Alex Mowatt failed to kick on at Elland Road and is now at League One Oxford United; could Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips suffer the same fate?
Big things were expected of Alex Mowatt at Leeds United.
A Doncaster-born academy graduate who joined the club’s famed academy at the age of nine, the highly-rated midfielder produced some moments of sheer class in a Leeds shirt.
But the odd long-range rocket, and a 2014 Young Player of the Year award, counted for nothing when he failed to kick on and establish himself in the first-team. These days, Mowatt is on loan at Oxford United in League One after a disappointing stint at local rivals Barnsley – and he is not even a regular starter in the third tier.
And if you ask many Leeds fans, the same fate could befall Kalvin Phillips.
Like Mowatt, supporters are desperate for Phillips to make the grade. He too is a player who has risen through the Thorpe Arch ranks to command a place in the centre of the park but also appears to have hit something of a barrier in his development.
At the start of the season, Phillips looked like a dynamic and forceful midfielder with a new-look goal-scoring streak but, as Leeds’ season stutters to a halt, so have his performances.
Phillips was nothing short of a spectator during the 3-0 home defeat to Wolves in midweek and it seems that Leeds fans are quickly running out of patience with a player dubbed the new Mowatt for the wrong reasons.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
