The Tom Pearce situation was bizarre. A player who nobody knew much about at the start of the season became the one player who Leeds United had to work so hard to keep a hold of. Pearce today penned a new four-year-deal taking him until at least 2022.
Leeds haven’t had a great season and that means looking for the positives aren’t always easy but there were a few and one of the brightest was Tom Pearce. An Everton youngster released by the Merseyside club and picked up by Leeds United and put into the academy. Pearce started to impress in the under 23’s under Carlos Corberan as the season went on and moved into a left-wing position to utilise his ability to go forward, the first-team came calling.
Under Thomas Christiansen Leeds weren’t great and there was a stubbornness about the Spanish head-coach despite poor form and players underperforming week after week, you only need to look at Eunan O’Kane to see how bad things got. Under Heckingbottom we weren’t much better, worse in fact but he tried new things and credit where it’s due he decided it was time to give young Tom Pearce a chance in the first-team despite the club planning on releasing him.
A debut against Sheffield Wednesday that ended in defeat before he dropped out of the starting XI but it wouldn’t be long before he got another chance. Vurnon Anita, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Gaetano Berardi and Laurens De Bock had all failed to nail down the position and that’s what Tom Pearce set about doing and as it stands he is easily the number one in that position heading into pre-season. A call-up to the England under 21’s squad in Toulon is a wonderful achievement and not only that he has helped them reach the final in France.
Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Everton were all lurking but he has decided to stay loyal to the club and the fans are delighted. Pearce has some serious quality and for me he is destined to play at a higher level, you can see that in his play already but development is key and hopefully he can achieve goals at Leeds United. We constantly lose our young players to the Premier League but this time we haven’t and I can’t wait to see the player grow into the first-team next season, he is such a talent and has so much potential.
