Ryan Edmondson is undoubtedly one of the hottest talents in Leeds United’s youth ranks right now.
The 18-year-old scored 19 goals while playing for the Whites’ U23 side last term, and many fans have touted him as the next young player to break into the first-team.
One of his former coaches from York City spoke to the Yorkshire Evening Post this week, and he highlighted what the young striker needs to develop further in his career.
“He’s at that age where he needs to sample men’s football and if that’s at Leeds, brilliant,” Steve Torpey said.
“If the manager sees him of that calibre and he can be in and around the first team, fantastic.
“But I think he probably needs, in my humble opinion, to go and play senior football.”
Playing first-team football at any level is bound to help a young player develop their game as he will become more accustomed to competing against seasoned professionals.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to see Edmonson’s needs being catered for this season.
As it stands, he’s probably Leeds’ third choice striker behind Kemar Roofe and Patrick Bamford due to the lack of depth the Yorkshire club have up top.
This means that Leeds are likely to be hesitant to loan him out this season due to the injury issues their two main strikers have had over the past year.
As a third choice forward in a system that plays only one up top he’s unlikely to see many first-team minutes, but due to the fact Bielsa’s side have had issues with keeping their strikers fit, he is still needed in the squad.
He may appear on the bench a number of times this season, but it’s hard to see him appearing in many games as Leeds need proven quality if they are to improve on last season’s third-place finish.
He’s stuck in football limbo, he has too important of a role to be loaned out, but he’s not proven enough to be a regular player.
He may have to stick to U23 football for at least another year before he gets a real crack at showing what he can do against senior players. Fortunately, at the age of 18, that isn’t the end of the world for him.