The 20-year-old is arguably Leeds United’s most exciting young player.
If and when Leeds United win promotion, Marcelo Bielsa is probably going to need quite a few new players.
This Whites side is good enough to win promotion, evident by the fact that they have a seven-point cushion in the top two with nine games left, but is it good enough to keep them in the Premier League beyond one season? Probably not.
Leeds boss Bielsa and Director of Football Victor Orta need to have a serious discussion about who comes in, which means a serious discussion about who goes.
And the subject of Jamie Shackleton is particularly difficult.
Shackleton is one of the most exciting young players to come through the club’s academy in recent years and United fans would love nothing more than to see him bossing senior games in the Premier League.
Thing is, he’s only 20 and that’s quite an unrealistic scenario at this stage.
The Leeds-born star has eight Championship starts under his belt and Bielsa and Orta must decide whether to loan him out next season or keep him with the first team.
It’s a hard decision because if they get it wrong, it’ll impact on his development.
If Bielsa and Orta decide to keep him around, and it transpires that he’s nowhere near ready to rub shoulders with top-flight opposition, then that’s potentially a year of his career wasted, when he could’ve had a 46-game Championship season with somebody and then come back a more rounded footballer.
But if they do loan him out and he barely features, then that too represents a huge waste and in that scenario he would’ve been better off staying and training under Bielsa, even if it didn’t result in games.
The talent is undeniably there with Shackleton and Leeds have to weigh up the pros and cons.
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