Fulham captain Tom Cairney and former Leeds United academy player has spoken about his release by Leeds at age 16.
The Cottagers' skipper was special guest on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football coverage of Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Nottingham Forest this week and discussed his time at Leeds, which preceded the lengthy professional career he has gone on to enjoy.
Nottingham-born Cairney joined Leeds' youth setup in 1998 at just seven years old but was let go by the Whites at 16 due to his size.
"At eight, I think Leeds kind of took me off [Nottingham] Forest in a way, if you can say that, at eight, nine years old, something like that," Cairney recalled, alongside host David Jones and Jamie Carragher.
"I just remember coming home from school or something, and I was at Forest's academy at the time, when I was seven, and my dad said, 'You're going to Leeds'
"You just get in the car, you put your kit on. We drove up to Thorp Arch, which at them times, I think, you wasn't allowed to live an hour outside the training ground but we did.
"It was a bit chaos, my dad was a taxi driver at the time, so we used to break down on the way home. So that was carnage, but, yeah, the things you do and those are unbelievable memories I have."
Upon his release, Cairney joined Hull City's youth setup where he went on to make his professional debut for the Tigers in 2009. The now 33-year-old moved to Blackburn Rovers in 2014 after an initial loan spell before signing for Fulham a year later, where he has played ever since.
Now into his tenth season for the West London club, Cairney has racked up 340 appearances across all competitions and is currently Marco Silva's club captain at Craven Cottage. He has also been part of three promotion-winning campaign, each with Fulham.