Leeds have sold Alex Mowatt to Barnsley for an undisclosed fee, to avoid the possibility of losing him for nothing in the summer, when his contract was due to expire.
Whilst there have been many column inches in the press about the non-renewal Charlie Taylor’s non-renewal of his contract, it almost went un-noticed that Mowatt’s deal was due to run out at exactly the same time. Undoubtedly this was down to the fact that the midfielder had slipped down the pecking order since Garry Monk’s arrival, mostly limited to the occasional appearance coming off the bench.
When he first broke into the side he seemed to have a bright future ahead of him, spoken of as one of a quartet of talented home-grown youngsters alongside Taylor, Cook and Byram. But while two of the others have now left us for Premier League clubs and the third is attracting plenty of interest from that division, it has less and less likely in recent months that Mowatt would be joining them.
He lacks the pace and energy to play the high temp game demanded by the current head coach, and while he can still offer us the occasional spectacular left foot goal from distance, evidently that wasn’t enough to tempt Monk to offer him the kind of improved contract that might have kept him at the club.
It was never clear what Mowatt’s role in the side was meant to be. A couple of managers tried him wide on the left, but that didn’t seem to suit him, and he didn’t have the presence in central midfield of a Bridcutt. Once Vieira and Phillips came along and staked their own claims to places in that area, it was clear that for league games at least he would have to be content with a place on the bench.
He did enjoy his moment back in the limelight at Cambridge in the FA Cup, and was possibly our best player on the night, but ultimately that wasn’t enough to keep him at Elland Road. But Barnsley wanted a midfielder to replace the departed Conor Hourihane, and we wish him well at his new club.