Ser ut som en 'good guy'
Scott Wootton: Leeds United ticked all the boxes for me
United defender Scott Wootton says it was an easy decision for him to leave Old Trafford for Elland Road. Phil Hay reports.
Big, bold and brave decisions have shaped Scott Wootton’s footballing career. His transfers to date are not those of a man who believes in unbreakable boundaries: Liverpool to Manchester United and Manchester United to Leeds United.
The first was more delicate than the second, or so Wootton says. When he left Anfield for Old Trafford in 2007 he gambled on the fact that as a 15-year-old defender, he had no standing in the game and no reputation. His transfer to Leeds on Tuesday was pushed through by a manager dangling senior football in front of him. “A no-brainer,†Wootton called it, regardless of what he was leaving behind.
Manchester United looked like less of a dead-end for him than Liverpool had. He made his debut for the Premier League champions last season and played twice in the Champions League. At Anfield he was confronted by a different scenario where talented youth-team players were stuck in a bottleneck created by heavy investment in foreign juniors.
The decision to jump from Merseyside still created anxiety in a way that Tuesday’s transfer didn’t. By the time Wootton signed a three-year contract with Leeds, he was fixated by the move. The rivalry between United and those across the Pennines did not come into it. “They’ll welcome him here with open arms,†said manager Brian McDermott.
Wootton hopes so. “I can’t answer for the fans but I hope it’s not a problem,†he said. “I’ve had a good education at Man United but I’m a Leeds United player now and I’ll be giving everything for the shirt. It’s all I can do. I’m sure they won’t hold it against me.
“Man United’s a big club but I felt that this was exactly the right time for me to move on. Hopefully I’ll be getting more regular football and at the age I’m at that’s what I need. It wasn’t a very difficult decision. It was quite straightforward.
“It would have been difficult if I wasn’t sure about coming here or – no disrespect to other clubs – if I wasn’t going to a club as big as Leeds.
“I might have had to think about it more. But Leeds tick all the boxes as far as I’m concerned. They’ve got everything.â€
The same could be said about both of his previous clubs but his reluctance to stagnate is obvious. He quit Liverpool at a point when their Under-18s were a dominant force in England but the route to their first team seemed impossibly congested. On both occasions he has been brutally honest about his prospects.
“Leaving Liverpool was probably a more difficult decision,†he said. “I was 15 and I hadn’t really done anything at that stage so to make the move wasn’t easy.
“I’d been at Liverpool for four or five years but they’d won the FA Youth Cup for two years on the run and players from that team were struggling to even get into the reserves.
“I was an Under-14 at that stage and I felt that the path into the first team was blocked by quite a large influx of foreign players who weren’t necessarily better than the players coming through the youth team. Again, it was quite a brave decision for me to make.â€
Wootton was given a glowing reference by Paddy Crerand yesterday, the former Manchester United player describing his transfer as a “terrific bit of business†for Leeds, and McDermott spoke with new Manchester United manager David Moyes repeatedly while negotiations played out. Wootton was appearing regularly for Manchester United’s Under-21s – McDermott watched him in a derby between the Old Trafford club and Manchester City earlier this month – and they demanded not only a fee for the centre-back but a sell-on clause in his contract at Elland Road.
The appeal to McDermott, aside from Wootton’s talent, was his flexibility - a defender who can play in a central position or at right-back and, in McDermott’s view, in the centre of midfield. He also sees Wootton as someone who can slot into his team immediately. “He’s come here to play, which is true of all the players,†McDermott said. “I watched him 10 days ago and he’s ready, definitely.â€
Wootton had other offers to him but, much like Luke Murphy before him, found McDermott infectious and the idea of joining Leeds appealing. As many as three other clubs liked the look of him but United forced the transfer over the line after McDermott spoke with his board to encourage them to tie down a signing which he claimed “increases the value of our squad.â€
Wootton said: “There were a few clubs interested but once I knew Leeds were interested they were definitely top of my list.
“With a couple of the clubs I knew I wouldn’t be going there to play in the first team and that wasn’t something I was after at this stage of my career. I need first-team football.
“I’m a young lad but I’m very hungry to play. It’s a massive challenge and one I’m really looking forward to. It took a little while to get it done and I knew about the interest probably two weeks ago. Things moved quite quickly early on and I’m not sure what the complications were but now that everything’s done and signed, I’m made up.
“I spoke to the gaffer and he just said ‘you’re perfect for me.’ He seems like such a good guy and a good manager. He was a big influence.â€
McDermott might resist the option of handing Wootton his debut at Ipswich Town tomorrow. Tom Lees and Jason Pearce have occupied the centre of defence since the start of the season and are likely to stay there. But the Championship is not a new environment for Wootton. He has played at this level with Nottingham Forest and Peterborough United and was happy to return, despite tasting the Champions League last season. “He wants to kick his career on,†said McDermott.
“If anything the Championship’s probably got better,†Wootton said. “It’ll be the same style as before and the teams will set up in the same way but the personnel gets stronger. You hear a lot of people saying that but it’s generally true.â€
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