Diogo Monteiro update emerges at Leeds United amid transfer exits – Phil Hay
Diogo Monteiro still hasn’t shown any signs of breaking through into the Leeds United first team, according to Phil Hay.
Writing for The Athletic‘s website on 6 February the journalist highlighted the Portuguese defender as an example of the club’s “emerging talent” programme who currently remains at the club, but without suggesting he will prove to be a success at this stage.
The 19-year-old arrived at Elland Road a year ago as the fourth signing of the January window, signing from Servette and going straight into the under-21s where he has made 21 appearances so far [Transfermarkt].
But following the departures of Leo Hjelde, Sean McGurk, Lewis Bate and Ian Poveda since the start of 2024 the investment in academy signings by the previous regime is seen as resulting in “too many misses alongside the hits” in the likes of Crysencio Summerville, Pascal Struijk and Illan Meslier.
Leeds United youth transfer investment qualified success at Elland Road
According to Hay’s update it looks like Monteiro is currently in line to join the misses rather than the hits, even if he still has some time on his side.
The centre-back would probably be struggling to get any senior minutes under Daniel Farke either way, with Charlie Cresswell having enough struggles of his own in that regard when the homegrown youngster has already graduated into the first-team set up.
But if there isn’t yet an indication that the man with seven senior appearances for Servette might threaten to make the step up when the Whites are in the Championship it perhaps doesn’t suggest a potential return to the Premier League is going to make it any more likely.
At times it is difficult to tell whether the fault lies with the player or the club when it comes to young talents coming good, as Summerville, a bonafide star of this Leeds United side now, was once frustrated himself and wanted to move on under Marcelo Bielsa.
Cody Drameh twice went on loan to great effect and still never got a chance, Sam Greenwood and Leif Davis are regulars at Sunderland and Ipswich respectively, while Joe Gelhardt looked like a star of the future two seasons ago but languishes down the pecking order these days and is permanently linked to moving on.
Developing talent is far from an exact science but for one reason or another the list of those whose investment is paying dividends is growing far slower than those where it isn’t.
Last January’s transfer window proved fairly disastrous at the time, with only Max Wober contributing to much effect, while Weston McKennie’s loan never proved to be the right move.
The club-record fee spent on Georginio Rutter is paying off in the second tier now but ended up being the last thing Leeds United needed in the fight against Premier League relegation, while Monteiro has largely been forgotten within the Thorp Arch system to this point.
In other Leeds United news, a BBC journalist has branded what happened to a Whites star in the past week is “mental”.
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