After all, Lennon was not much more than a child when the then Leeds United manager, Peter Reid, threw him into a team that was in “complete turmoil” and sliding out of the Premier League.
Indeed, Lennon set a Premier League record when, aged just 16 years and 129 days, he came on a substitute in August 2003 — against, ironically enough, Spurs.
“He was a breath of fresh air, to be fair to the boy,” Reid recalls of his bold decision to blood the Leeds-born winger. It was a move, Reid admits, borne of desperation as well as intuition.
“He had pace and we needed pace in the team,” he says. “He had a great balance about him and for a young man he wasn’t outgoing but he had an inner confidence.”
This is a common theme when discussing Lennon who played 43 matches for Leeds before being signed by Tottenham Hotspur for a snip of just £500,000 in 2005 by the club’s then sporting director Frank Arnesen who, however, decamped to Chelsea before the winger made an appearance.
Indeed, Lennon set a Premier League record when, aged just 16 years and 129 days, he came on a substitute in August 2003 — against, ironically enough, Spurs.
“He was a breath of fresh air, to be fair to the boy,” Reid recalls of his bold decision to blood the Leeds-born winger. It was a move, Reid admits, borne of desperation as well as intuition.
“He had pace and we needed pace in the team,” he says. “He had a great balance about him and for a young man he wasn’t outgoing but he had an inner confidence.”
This is a common theme when discussing Lennon who played 43 matches for Leeds before being signed by Tottenham Hotspur for a snip of just £500,000 in 2005 by the club’s then sporting director Frank Arnesen who, however, decamped to Chelsea before the winger made an appearance.
