After all the speculation linking us with this player and that, it’s nice for the club to get the first signing completed, as 20 year-old goalkeeper Charlie Horton comes to Elland Road from Cardiff City on a two year deal
Horton has signed a two year deal, and while we obviously needed at least one new keeper in the squad after the decision to release Stuart Taylor and Alex Cairns, Horton isn’t going to be content to sit on the bench all season, and there is clearly a long-term plan for him to take over as the club’s first choice in the future.
Horton was born in London but his family moved to America at the age of nine, yet he turned down a 'soccer' scholarship at North Carolina University in order to return to English football in 2013, spending a season at Peterborough and another 12 months at Cardiff. Initially he will play for the Under-21 team, but will train with the first team and will be the goalkeeping substitute on match days.
Uwe Rosler seems to rate him highly and told the official site "He is one who will push every single day to get better. He will push the guys in front of him and he will get playing time in the Under-21s. I’m looking forward to working with such a positive character like Charlie. He has very good potential and will be a future number one.”
And Horton himself said "I’m really excited. Any time you can come to a club like Leeds, where all the players are hungry for success and hungry to move up the table and back to where the club belongs in the Premier League, that’s every players dream. The stadium is unbelievable, the training ground is unbelievable. The facilities here are first class. Now it’s our job as players to get the club back to where it belongs.”
Horton’s signing came soon after Richard Hartis joined the club as goalkeeping coach. Hartis previously performed that role with the Leeds academy in the late 1990s, and has since worked for Molde in Norway and some bunch on the wrong side of the pennines. Hartis is currently with England U18s on international business in Moscow, and he was at Cardiff last season, so obviously played a big part in bringing Charlie Horton to Leeds.
So it sounds like Horton is the kind of signing we need for the new season. Let’s hope we can attract a few more players of the same calibre before the start of August.