Swansea City captain Matt Grimes says he wouldn't wish the mental torment that dogged his troubled spell at Leeds United on any young footballer but admits the experience probably made him a stronger player.
Grimes, who signed a new three-and-a-half-year deal at the Swansea.com Stadium back in November, has become the cornerstone of boss Russell Martin's plans, having previously been linked with Premier League-bound Fulham last summer. The midfielder has established himself as a firm favourite with fans too, ever since making his most meaningful breakthrough in SA1 under Graham Potter back in 2018.
But it was actually Garry Monk who brought him to south Wales, signing him from Exeter City in a £1.75m move back in January 2015. After a handful of first-team appearances in the Premier League, Grimes underwent several loan spells over the next couple of years, including a stint at Elland Road.
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It proved to be a difficult time for the current skipper, who made just seven appearances for the Whites during the 2016-17 season - an experience he admits took a devastating toll on his enthusiasm for the game. Looking back on those formative years in south Wales for the club's official matchday programme, Grimes said: "Playing at Exeter was always upwards.
"I was progressing, and got my move. I needed to play more minutes than I was at the time to keep progressing. It plateaued a bit and then went on loan to Blackburn and got myself going again. I thought I was back on track and then went to Leeds.
"The mental state I was in that season (at Leeds), I don't wish on any footballer. I was training, not playing, going home and sleeping on the sofa because I was living on my own as I wasn't with my girlfriend at the time.
"I was just in a lull of training and not playing, running on the weekends and it impacted my mental health so much. I was stepping on the pitch, not feeling confident at all and I was thinking should I even be here? Should I be at a Premier League team? What am I going to do after this season because it has gone so badly. That, coupled with thousands of people outside of football telling me how bad I was, calling me all sorts of ridiculous things."
The stinging criticism thrown his way on the back of such an underwhelming spell clearly compounded his difficulties in west Yorkshire. But Grimes admits the experience was, in the long run, probably useful in building up the sort of mental strength needed for success.
"To bounce back from it, without sounding cynical, I feel a lot of people need it to bounce back and build character, not that I wish people to go through that," he said. "It's so important, in this day and age, especially young players because they are subject to such a big scale of people watching and having their opinions.
"Obviously everybody is entitled to their opinions, but you just have to know what the right ones are to take in. Looking back now, it was a really good test for me if you like.
"At Leeds, because I wasn't playing, and when I was playing, I was playing poorly and then you get all the outside noise of you're not good enough. But because you aren't confident in yourself you started to believe that."
Grimes left Leeds in the summer of 2017 before spending a season at Northampton Town, where he managed to regain his confidence and composure, despite suffering the pain of relegation. "It was important for me to go to Northampton to get my confidence back," he added. "I wasn't thinking about anyone else. I just needed to play games. I went there, played games and unfortunately we got relegated, but for myself i scored a few goals and fell back in love with football really."
