Leeds United attacker Stuart McKinstry was the main topic of discussion on the most recent edition of The Next Big Thing podcast from The Athletic, which looks at ‘the brightest young talents in the Premier League and beyond’.
On this podcast, journalist Phil Hay, podcaster Dan Moylan and former Motherwell youth coach Stephen McManus joined host Faye Carruthers to talk about McKinstry, who moved to the Whites from Scottish side Motherwell back in July 2019 for £225k.
During this recent edition of The Next Big Thing podcast from The Athletic, Moylan spent some time talking about Leeds’ move to bring the 18-year-old Scottish winger to the Yorkshire-based club from Motherwell in the summer of 2019 and he shared some excitement over the addition of McKinstry to the Whites’ youth setup and what this piece of recruitment may mean for Leeds and the future of the club.
He said: “[Marcelo] Bielsa’s hand is all over this. He nicely dovetails into the U23s at Leeds, because there is a strong precedent there of bringing these young players through.
“So, to add young players alongside them, to know they’re identifying premium young talent, as it were, it’s really encouraging for the future, the future does look very bright.”
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So, as can be seen in what Moylan had to say, it seems as though he believes Leeds United’s move to bring a “premium young talent” like McKinstry, from another club, into the Yorkshire-based club’s academy as a teenager is exciting for the club and its future, with the podcaster indicating that he is pleased with how Leeds are taking care of their academy at present.
As per Leeds United’s official website, McKinstry, who signed a new deal with Leeds in August that will keep him at the club ‘until the summer of 2023,’ has featured regularly for the Whites at youth level since making the move to the club, with the winger making 14 appearances for Leeds’ U18s last season before he moved up to the Whites’ U23s.
So far this term, McKinstry has started four Premier League 2 games for Leeds’ U23s, accumulating a total of 296 minutes of Premier League 2 football during the 2020/21 campaign so far, which is the third-highest number of minutes that any Leeds player has played in the Premier League 2 this term.
With that in mind, it certainly seems as though McKinstry has been a prominent member of the Whites’ academy since joining and it may be understandable why Moylan is excited about the club’s move to recruit him in the summer of 2019 and why he seemingly believes this bit of recruitment is a positive sign for Leeds’ future.