Leeds United dismissed a current Premier League captain at the age of 16, and he has now revealed why the Whites did not offer him a professional contract in 2007.
It is common knowledge that clubs release players at the age of 16 or younger, and they go on to create careers elsewhere, frequently making their boyhood clubs appear silly for releasing them so young.
Midfielder Tom Cairney is one of Leeds’ examples. Leeds dismissed the two-time Scotland international in 2007, after spending half his childhood at the highly regarded Thorp Arch academy.
Fulham captain Tom Cairney tells how Leeds United released him.
Cairney has gone on to become a Fulham icon, having made 341 appearances for the West London club over the last nine years after joining from Blackburn Rovers in 2015.
He remains Fulham’s club captain, despite not usually being among the first names on the squad sheet under manager Marco Silva. Cairney has started only four of Fulham’s 16 games, with three appearances as an unused substitute.
Cairney appeared on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football with Dave Jones and Liverpool star Jamie Carragher. When discussing his Leeds release at 16, Carragher asked Cairney, “Why didn’t it work out at Leeds?”
Cairney responded, “I was released at 16.” I was there from seven or eight until sixteen. I was a very late developer. They said they didn’t have time to wait and couldn’t get around the pitch.
“I was physically weak. I was tiny. “The technical side I had, but in youth football, the strongest and fastest wins until everyone catches up,” Cairney explained, explaining why Leeds released him at the age of 16.
Tom Cairney reveals how Leeds signed him from Nottingham Forest.
Cairney joined Leeds at the age of seven in 1998, but had already been accepted into Nottingham Forest’s academy. However, Leeds came knocking, and the Fulham captain recounted how his move to Leeds came about.
Speaking on Monday Night Football, Cairney said that Leeds came in to take him off Forest’s hands, but that as a child, he had little to do with it, and that it was his father who gave the news.
“Leeds took me off Forest at 8, if you can call it that. I recall coming home from school and hearing my father say you were heading to Leeds. ‘What!’ “We got in the car and drove up to Thorp Arch,” Cairney explained.
“You were not permitted to live one hour outside the training grounds, but we did. It was chaotic; my father was a cab driver at the time. He used to break down on the way home; it was chaos. “Unbelievable memories.”
