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‘I was devastated’… 36-year-old says he never actually wanted to leave Leeds United
Leeds United have had to reluctantly say goodbye to some brilliant players over the years.
Kalvin Phillips, Raphinha, Lewis Cook and Ross McCormack are but a few modern examples of star players Leeds were forcedꦓ into selling, but cast your mind back 20 years or so, and you’ll remember the fire sale to end all fire sales at Elland Road.
ꦍIndeed, with financial issues growing in west Yorkshire in the early 2000s, Leeds had to sell a number of their top players at that time.
One such player who had to leave was Aaron Lennon, and speaking on , he’s now spoken about his departure from Leeds as a teenager.
🎃Interestingly, the winger says he never actually wanted to leave Leeds, but the financial pressures the club were under meant he had no choice but to go.
Lennon didn’t want to leave
ꦉThe winger spoke about his departure from the Whites.
🍨“You were seeing players not getting paid. I was in the first-team, but I was on like £80-a-week, so it didn’t matter to me. You were seeing members of staff just gone, it was cut-throat. It’s a different situation, it caused so many problems on the pitch, it was just a mess. It’s a shame because it went on for a long period of time. I was just coming through, I didn’t know what was going on. I knew that I was on the way out and that was the difficult part for me, knowing they had to sell me,” Lennon said.
🅺“Would you have loved to have stayed at Leeds?” Lennon was asked.
ඣ“Yeah, at the time I was devastated, I said ‘nah I’m staying,’ but it came to it and the club was in administration and they had to sell everyone, anyone anyone came for, they were gone,” Lennon said.
Shame
♌Lennon’s career worked out alright, but it’s a real shame to hear this story.
♕As a Leeds lad, Lennon would’ve dreamed of playing for his local team for a long time, but he had that dream ripped away from him at a young age before he was able to form any sort of legacy at Leeds.
𒆙The 36-year-old could have turned out to be a real fan favourite at Leeds if he’d stayed, but, sadly, things didn’t work out like that.
🐭Leeds would spend 16 years outside of the top-flight, and while Lennon went on to be an England international, it’s sad that he didn’t get to control the early part of his career.