No surprise Hugo Diaz has been let go after twice being snubbed by Marcelo Bielsa

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Leeds United fans were left slightly surprised this week by the news that Spanish defender Hugo Diaz had been released by the club. It came with one year left on his current deal and after an impressive season in the Leeds under-23 side.

It appears Leeds have decided that, at 22-years-old, Diaz was perhaps presenting a barrier to younger players coming through the system.

But whilst some Leeds fans might be shocked by the news, the writing was clearly on the wall.

Last season there were two occasions when Leeds found themselves desperately short at centre-back.

On the first occasion, Leeds called up Finnish talent Aapo Halme to the first-team. On the second occasion, Dutch defender Pascal Struijk was given the call.

Now whilst Diaz has played a lot of his football in midfield he was easily the most experienced central defender available to Marcelo Bielsa in the under-23 set-up.

However, on both occasions, he went with younger and perhaps lesser known talents.

It was clear that Diaz was not on Bielsa’s radar and with his age taken into consideration it is best for all parties that the former Deportivo man goes and finds first-team football elsewhere.