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Mixed emotions for Leicester City Academy chief Jon Rudkin
By LCFC | August 28, 2010
Academy director Jon Rudkin experienced mixed emotions when one of his former charges threatened to derail Leicester City's Carling Cup hopes in midweek.
Rudkin was at Leeds on Tuesday night and witnessed an outstanding performance by Max Gradel in his first start of the season for the Elland Road club.
Gradel was tormentor-in-chief as Leeds went into a half-time lead before a brilliant recovery after the break saw City snatch a 2-1 victory.
Rudkin said: "It was a really crowd-pleasing performance and it was exciting to watch but I thought, overall, we coped with him well."
Back in 2004, Gradel, who originally hails from the Ivory Coast, was a student at Lewisham College and appeared to be on the way to the youth set-up at Arsenal.
Rudkin said: "They were looking at him and I did speak to Liam Brady and Steve Bould. He is a good example of a player who wasn't in the system getting an opportunity.
"But sometimes coming to a club such as Leicester is more advantageous for a player as we have a good track record of getting youngsters into the first team, and that happened for Max."
Gradel signed his first professional contract with City and helped the Academy to victory in their league play-off final.
He made 27 starts but was unable to hold down a regular place under Nigel Pearson and joined Leeds in January.
Rudkin said: "I always keep an eye on the players we have had here to see how they develop. Some of gone on, like Max and Richard Stearman, to other clubs, while some have even taken different career paths."
City's current under-18 side are in action at Stoke today (11.0) looking to bounce back after losing their opening Academy Premier League game against Crewe last weekend.
The defeat to the Alex ended a 15-month unbeaten record for City, but Rudkin said: "It's a younger side this season and, sometimes, you learn more from a defeat than you do by winning 5-0."
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