Leeds’ under-23 team are bottom of their division.
Elland Road
Leeds United under-23 coach Jason Blunt has told the club website he is not concerned by the sides’ poor league position.
The under-23s sit bottom of the Professional Development League North, with just five wins from 24 games all campaign.
They have 20 points in total and sit in 10th, 10 points adrift from ninth placed Barnsley. Sheffield Wednesday sit top with 46 points.
Leeds have no wins in their last five, and lost this week 1-0 against QPR thanks to Josh Bowler penalty.
Speaking to the club website, Blunt insists he is not paying attention to their league position, refusing to acknowledge it.
He said: “Some of those boys are the future of Leeds United and we have spoken about who is going to be the next Ronaldo Vieira, Lewie Coyle and Kalvin Phillips.
“With regards to our league position, it has not come into any of our minds because we are a young developing side.
“Whilst results haven’t gone how we wanted this season, we are delighted with the development of the side and they are learning very quickly.
“A lot of the academy lads have made the step up to first team this year, everyone has grown in stature and two of our Under-21s are possibly the best two central midfielders in the Championship.”
Leeds United’s Ronaldo Vieira
The loss of Ronaldo Vieira has undoubtedly affected the under-23 team’s status, and there can be no arguing with the number of players the club has produced for the first team in recent years.
Sam Byram, Alex Mowatt, Lewis Cook and Charlie Taylor have all stepped up, but three of these have been sold and one is expected to depart this summer when his contract expires.
The question is whether there is enough quality left to produce players for the coming seasons.
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