Academy football and Thorp Arch’s production line has long been seen as one of the crown jewels at Leeds United, where some of the best British footballers of the last 25 years have been crafted. Marcelo Bielsa pursued that dynamic by immersing himself in all age groups down the pyramid at the training ground.
The Argentine’s vision for the first team permeated down through the age groups and his removal of the barrier between first-team and under-23 training will always be remembered as a legacy of his tenure. Jesse Marsch is only just beginning to get his feet under his desk at the training ground after a frenetic start to life in West Yorkshire, which turned out four matches in 13 days for the new head coach.
The American comes to Leeds with a reputation for blooding youngsters in his previous posts and, once more, has plans to ensure the entire training ground is singing from the same hymn sheet in due course. Last week, Marsch addressed his vision for the club at Thorp Arch.
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“I've had to prioritise [what I do with my time],” he said. “We had a really good training session yesterday (last week) that was mixed with [under-]23s, some [under-]18s and some first-team players and my goal will be to integrate the entire club into the idea of football we want to create.
“I haven't had the time now, but I've tried in little ways to sit down with the 23s staff, to work with the players on the pitch, to get to know the 18s more and more. We will eventually build out everything so the unity and clarity of our coaching team within our club, and then our player pool, is very clear with who we are and how we want to play and that will benefit everyone, but that will take time and that's something I haven't had a lot of.
“My goal is to have the type of club where everybody is fully connected here, especially here in Thorp Arch. I know from meeting everyone there's the type of people here that are fully engaged and want to commit to these things in a big, big way, which is so exciting for me, but I'm not able to do as much on that level with engaging everybody quite yet.”
