McCarthy Not Taking The Mick

"I've loved every minute of my time here. I came to Leeds to play games but I soon appreciated that they are a special club. I'll always have a soft spot for Leeds and they're the biggest club I've played for".

As Alex McCarthy's loan period comes to an end, even tough his time at Elland Road has been a short one it appears that both parties will look upon his spell with fondness.

As we are more aware than most loans, can be pretty hit and miss, in our case mostly miss. Loan players either not good enough to get into their current side or no longer good enough to feature.

More often than not they are entirely forgettable but there are the occasional diamonds in the rough, step forward Alex McCarthy.

At a time when our goalkeeping options were lower than they have been since the days of Ronnie Sinclair (ask your dad), with Rickety Rachubka looking more dodgy than ten day old prawn sandwich (ask a Man U fan to draw you a crayon picture) being our only experienced option. With young Alex Cairns in reserve, a prospect but arguably not up to the rigours of a Championship campaign just yet. We needed a rock to anchor our defence until Super Andy Lonergan was fit to return.

Some might have been hoping for an experienced man to come in as cover and may have been a little apprehensive when we announced the signing of a 22 year old rookie from a fellow Championship club to shore things up.

Five games, four wins and three clean sheets later few Leeds fans will remain unconvinced of the big future young Alex McCarthy has in the game.

We were extremely lucky in the summer that we brought into the club a keeper in the shape of Andy Lonergan, possibly the best keeper we've had in a quite some time. In my humble opinion in the mould of a Sullivan or even potentially a Martyn. I believe that this season we have seen the future of England's goalkeeping. It wouldn't surprise me to see Andy and Alex competing for the England number one jersey over the next few years.

After Saturdays game at Watford Alex returns to Reading and Andy comes back from injury. It would be too much to ask either to be a deputy and so Alex will go on to have a great career somewhere else, though I wouldn't be upset to see him back one day.

Thank you son for what you've done for us, we're grateful and if we do go up this season you'll have played your part. We'll always have a soft spot for Alex McCarthy and the feeling is clearly mutual.

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