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The manner of Darko Gyabi’s transfer to Leeds United last summer cast him as a minor makeweight for Kalvin Phillips, but he and Leeds knew there was more to the deal than that.

Phillips leaving Leeds for Manchester City greased the wheel for Gyabi to come the other way, a £43million ($55m) sale making a £5m purchase nice and simple, but Leeds had been following the midfielder, now 19, for months and long before City tabled a bid for Phillips. The club did what they always try to do with young prospects: sold him a promise of first-team football, which might just be about to materialise.

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Two months earlier, Gyabi had played at Elland Road with City’s development squad, appearing and assisting as City secured their league title in front of a record crowd for an under-23s fixture. At that point, discussions about Leeds signing him were advanced and Gyabi had made it clear to City that, regardless of their standing at the very top of the game, he intended to reject the offer of a new contract with them. It was time to go and emerge elsewhere even if it would not happen instantly in Yorkshire.

Norwich City made strong overtures and at the same time, there was Dutch and Belgian interest in him, which Leeds were able to fend off with the offer of a four-year deal. Already this summer, enquiries from abroad have come again, but in the list of names who Leeds hope to move out of Elland Road, Gyabi’s is absent. The club intend to recruit in his position to reinforce the centre of midfield, but Gyabi is at the start of his breakthrough year.

Part of the sales pitch made to him 12 months ago was that swapping City for Leeds would keep Gyabi, still only a teenager, in the Premier League. That status was lost in May due to Leeds’ relegation but they are now at a level where he is more likely to be trusted and see regular minutes.

Manager Daniel Farke, who readily pushed academy talent through while he was coaching Norwich in the Championship, wants Leeds’ own youth-team resources to work for them in a similar way. Gyabi is fresh from the Under-20 World Cup in Argentina and will be on the plane for Leeds’ opening pre-season friendly tomorrow against Manchester United in Oslo. For the first time, a shirt is there to be had.

It is not that Gyabi hasn’t played before or been comprehensively out of the picture. He appeared once in all three senior competitions last season — the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup — and he worked day-to-day with the senior squad consistently, up until the appointment of Sam Allardyce in May who trimmed his training group down for the final four matches. But so far he has not been able to do much more than dip his toe in first-team games, compelled to wait for the door to open a little wider.

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His trip to the Under-20 World Cup with England, duties which limited him to a week’s break before pre-season began, showcased the strengths of a midfielder who, ideally, City would have liked to have kept. Gyabi is mobile, physically capable and neat in possession, a ball-winner who Farke might benefit from if he sets up in a comparable way to the 4-2-3-1 he used at Norwich.

Gyabi started two matches at the Under-20 World Cup, both of which England won. He scored the crucial goal in a 3-2 victory over eventual tournament winners Uruguay in the group stages, but he was dropped to the bench for the final group fixture against Iraq, a 0-0 draw, and a last-16 tie that went Italy’s way. Gyabi flew home with his reputation enhanced despite England falling short.

For Farke, who Leeds appointed as manager seven days ago, addressing the centre of his midfield is not easy. Weston McKennie is gone after the end of his loan from Juventus, a transfer that failed in every respect. Marc Roca is on the verge of a loan move to Real Betis, although the deal is not quite finalised.

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Tyler Adams might depart, too, and while Leeds are fighting to retain him, he is yet to regain full fitness after hamstring surgery in March. He will not feature against Manchester United tomorrow and it is uncertain if Leeds will reach the end of the transfer window with the USA captain on their books.

The vacuum is one Gyabi can attempt to fill and there is no suggestion of Leeds considering further approaches for him in the remainder of this window. Unlike other players who have left City’s academy, Southampton’s Romeo Lavia being one, Gyabi’s contract at Elland Road is not believed to include a buy-back clause giving City the right to re-sign him for a fixed fee.

There were loan bids for him in the January window at the start of this year, the strongest from West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield Wednesday, but Leeds resolved to keep him at the last minute, even though none of their head coaches had used him before the season finished. Now his chances are more serious.

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That might be true of others in Leeds’ academy, too, because with relegation impacting heavily on plans for their immediate future, this is where the club’s recruitment at that level ought to be tested. Alongside first-team signings, Leeds have added to their development squad regularly over the past three seasons, setting aside a budget for investments like Gyabi.

At £5m, he was more expensive than most, but staff in Leeds’ academy confidently expect him to come good. Last summer brought Gyabi’s name to the fore. Ahead of him, this season is an opportunity to make people remember it.

• Phil Hay’s mailbag will be published later this week

(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

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