Leeds United's academy set-up at Thorp Arch has nurtured and developed a host of impressive players who have gone on to catch the eye in Yorkshire and elsewhere.

The likes of Kalvin Phillips, Jack Clarke, Leif Davis, and Lewis Cook, out of the players still playing, all came through the youth set-up to forge excellent careers for themselves.

Leeds have produced many fantastic players from their academy over the years and one star they struck gold with was the late and great Gary Speed.

Gary Speed's career with Leeds in numbers

The Welsh dynamo came up through the youth set-up in Yorkshire and eventually made his breakthrough in the first-team during the 1990/91 campaign.

His first season as a regular in the senior squad was the following year, however, as the versatile midfielder racked up seven goals and one assist in 38 First Division matches.

Speed then played a crucial role in the club winning the top-flight title in the 1991/92 campaign, as he scored seven goals in 41 appearances that term.

As you can see in the table above, the Wales international was a regular fixture in the Leeds team over the next four seasons as the First Division became the Premier League from the start of the 1992/93 campaign.

In fact, Speed was named as one of the XI players in the first PFA Team of the Year for the inaugural Premier League season, which shows how highly he was rated by his professional peers.

By the end of the 1995/96 campaign, the special midfielder had amassed 42 goals and 13 assists in 249 appearances for the Whites in all competitions, having come up through the academy set up.

How much Leeds sold Gary Speed for

Per Totally Money, Everton swooped in to sign the impressive star in the summer of 1996 for a fee of £4.38m to bolster their midfield options.

Adjusting for the inflation of transfer fees in football over the subsequent years, per Totally Money's index, that fee of £4.38m would be worth roughly £41m+ (£41.6m) in today's (2024) money.

This shows that Leeds struck gold with Speed as they brought through a special gem who almost hit 250 appearances for the club's first-team, won a top-flight title, earned a place in the PFA Team of the Year, and then raked in a huge profit for the Whites.

The Welsh wizard scored 16 goals in 59 matches for the Toffees before being sold to Newcastle United, per Totally Money, for a fee of £7.4m (£42.8m in 2024 money) at the start of 1998.

Speed enjoyed a sensational career with the Magpies - scoring 39 goals and registering 21 assists in 285 games in all competitions - before seeing out his career with Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United before his retirement.

Overall, Leeds and their supporters should look back on Speed's time at the club as a huge success and cherish the fantastic memories he gave them with his sublime performances in midfield, which helped the Whites to rake in millions for his signature after years of superb service.