in the table above, the 23-year-old colossus ranked highly among centre-backs in Ligue 1 in a host of key defensive metrics last season.
He was linked with West Ham United, Sunderland, and Premier League champions Liverpool during the summer transfer window just gone, but Toulouse were able to keep hold of the England U21 international.
cresswell-leeds-millwall-championship-value-farke
The Ligue 1 side reportedly valued him at around £18m, which is higher than Transfermarkt values any of Leeds United's natural centre-backs, and this further illustrates the howler Farke had by ditching him last year for £4m.
This is also why the club were brewing an even bigger talent than Gray, because he has proven himself in the Championship and now in Ligue 1, which has led to tangible interest from Premier League teams because of his performances at first-team level.
It is all about potential for Gray at this moment in time because he has not had the chance to prove himself in senior football. Hopefully, he will get those opportunities instead of being sold too early, as Cresswell was.