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Phil Hay: Leeds United outcast remains out of the picture heading into 2020/21

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The future of forgotten Leeds United man Conor Shaughnessy remains in doubt as he’s firmly left out of Marcelo Bielsa’s plans.

It seems an awful long time ago since Leeds were lining up under Thomas Christiansen, celebrating a lightning start to the 2017/18 Championship season, blowing teams away with swift attacking football.

During that strong start, we saw the emergence of Irish youngster Conor Shaughnessy at the heart of defence. Pairing powerful defending with a keen eye for a pass, he looked like a great asset to having breaking through into the first-team plans.

However, once teams found out how to find a way past Christiansen’s methods, the team’s form fell by the wayside, and Shaughnessy’s with it.

The towering defender never really kicked on from this and fell out of favour with Christiansen, his successor Paul Heckingbottom and eventually Marcelo Bielsa.

A handful of loans under Bielsa saw him ply his trade at Hearts, Mansfield and Burton Albion most recently, not featuring consistently with any.

It’s been clear from the outset that Bielsa has more or less cast out some players to find new clubs for the long-term, with the Irish 24-year-old being one of them.

Promotion to the Premier League offers Leeds a chance to fill these gaps with real quality for the future and therefore find new clubs for these players.

While the trail is quite cold on Shaughnessy’s front, the writing is on the wall for him at Elland Road.

The Athletic’s Phil Hay provided this update on his future:

Like most Leeds fans, I saw Shaughnessy’s emergence as a bright spark from the crop of youth that season and when he started the season in the way he did, it looked very promising.

His form wasn’t helped by the side’s that season but it’s clear that he might not have the quality long-term that Leeds will be needing as we look to consolidate our Premier League status.

It’s a shame that it didn’t work out because there’s certainly a solid player there, but consistent football needs to be his priority to recapture the form of his early Leeds days.

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Leeds United season ticket holder since 2013/14, currently situated in the middle of the FA5 noise. From Pablo Hernandez to 5-1 drubbings, I've seen it all at Elland Road.