Week after week it seems as though Lewis Bate is shining for Leeds United’s U23s.
Fans continue to be blown away by his performances for Mark Jackson’s side and over the weekend we saw him make the bench for the first time in the Premier League.
Inevitably, the fact that he was in the squad on Sunday has led to questions about when he will make his first Premier League appearance, and in our view, Bate should be thrown in the deep end.
Bate joined Leeds this summer from Chelsea and he’s already shown that he’s a class above the standard of football at U23 level, so why not give him a chance?
Young players who have been cast aside from Chelsea have a knack of taking to Premier League football like a duck to water. Just look at Tino Livramento and Tariq Lamptey.
The full-backs were both sold by Chelsea as teenagers, but they didn’t waste any time in the U23s at Brighton or Southampton. Instead, Graham Potter and Ralph Hasenhuttl put them straight into their starting XIs and they haven’t looked back.
Bate is cut from the same cloth as Lamptey and Livramento in that he comes from Chelsea’s incredible academy, and he was considered to be one of the best young players the Blues had before Leeds snapped him up.
If Livramento and Lamptey were good enough, Bate surely will be as well.
On top of this, Leeds’ midfield has been a real problem position all season long and a fresh injection of energy could be exactly what they need.
Marcelo Bielsa should copy Potter and Hasenhuttl and throw his summer purchase from Chelsea into the senior squad.
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