Aidy White ⭑ From A-Z since '92
Aidy White was a cut above while still only sixteen years old, with speed to look like he had the world at his feet and velocity that would make it his.
This is part of my (eight year long, it'll fly by) attempt to write about every Leeds United player since 1992. For more about why I'm doing this, go back to Aapo Halme. Or you can keep going below, with me and the speed merchant, Aidy White.
Pace. Pure pace, genuine pace, pace to burn. You never want a player to be slower. But Aidan White was so fast, he always seemed to be outrunning his own career.
White was one of many post-Champions League examples of how much Thorp Arch, whoever owned it amid the financial implosions, always had to offer Leeds United. Howard Wilkinson's original vision for the academy was of a hot footballer supply - whenever you needed a player, you could turn a tap at Thorp Arch and get one. On the way down from the Premier League the footballers kept flowing and they were never the problem - players like Frazer Richardson or Matthew Kilgallon weren't Alan Smith or Jonathan Woodgate, but they were better than players signed to play with them. And in League One Fabian Delph and Jonny Howson were better than anybody Leeds could have hoped to buy.
From the start Aidy White looked a level above League One, and a lot of it was to do with his pace. It almost sounds disrespectful to his other talents, but in the third tier, being able to run very fast was a huge advantage over the players he was up against. More importantly, though, he was up against those players while still only sixteen years old, and so what his speed was actually doing was making it look like he had the world at his feet and velocity that would make it his. If White was already that quick at that age, what else could be become in a few years?