Inside the Thorpe Arch training ground restaurant.
The young players of the Leeds United youth team were all sitting in the restaurant having dinner, because they had just finished playing the home youth team game in the afternoon and were now preparing to have dinner.
Most of them will choose to live in the dormitories of the training ground and continue training or studying tomorrow. Only a few who live nearby will go home.
It's just that the restaurant is surprisingly quiet now. Except for the slightest sound of the knife and fork hitting the plate, there is almost no other sound.
All the youth team players were watching the game between Leeds United and Tottenham on the TV in the restaurant.
On the screen, there was another large-scale transfer by Charlotte, moving the ball from the right to the left. Pederson took the ball and passed it in. Unfortunately, Gray was a little slower and failed to touch the ball.
"Hey~"
The young players sitting in the restaurant sighed with regret.
Then while the Tottenham goalkeeper went to pick up the ball and serve the goal kick, they quickly stuffed something into their mouths and continued to watch the game.
It can be said that the club attaches great importance to its investment in youth training. The team does not have separate canteens for young players and the first team. All players at the training ground eat in the same canteen. At the same time, based on the needs of the players, Leeds United’s nutritionists will specially prepare nutritious meals for the players.
For example, every time you have a meal, there are always several separate plates with names on them, which are individually made after being proportioned according to the nutrients required by the players. But generally no one would take the initiative to eat that food, after all, it tastes so bad.
But there is always a nutritional meal with the name "Shaun Wallace" on it. Wallace has been eating this since he started working out.
While everyone was watching the game hard, Olson secretly put a piece of sausage into Wallace's nutritional meal plate, but he was discovered by Wallace when he was laughing secretly.
Wallace later discovered Olson's prank and not only returned his sausage to Olson, but also inserted a large piece of chicken breast into Olson.
Then it was Olson's turn to frown.
Frank Gray, the youth training director and Stuart Gray, the youth team coach, who were sitting on the side, also saw the two brothers' little actions, but they also remained silent and laughed it off.
For this family, Frank Gray really feels that they are full of talent. Although they are not his biological children, these two boys performed very well in the youth team.
As far as Sean Wallace is concerned, the 14-year-old boy is already as strong as a 17 or 8-year-old. He is very defensive in the U14 games. He often sits in the back line alone, allowing everyone else in the team to participate in the offense except the goalkeeper.
If it weren't for the fear of stunting, Gray would really want to transfer him to the U17s so he could be exposed to higher-level competitions earlier.
As for the other Carl Olsen, he has been training hard since he was stimulated by some unknown source last year. In the past, I still liked to practice some fancy moves, but now this kid has almost completely abandoned those moves, and just keeps it simple and practical.
The two young players sitting at the same table as the two brothers were Charlie Taylor and Sam Byram. One on the left and one on the right were the sharp knives of the Leeds United U14 wing. With Wallace at the back, the two full-backs can boldly provide assists without restraint.
"nice shot!"
I don't know who shouted, but on the screen Leeds United started to attack again. After Barton grabbed Tottenham's offensive pass, he immediately passed it to Delph in front.
Delph broke away and deceived Malbranque's defense, and passed a through ball behind Tottenham's defense. However, although Arneson was fast, his position was blocked by Dawson, so he could only watch. The ball was confiscated by the Tottenham goalkeeper.
Because he is often transferred back to the youth team to play, Gray is quite familiar with Delph.
The first team that the young man went to at the same time as Charlotte Black was different from the lack of people at right back. Leeds United had sufficient numbers in the midfield, so this resulted in Delph not having many opportunities to play.
But it can be seen from the Delph youth team game that Delph has grown a lot in the first team. Especially in terms of physical confrontation, although it cannot deal with the strong teams in the Premier League, it is completely enough to play in this kind of cup competition now, let alone come back to play youth team games.
As for Charlotte Black. Gray no longer wants to comment. He doesn't dare to ask people to come back to play in the youth team. After all, Charlotte himself said that if you play against the weak, you will become weaker. Judging from his current performance, he is simply young and mature.
"Danger!"
"ah!!!"
"It's over."
Gray looked up again and saw the Tottenham players on the TV starting to celebrate. Leeds United, who had just taken the initiative, had lost the ball.
Through replays, it was Tottenham midfielder Huddlestone who caused Schmeichel to take a long shot. Then Berbatov came to the penalty area and scored a goal through a supplementary shot. ball.
In fact, Schmeichel cannot be blamed for this goal, because his first save was already very exciting, and there was really nothing he could do about this follow-up shot.
After losing the ball, Schmeichel took the initiative to find the two central defenders Albuchesson and Granqvist, and began to communicate about the lost ball, asking them not to miss Berba.
Gray was not too upset when he saw Leeds conceding the ball. Because he could see that Li George no longer bothered to compete for this kind of League Cup. He was just training and finding the status of the substitute players. Aren't you satisfied that a full substitute can play back and forth with Tottenham?
Indeed, George Li was not satisfied.
He may lose the game, but he will not let go of this rare training opportunity.
George Lee kept shouting tactics and making gestures on the sidelines, thinking about how to continue to pose a threat to Tottenham.
Sure enough, Leeds United evened the score at the end of the first half.
After receiving the ball, Schmeichel Jr. threw the ball to Charlotte who had already moved forward. Charlotte was already close to the midfield when she received the ball.
He chose to rush into the center, asked two Tottenham midfielders in succession, and then passed to Andy Gray.
Gray looked at both sides with his back to Dawson. Pederson on the left was close to the wing and basically didn't think about cutting in. If he passed the ball to him, he could only make a pass.
Arnesen on the right is pushing forward, but he has not reached the position yet, so it is too early to pass the ball to him.
Bowyer had moved forward to a position that was almost parallel to him, but Jin had already moved forward.
Just when Andy Gray was thinking about doing it himself, a man stretched out his hand in front of him.
Delph.
The Leeds United youngster reached out for the ball, and Andy Gray gave it to him.
It's just that Delph just flicked the ball and passed the entire Tottenham defense line.
After this pass, Arneson has entered the penalty area, and there was no offside at the moment of passing the ball.
After Arnesen stopped the ball, he took another solo shot. This time he still chose to shoot.
This time he grasped the strength well, and the ball passed the goalkeeper and fell steadily into the goal.
1 to 1.
Leeds United tied the score before the end of the first half.
This time, from Schmeichel who initiated the attack, to Charlotte Black and Fabian Delph in the middle, to Jan Arnesen who scored the final goal, they are all players who came out of the Leeds United youth training.
Frank Gray, who was watching the game in the training ground restaurant, couldn't help but feel proud when he saw the young Leeds United players hugging each other after scoring on TV.
Although I have only arrived not long ago, look at the young players in the first team.
Look at the U17s Danny Rose, Grant Wall, and Edmondson in the restaurant now, and the U14s Sean Wallace, Carl Olsen, Charlie Taylor, and Sam Byram.
Frank Gray feels Leeds United really have a bright future.
