Championship play-off hopefuls Leeds United reportedly want to sign Coventry City’s League One starlet Tom Bayliss.
The last Coventry City midfielder who was rated as highly as 20-year-old Tom Bayliss has done rather well for himself.
James Maddison rose through the ranks of his boyhood club and starred for the Sky Blues between 2013 and 2016. These days, he is a £20 million Leicester City midfielder who is edging closer and closer to a deserved England call-up.
So Maddison has certainly set the bar high for the Ricoh Arena’s next rising star; Tom Bayliss.
Like Maddison, the England U19 international is quickly making a name for himself at Coventry, having featured in 41 League One games this season alone for Mark Robins’ side.
And, according to The Mirror (5 May, page 51), he is now catching the eye of clubs like Leeds United with TEAMtalk adding that he has an affordable £3 million release clause in his contract.
A dynamic and skilful central midfielder, the comparisons with Leicester’s number 10 are certainly justified. Imagine how quickly Bayliss could progress if he ends up being nurtured by the one and only Marcelo Bielsa at Elland Road.
“In his first year as a scholar he went on to play almost every game for the under-18s and he was captain of the team that won the division the year after that. He was incredible,” Coventry’s academy director Richard Stevens told Sky Sports recently.
Bayliss has a long way to go before he can claim he’s followed in Maddison’s footsteps but a summer move to Leeds United could put him one step further up the ladder.
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