Leeds United Inside Elland Road | Local beans for local people
This week on the Inside Elland Road podcast, Graham and Joe discuss Daniel Farke's latest press conference, mood and sartorial preferences, the end to another international break, the beckoning in of a new era behind the scenes at Leeds United and much, much more.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Inside Ellen Road podcast, your home of Leeds United News, debate,
00:10 analysis and of course a little bit of whimsy.
00:13 I'm your host Joe Donoghue and I'm joined by the YAP's Chief Football Writer, Graeme
00:17 Smith as per usual.
00:19 Before we begin, an Inside Ellen Road first, you can actually watch this podcast now on
00:22 ShotsTV.com or Shots TV Freeview channel 276.
00:28 Graeme, you're just back from Daniel Farker's pre-Norwich City press conference.
00:32 I have to say, I'm feeling rather chipper despite the change in weather this past week.
00:38 The international break's done and dusted for another month.
00:40 We're off to Norfolk this weekend to sample some of Delia's home cooking in the press
00:44 lounge.
00:45 Leeds are in relatively good form and there seems to be, dare I say, a fresh, more positive
00:50 vibe about the place.
00:52 Yeah, I'm in a good mood as well actually.
00:57 The football is back and it was a good news day at the press conference.
01:01 Daniel Farker was in good form.
01:03 I don't think he's a big fan of lots and lots of media duties.
01:08 I suppose in the same way that Marcelo Bielsa was no real fan of lots and lots of media
01:11 duties.
01:13 But I do feel like Farker gives off the impression that he quite enjoys his press conferences
01:19 or if he doesn't, he's a phenomenal method actor.
01:22 He really is.
01:23 Because again, I thought today, questions where he maybe could have just given a very,
01:29 very short, glib response, he went into a lot of detail.
01:35 We must have been with him for half an hour, slightly over half an hour, and went through
01:39 a range of topics.
01:41 But I guess when you won the first two games before the international break and your international
01:45 players have come back without injury, despite some of them playing quite a lot of football,
01:51 and you're starting to get the injured players back and you're about to go back to Norwich,
01:55 a very, very fond reunion, then I guess you would also be in good form.
02:00 Yeah, I completely agree.
02:02 There were some quite lengthy answers that he gave today.
02:06 Not as lengthy as that explanation why he was deciding to start Joe Piro behind Jorginho
02:11 Ruta before the international break, but some good stuff on player development, on Archie
02:16 Gray in particular, on his experience of improving as a coach and wanting to continually learn
02:24 in the roles that he's undertaking.
02:27 Some great Farcisms, you know, there was the, maybe in 30 years we can sit on the sofa and
02:32 have a glass of wine.
02:35 Dog eat dog world, love that.
02:37 That was a bolt from the blue from the press conference.
02:41 And just the pronunciation, just brilliant.
02:44 But yeah, I think it's probably best to get into the content that Farke had to divulge
02:52 today in his press conference.
02:53 And that was primarily the injury updates.
02:57 You know, he said prior to the Bristol City game and prior to the international break
03:02 that Willy Nyonto, Jamie Shackleton, Junior Firpo were in contention, Jed Spence as well,
03:08 were in contention to come back into the team following the internationals.
03:12 Graeme, what was the update from Farke?
03:15 Well, I think Spence was always an eight week absentee, wasn't he, expected for eight weeks.
03:20 So I don't think we'll see him probably till November at this rate.
03:25 But I think it's good news on the rest of them.
03:27 I mean, Nyonto is back in team training and has been back in since last Sunday, I believe.
03:34 And after ankle surgery, that's not bad going.
03:36 So he is available for Norwich and I believe he will travel.
03:40 Jamie Shackleton, who had a painful shoulder that kept him out of the last two games before
03:43 the break, having featured in no fewer than four different positions for Farke in the
03:49 opening gambit of the season, he is back and available.
03:53 He's back in team training.
03:55 Junior Firpo, back in team training, although part integrated, which is the same term that
04:01 Farke used for shirt Dallas.
04:02 So both those men have trained with the team, but they're not with the team full time yet.
04:08 So they're not doing everything that the team does.
04:10 They'll train with the team and then they might need a bit of recovery.
04:14 They might need some individual training.
04:16 So that was the case for Firpo, who was back in team training and then has had to have
04:21 some individual training.
04:24 And then they'll step up their recovery until such a time as they are training full time
04:28 with Farke and the squad.
04:30 And then after they've done that for a few weeks, then they'll be available again.
04:34 So apart from Spence, who had a knee ligament injury, didn't he, that mercifully did not
04:43 require surgery, I think it was probably a better update or a more optimistic update
04:51 than people might have been expecting today.
04:54 And Farke's options, when he gets those players back, are going to be difficult.
04:59 It's going to be hard for him to make some decisions.
05:02 And the hardest decision of all might be who to leave out of the matchday squad entirely,
05:08 because at least one, maybe two or three players who will consider themselves a bona fide part
05:15 of the squad are going to find themselves not even on the bench on a matchday, if and
05:19 when Farke has everybody fit.
05:22 I think just going back to what we were saying about today's press conference, it seems as
05:26 though that Farke is really starting to enjoy this role.
05:31 He's really started to settle into it, I think, because the first few weeks and the first
05:34 few months of his time here, July, August, were turbulent.
05:41 There was a lot of stuff that happened prior to his arrival, which meant that he was playing
05:45 catch up, particularly in terms of contracts and transfers wise.
05:49 But now I think with the team in good form, he's really starting to enjoy his tenure here.
05:55 And that's coming through in the meetings that we have with him.
06:00 He's returning now to a place where he probably had his biggest or greatest success as a manager,
06:06 Carroll Road.
06:07 I'm anticipating a mixed reaction for him there because of, obviously, the gratitude
06:13 that they will have for the two promotions that he spearheaded as the manager.
06:20 But also, I think there's a select few Norwich fans who maybe weren't too happy with his
06:24 comments when he joined Leeds in the summer, where he insinuated that Leeds were a bigger
06:31 club and had greater resources.
06:34 And that was something which had always stuck with him when he was at Norwich, that he wished
06:38 that he had that resource available to him.
06:41 So I think it'll be a mostly gracious welcome.
06:44 But for him, it's a nice line in the sand to say that he's back in England.
06:50 He's back managing a top English club.
06:54 I think the team are playing well, so why not go and take three points from his old
06:58 stomping ground?
06:59 Yeah, I mean, he really did cut the mustard at Norwich, didn't he?
07:05 Terrible.
07:06 Terrible.
07:07 How long have you been waiting for that one?
07:09 About five seconds.
07:12 I think you'd be a very unreasonable human being, which of course a lot of football fans
07:16 are, if you were to take umbrage at what Farke said when he came to Leeds.
07:21 In his utterances today about Norwich, he was nothing but respectful.
07:27 He's tried to take himself out of it a little bit, to make it so the story's not about him
07:32 and his return.
07:33 But that's almost a folly, because he will be the story.
07:37 When Farke walks back into Carrow Road, he is the story.
07:41 So he can't really avoid that, but he did try to downplay it and talk about this being
07:48 a match for players to decide, which is a good line that a lot of managers use whenever
07:52 the whole "is this a chess match between you and whoever comes up?" or "how emotional
07:57 will this be for you?"
07:58 It's got to be emotional, though, because he's got incredible memories.
08:02 They had two unbelievable seasons of Championship football where they just wasted almost everybody.
08:10 And record points, totals and that kind of thing.
08:14 Pukki scoring millions of goals.
08:16 Buendia just having a time of it in the 10 roll.
08:23 And fullbacks who flew up and down.
08:25 And by all accounts, Norwich fans really enjoyed it.
08:29 They were really, really enjoying their football.
08:32 I remember going there towards the end of his tenure when Leeds beat them 2-1.
08:39 And it was a pig of a game.
08:40 It was a rubbish game.
08:43 Not the kind of game that you want to travel all the way to Norwich for.
08:48 And Leeds got out of it because they had Raphinha and Rodrigo with two bits of quality, and
08:54 they got the win because of that.
08:57 And at the time, Farke was under pressure.
09:00 And I don't know, maybe I'm still massively naive when it comes to football, but I sometimes
09:06 think if a manager has brought you success, and if he's brought you success twice, then
09:11 surely he deserves a great deal more patience and time than just your average manager who
09:17 doesn't really achieve very much.
09:20 It's almost the same when I look at ex-Leeds manager Paul Heckenbottom at Sheffield United.
09:25 I think he performed a miracle to get them into the Premier League with what was going
09:30 on off the field, with the resources at hand, with the squad that he had.
09:35 And so the idea of him being replaced this early in the season, which has been talked
09:40 about and obviously been kicked around in the discussion about that club, that just
09:44 to me seems utterly disgraceful.
09:49 You only ever get the full picture and an accurate picture of the mood of a club when
09:52 you speak to fans of that club.
09:54 So it's easy for me, as somebody who wasn't a Norwich fan and somebody who isn't a Blade,
09:59 to look at those scenarios and think, 'Well, that's a bit hasty.'
10:03 But that would be my read on it.
10:06 Leeds felt in the summer when they appointed Farke that his time in the Premier League
10:12 with Norwich was not a concern because their intention would be to resource him adequately
10:18 when they got to the Premier League, so to give him a Premier League squad with which
10:21 to do battle.
10:24 Leeds evidently felt that he did not have that when he was at Carroll Road.
10:29 But there was none of that from him today.
10:32 He certainly won't be rolling that line out and I think he'll be nothing but respectful
10:38 after the game as well.
10:41 But he's got to want to get one over on them.
10:43 He has to want, there's got to be a deep desire within him to come out of there with three
10:47 points with his new club.
10:49 Do you think there's any danger of him doing a big Ron Atkinson and going into the wrong
10:53 dugout before the game?
10:55 The cameras and the photographers don't tell him and he ends up looking a bit red-faced?
11:00 No.
11:01 He strikes me as a bit too polished and composed for that kind of carry-on, although it would
11:10 be very amusing and he'd probably carry it off with quite good grace.
11:16 He strikes me as a man who's quite well together.
11:22 He's collected and calm.
11:25 That's been the way he's been in his press conferences so far and on the touchline as
11:28 well, some of the fourth officials have felt the force of his tongue but he hasn't kicked
11:36 off has he?
11:37 No, he hasn't kicked off and it's a very interesting term that you decided to use there to describe
11:44 maybe the hair dryer treatment is what I would have gone with.
11:51 I did say that this is the podcast for a little bit of whimsy.
11:55 We do try to keep it to the end but a couple of minutes in, bang, we're there.
12:03 I'm very much looking forward to this game, to Daniel Farker returning to Cowra Road.
12:10 We haven't discussed in a couple of weeks the press food and if we're going to the home
12:15 of Delia Smith's football club, it's not going to be pucker pies is it?
12:20 Or at least you'd hope not.
12:24 I don't know if I can remember exactly what happened last time we went to Norwich when
12:34 it came to Norwich, which is unlike me because normally if a club makes a good impression,
12:40 I will remember it and I will then speak favourably about that club.
12:43 If it makes a poor impression, looking at you, Sheffield Wednesday and a few others,
12:49 then I will also remember that very, very clearly.
12:52 So I can't quite recall and I'm not sure what that says about Norwich and their fair.
12:59 Really what should happen is Delia should be there with a little kitchen set up in the
13:03 press room and taking orders and just whipping stuff up.
13:08 That would be fantastic.
13:10 But yeah.
13:11 I mean, she's of a certain age now, Graham.
13:14 Are you trying to advocate for 80 year old women still working and waiting hand on foot
13:20 on overindulged football journalists?
13:24 Well, let's be honest, we'll be still working at the age of 80.
13:28 So what's good for the goose is good for the gander, Joe.
13:32 I might be.
13:33 I think this job might have might have seen to you by then.
13:37 But yeah, I mean, I'm very much looking forward to Norwich and it'd be good to go, you know,
13:43 another game unbeaten.
13:44 Three games on the spin.
13:45 I mean, if Leeds were able to pull off a win, that would be fantastic because that would
13:48 be three, three wins in succession split by the international break.
13:54 But you know, that's exactly what Leeds need to start doing when you compare their away
13:58 record with some of the other teams in the division.
14:01 You know, looking at Leicester City and Ipswich, you know, Leicester have won all five of their
14:05 away games so far.
14:06 Ipswich have won four and drawn one of their five.
14:10 And they are the two teams that are in the automatic promotion places.
14:12 So it's no surprise that they are where they are, because if you look over the past couple
14:17 of years and certainly all the way back to, you know, last decade or so, the teams who
14:22 do end up getting promoted and this might, you know, you can come down on me like a ton
14:27 of bricks and say that that's a very obvious point.
14:29 But the teams who get promoted tend to be the teams who do very well away from home
14:34 as well as on their own turf.
14:35 So there is that that needs improving because Leeds have won two, they've drawn one and
14:41 then they've lost two in their first five away matches.
14:44 So to get a win at Norwich, somebody who you'd imagine will be in the top half, you know,
14:50 fighting for the playoffs come the end of the season, again, would be a very statement
14:54 result.
14:55 I completely agree.
14:57 You know, teams that do well at home and away tend to do well, captain obvious.
15:04 I think what Farker will be looking to do is to start putting runs together like he
15:10 did at Norwich.
15:11 You know, they went on some, you know, was it 13 and 14 game unbeaten streaks?
15:17 I think there was one season when they were promoted when they were, I think they won
15:21 or they were unbeaten in 19 of the last 21 games that season, which again, that's a remarkable
15:27 spin.
15:28 It's sensational form.
15:30 And that is title winning form.
15:33 I don't know if it's too early to say that the title is gone, but well, it probably is
15:41 a bit early to say the title is gone.
15:43 Titles aren't won in October, Graeme.
15:45 No, they're not.
15:46 But teams don't tend to start the way Leicester have started, do they?
15:50 And it is a sensational start of the season.
15:55 Being an optimistic realist, I would say second place is very within Leeds grasp.
16:04 And I say that with no disrespect to Ipswich, but I don't see them having the squad depth
16:11 and the collective experience and noise to stay where they are right now and to survive
16:20 those kind of lulls and the injuries and those periods of adversity that crop up when you
16:27 maybe lose one that you're not expected to or you lose one in certain circumstances and
16:32 it knocks you and then you have to kind of come back.
16:35 And I always think back to Leeds promotion season when they went to Forest, lost.
16:41 Luke Elling saw a ghost on his way out to do his post game and just looked like a man
16:49 who had just been told he'd be walking the plank into the Trent.
16:53 And the club felt like it was on its back.
16:57 And then they went to Brentford who were absolutely licking their lips.
17:01 Thomas Frank giving it the Leeds will fear us line and really trying to ratchet up the
17:06 pressure and Leeds performed really, really well and came out with a draw from that game.
17:13 And it just completely arrested the narrative that Leeds were falling apart.
17:19 And it wasn't a win, but it was a, you know, they'd been, it was almost like they'd been
17:24 pushing back, they'd been pushed back towards a cliff, but they dug their heels in at Brentford
17:30 and then they started moving forward again after that.
17:33 And you just wonder if Ipswich will have it in them when those periods come and they will
17:41 come because they do in the championship.
17:42 The championship is brutal to use the word, quite brutal, quite brutal that as Farke might
17:49 say.
17:51 And you look at Leeds and the squad that Farke has now.
17:55 And I think it's a very fair question to ask if they are not better placed to deal with
18:00 injuries, suspensions and adversity that may crop up because he's got really good options
18:07 now across the pitch.
18:10 Just going to take you back to your comment about digging your heels in.
18:13 If you're being pushed towards a cliff and then you begin to walk forwards, how are you
18:18 digging your heels in?
18:19 That's quite, that's quite difficult.
18:20 You're being pushed backwards, right?
18:24 The cliffs behind you and you're going to drop off the cliff, right?
18:28 But you dig your heels in.
18:31 So you're lifting your feet up off the floor.
18:35 No, no, no, no, no.
18:37 You're sinking your heels deeper into the ground.
18:40 So as to anchor yourself.
18:42 But then if you're being pushed towards the cliff, then you're just going to, you're going
18:45 to topple over backwards.
18:47 No, no, you're not.
18:49 Because at the same time, you're also pushing because it requires a lot of forward momentum
18:55 even to stop the slide towards falling apart.
18:59 Okay.
19:00 Well, when we go on the YEP trip to the White Cliffs of Dover, we'll test out this theory.
19:05 I'll be the one doing the pushing and you can, you can, you know, your hypothesis that
19:10 you can actually dig your heels in and that, that, I don't know, scenario can be, can be
19:15 achieved and then I will become chief football writer at the YEP.
19:19 No, we'll see.
19:21 Anyway, anyway, moving on to what's, what's been happening over the past week or so.
19:26 It was the international break.
19:27 We had a number of Leeds players who were in action for their countries and in action
19:32 at youth international level.
19:33 Roachie Gray played all of the minutes available to him as England's under-19s struggled and
19:41 toiled in the under-19 European Championships first qualification stage.
19:47 Three draws England's youngsters managed against Wales, Montenegro and Austria.
19:53 That was after Daniel Farke had said that he hoped Gray wouldn't be needed in all three
19:58 games.
19:59 The fact that he could play every single minute was well, that was, that was just, that was
20:04 a bit it probably wouldn't have felt good in the Farke household when he saw Archie
20:09 lining up.
20:10 What it did mean was that because all the games were being hosted in Montenegro as is
20:15 the system at this qualification stage and at that age group, they were broadcast free
20:22 to air on YouTube on MNE sports, I think.
20:26 So now I'm completely fluent in Montenegro style football commentary.
20:33 So you can test me on that in future.
20:36 Please don't.
20:37 And there were some terrible, terrible pitches.
20:41 So I was very, very concerned that Archie might be coming back with an injury.
20:45 So to hear that he wasn't injured during that spell was quite good.
20:49 Graham, you, I think you saw the Wales game or at least you saw the Wales qualification
20:58 win result against Croatia in Euros qualifying, which featured none other than Dan James,
21:05 Ethan Ampadu and Joe Roden.
21:07 I definitely saw the result.
21:09 You're right there.
21:10 Yeah, Dan James is an assist machine.
21:14 He's all about the end product.
21:15 He's nothing but end product right now.
21:18 Nothing but net.
21:19 He's got it in him to provide a good cross.
21:23 And we've seen that this season.
21:25 And I think that'll be another confidence boost for him.
21:30 I just think he'll, at the minute, he'll feel a world away from what he felt when Leeds
21:37 sent him out on loan.
21:40 And again, we've spoken about it before on the podcast, but all credit to him for having
21:44 the attitude that he's had and being willing to come back and fight and play his part to
21:48 get Leeds back up and to do so without kicking up a fuss or without demanding a move back
21:54 to the Premier League or anything like that.
21:58 Nice lad by all accounts.
21:59 And he's having a good season, you have to say.
22:04 He will be the player who frustrates from time to time because his pace does get him
22:09 into such good scenarios.
22:11 I remember speaking to a Manchester United commentator when Leeds bought him who said
22:17 that if he acts on instinct, he tends to do the right thing and he tends to do the good
22:22 thing if he's got a load of time to pick an option.
22:25 Like if he runs through from halfway and he's got time to either decide on a shot or a pass,
22:31 that was where he kind of ran into difficulties for Manchester United.
22:35 And I think Farke said it earlier this season about where he could improve Dan James.
22:46 And I think that's what he'll be trying to do with the winger is to improve his decision
22:51 making so that when he is faced with those situations, it becomes instinct to do the
22:56 right thing and to pick the right pass.
22:59 But I don't think he can quibble with the start of the season.
23:01 The assists that he's got, is it five?
23:03 I think it's more than that now because he got one against Gibraltar coming off the bench.
23:08 I mean, I know it's Gibraltar, but it's still an assist.
23:12 So I think it's six or seven now because he's definitely got four for Leeds.
23:16 So then that'll be three on this international break.
23:19 Might've got one in the last, oh no, he didn't get one in September's internationals because
23:22 he was injured.
23:23 So yeah, I think he's on seven and then throw his first ball as well.
23:28 Yeah.
23:29 Yeah.
23:30 And it's good.
23:31 It's all, that's all good stuff, isn't it?
23:33 If your players are going to play a lot during the international break, you want them to
23:36 do well.
23:39 Farke picked out Gruev as one who, it was positive for him to play quite a substantial
23:44 amount of minutes.
23:46 They lost to Albania, didn't they, 2-0, but he played 86 minutes.
23:51 And Charlie Creswell, of course, played for the 21s in the absence of Harwood Bellis.
23:59 And that was a big, big plus because Creswell hasn't been getting minutes, has he?
24:04 He's in an interesting predicament, I would say, heading towards January.
24:10 What do you make of it?
24:12 I think it's difficult because he will have signed that new contract in the summer with
24:17 the knowledge, or at least the assumed knowledge, that he would be playing a much bigger role
24:23 for Leeds this season than he has been and he had done previously.
24:27 You look at that, he played pretty regularly, I think he got 28 or 30 appearances for Millwall
24:31 last season.
24:35 For a team who, apart from a late season collapse for which Creswell was injured, would have
24:41 been in the playoffs.
24:43 So if Leeds are around the same position in the table currently, so you'd be safe to assume
24:51 that a player who did it last season should be able to do it again this year.
24:54 But it's something that you wrote in your piece this week, Graeme, that the arrival
24:59 of Rodan, him being pretty solid, Pascal Stroik returning to the acclaim that maybe he had
25:08 in fits and starts in the Premier League, that he was, I'm thinking, towards the end
25:12 of the 2020/21 season when he was quite good then.
25:21 It meant that because they're fit, they're starting ahead of him because they've got
25:24 that rhythm and they've got that match readiness.
25:26 So it's been difficult for Creswell.
25:29 And it hasn't helped that I think two of the games that he started, which was Salford,
25:34 which wasn't exactly a great game to be at, I'm sure he'll vouch for that, or a great
25:40 game to get back from, which I remember he had a little bit of difficulty there.
25:45 I've got a story of my own actually, which I'll bring to the podcast shortly.
25:50 But yeah, that game at Salford and Birmingham, which Leeds lost as well.
25:57 Creswell started those, so obviously that hasn't worked in his favour.
26:00 But football's a cutthroat business.
26:02 It's dog-eat-dog, as Daniel Farke might say.
26:06 And it's what's best for the team.
26:08 It can't be making allowances just because he's a local lad, he's full of passion, full
26:14 of desire, he's somebody who resonates well with the fans.
26:18 You've got to play the best player for the position if they're available, or the player
26:23 who's got that rhythm.
26:25 To answer your question, because I know I've gone about it in a very roundabout way, I
26:28 think he will be looking at January thinking, "Well, what am I doing here if I'm not going
26:35 to get in this team?
26:36 I need to go and play."
26:37 Because ultimately, he won't end up playing for England's 21s when Howard Bellas is back
26:43 in it.
26:44 If he's not going to be playing for Leeds, where's he getting his football?
26:47 So I think he doesn't strike me as a shrinking violet.
26:50 He's a very proactive individual and will certainly seek the minutes.
26:55 But who's to say that Rodon doesn't pick up an injury, or Struyck, or Cooper, or someone?
27:01 It's a difficult one.
27:02 But this is what happens when you have a squad, rather than what has been the case previously
27:07 under Farke's predecessors.
27:10 If everybody was getting minutes, you'd have a problem, wouldn't you?
27:15 Because you'd have no cover.
27:18 You'd have no cover, and I think referees would have an issue with that as well.
27:21 You're only allowed 11 on the pitch at any one time.
27:24 Well, that was my inference, that if everyone was getting minutes, you'd only have 11 players.
27:30 I'm just fulfilling my role as captain obvious this week.
27:34 Yeah, Creswell, during pre-season against Monaco, he dived in and Farke went absolutely
27:44 spare on the touchline.
27:47 And then it happened again, and I can't recall exactly where.
27:53 Whether it was Birmingham or whether it was another pre-season game, I can't remember.
27:59 It might have been against Nottingham Forest.
28:02 Might have been.
28:03 Which kit were Leeds wearing?
28:04 Oh, I can't remember.
28:05 I know, but that would narrow it down.
28:08 Yeah, it would narrow it down, but I can't remember.
28:11 I just remember that Daniel Farke was wearing all black, so one of those games.
28:19 I also remember Creswell saying that when he was at Millwall, at first, he needed to
28:24 just calm down.
28:25 He was so determined to make a good impression that he was maybe a bit rash.
28:33 And I wonder if that was the same this summer, that he was just so desperate to make a good
28:38 impression and show the manager, 'Look, you can trust me and play me', that he's maybe
28:41 just been a little bit rash in his decision-making.
28:44 He's still only 21.
28:46 He's got an absolute boatload of time on his side.
28:50 I would understand a frustration at not playing, and I would understand a desire to maybe go
28:56 and play in January elsewhere.
28:59 But then there's that counter-argument of staying at Leeds and being a part of it, being
29:05 a part of something special, because your peak years are so far ahead of you as a centre-back
29:11 at 21.
29:14 So it'll be a really interesting time, January.
29:17 But what you said, you don't know if somebody might pick up an injury.
29:20 It almost feels to me like two need to pick up injuries for Creswell to get a start right
29:25 now, because I think Farke plays Cooper and Stroik, or he plays Stroik and Rodon, or he
29:31 plays Cooper and Rodon before he plays Creswell.
29:34 That's how it feels at the minute.
29:36 But then who saw Archie Gray playing right back?
29:40 Well, not Bristol City.
29:42 That's what we found.
29:43 Not Bristol City and not us.
29:49 So Farke maybe got a surprise up his sleeve.
29:50 He's maybe got a role for Creswell or a game for Creswell.
29:54 But if the situation remains as it is, then he's got a decision in January.
29:59 Certainly.
30:00 I was just alluding to a story that I had from the international break, similar to your
30:04 troubles, your planes, trains and automobiles issue coming back from Salford earlier this
30:09 season.
30:10 And that was this week as I went to Stadium MK in Milton Keynes, or actually Bletchley
30:18 in Bedfordshire, because that's where England's under-20s were playing Portugal.
30:22 Darko Djebi and Matteo Joseph, two Leeds youngsters were involved, of course, and got to catch
30:28 up with Matteo at the end, who gave me very, very choreographed answers to some questions
30:35 about his future and his goals for the season.
30:37 But a very, very nice lad and someone with bags of talent.
30:42 But I have to say, Bletchley as a place is the least walkable place, the least walkable
30:50 town I've ever been.
30:52 It was like Apple Maps from the train station took me the Takeshi's Castle route.
30:57 It felt like everything I had to traverse, you know, dual carriageways across the end.
31:02 There was no crossings, no pavements, just grass verges, which I think is quite fitting
31:07 considering that was the home of the code break in June World War II.
31:10 I had to sort of break the code of where the next bit of asphalt was on my way back to
31:16 the station in the evening as well.
31:18 Ruined my new white trainers.
31:21 And you were utterly delighted by it, weren't you, Graham, as I was sort of sharing my travel
31:27 war with you.
31:29 But I do have one thing to say about Stadium MK.
31:32 It does have a McDonald's right by it, which was very much appreciated afterwards because
31:38 you know, these sorts of youth international fixtures, you don't tend to get a nice spread,
31:42 or at least the spread I'm expecting this weekend.
31:46 You also get lots of screw fixes around these sorts of grounds.
31:48 And there was one there, lo and behold.
31:52 But I just think, what are the other things that you like having around in a way ground?
31:58 I mean, to be fair, Ellen Road has a Mackey's.
32:01 Not that I've frequented that one too many times.
32:04 But you know, I'm trying to think the ones that are sort of in industrial estates or
32:10 you know, disused car parks are pretty rubbish.
32:13 Whereas the ones that are, I don't know, right in the middle of a city center, you always
32:17 quite like those locations, don't you?
32:20 You do if they're, if getting there is plain sailing.
32:23 I mean, obviously we get to the ground quite a lot earlier than the average match goer.
32:27 And so traffic might not quite have built up yet.
32:31 So our kind of approach and exit tend to be a bit more rose tinted than most.
32:38 I like a press car park, so we don't have to abandon it somewhere in the back streets
32:43 and then pray that we'll see the car again.
32:48 Quite like a subway, now and again.
32:51 If you're at a ground where like Sheffield Wednesday, the press food isn't particularly
32:57 edible, only joking, isn't particularly mouthwatering and eye catching, then maybe a subway.
33:05 You want to be careful there because we might get a chance to see a restatement on the catering.
33:11 Can you even imagine how long the statement would be as well?
33:14 And I don't have time today to read a Chancery statement.
33:17 There isn't enough hours in the day as it is.
33:20 So that would be a real blow.
33:23 So yeah, I take back everything I said.
33:24 The bacon sandwiches were absolutely great.
33:27 The bacon was not at all robbery.
33:31 It was fantastic.
33:33 What else do I like around the ground?
33:35 You know what I really liked?
33:36 When we went to Elche, obviously you weren't there.
33:40 I was there though, but you weren't.
33:43 And at Elche, built into the stadium all the way around are little bars and eateries and
33:51 nightclubs that are actually in the stadium.
33:55 So if you think kind of almost in between turnstiles at gate five and gate six, you
34:03 might have like a little row of restaurants or bars or cafes or whatever it is, or supporters
34:09 club.
34:10 And what it does is it draws people in and around the stadium before the game and just
34:17 creates an atmosphere.
34:18 I imagine for like their big games that the atmosphere would be absolutely superb around
34:23 the ground so that when you're walking in, it feels like an event.
34:26 Like it feels like an occasion.
34:27 I think every ground should be like that and should have, you know, like a subway or that
34:33 nice noodle place you sometimes get at a decent service stop.
34:38 What else would I want?
34:39 Probably not a WH Smith.
34:40 I've got to be honest.
34:41 That's very much airport territory, isn't it?
34:46 Yeah.
34:47 You'll get five or six in an airport, won't you?
34:49 Maybe a nice coffee, nice coffee place to get like a local coffee, local roaster.
34:54 None of this franchise rubbish.
34:57 Local beans for local fans, of course.
35:00 And what else?
35:01 Maybe one of those, do you remember those weird fish places where people used to go
35:07 and get their feet eaten by tiny fish?
35:09 Yes, I do.
35:10 They were all the rage sort of like what, 10 years ago or something?
35:13 Football never really got into that, did it?
35:14 I don't remember many footballers posting on their Instagram that that's where they
35:19 were or they were having like people come round to their house with the fish in like
35:23 a bucket.
35:24 And then, you know, the way they used to have those drip doctors that came to the player's
35:31 house with a drip.
35:32 There was a really, really interesting story, wasn't there?
35:35 There was a very interesting story relating to quite a high profile footballer in England.
35:43 Absolutely sensational.
35:44 But no, they never got into the feet fish business.
35:48 So maybe one of those.
35:50 And what else would I like?
35:53 Obviously you'd have a club shop.
35:54 I think what we need to do is we need to get on the blower to Angus and say that you need
35:58 Graham on the executive planning committee for the Elland Road redevelopment.
36:03 Well, now that there's a vacancy when it comes to commercial matters, then this could be
36:08 my big moment.
36:11 I mean, you thought some of the kits under the previous era were bad.
36:15 You haven't seen anything.
36:19 A blue away kit, obviously with some sort of red and white in there, white shorts, black
36:25 socks with red tops.
36:27 Scandalous.
36:28 But I would throw in, I'd obviously throw in a yellow.
36:30 I mean, the very first thing you would do, right, if you were walking into Leeds now
36:34 and you had any kind of say in the kits, wouldn't you just produce a nice, classy, almost Sweden-esque
36:43 yellow away kit?
36:45 Yes, but that's doing the sensible thing.
36:48 I don't know if you've checked, Graham, but this club has not been made famous by doing
36:53 the sensible thing.
36:54 No, not previously, but this is a very different era.
36:59 You also have to say that, yes, the kits always sold really, really well.
37:03 The jury's very much out on the Fruit Pastel number and how it sold.
37:07 And there was one of last year's, I think, that didn't do quite the numbers that previous
37:11 ones did.
37:12 Like the charcoal and pink one sold an absolute shed load.
37:16 And it kind of showed that football kits are not for old men like me.
37:21 They're for younger men like yourself and other demographics.
37:26 And I understand all that.
37:28 But when you have a fan base that is so desperate for a yellow kit, wouldn't you just give them
37:35 a yellow kit just once?
37:37 You won't even notice it.
37:38 You won't even notice it's there.
37:40 Just drop one out and let them all buy it.
37:43 And then they'll stop asking for it for a little while.
37:47 So that would be my advice.
37:48 I think you underestimate the desire for, well, the desire for something new and shiny
37:53 from football fans.
37:55 Because how often have we seen where fans will be like, sign X player or sign this,
38:01 sign that, and then that will come and go and everyone will be very pleased and very
38:04 happy with it.
38:05 And then it'll be, right, well, we still need a centre mid.
38:08 We still need a right back.
38:10 What's next?
38:11 Come on.
38:12 What's next?
38:13 I need constant stimulation.
38:14 That is my favourite reply to any signing.
38:17 Right, who's next?
38:18 They're literally barely in the door and haven't even said hello yet or kicked a ball in anger.
38:25 What else?
38:27 What would you sell?
38:28 Bear in mind, this is a club that sold bucket seats.
38:32 What would you sell?
38:35 Would you sell a Daniel Farker range of jackets?
38:39 Yeah, straight away.
38:42 I knew you were going to say that.
38:43 The duster.
38:44 I don't know if that's the correct term, but it's sort of like an anorak.
38:50 With the letters that Farker and anorak shares, there's definitely some sort of word play
38:56 to be had there.
38:58 Yeah, I'd do that.
39:01 It would only come in black, obviously.
39:03 Why would you need any other colours?
39:05 It would maybe come in two shades of black, like black and then none more black or unbelievably
39:12 black.
39:13 Yeah, yeah.
39:14 Just, you know, just fantastic.
39:19 It would be great.
39:20 I think that's something which needs to come about.
39:25 Anything else?
39:26 Because that was my idea.
39:27 Well, yeah, OK.
39:30 If I'm becoming the new commercial director at Ellen Road, I don't know, I think maybe
39:37 bring back...
39:38 Do you remember the Crowdees during COVID?
39:40 Yes.
39:41 Bring back the Crowdees, right?
39:43 But make them the players instead.
39:46 You would sell them.
39:48 People would put them in their homes when they're watching Leeds.
39:51 Like next to them.
39:52 Yeah.
39:53 Like I'm watching the game with a cardboard Ethan Ampadu.
39:57 Or your da, who's on Facebook and has a certain player that he hates and now he says, "Come
40:02 and sit with me," whenever a player clears it into the stand.
40:06 He could literally say, "Come and sit with me," and sit the player next to him.
40:11 Or you could maybe get some Leeds United punching bags of certain figures that maybe you're
40:20 not so fond of.
40:22 I don't know what the legalities of that would be, to plaster someone with any Leeds United
40:26 association, whether that be players, directors, whether that be previous club staff, club
40:32 owners, and put that on the punch bag.
40:37 And then people could work out to it.
40:39 Leeds would produce the next generation of Olympian boxers.
40:43 Yeah.
40:44 You know, little Josh Warrington's all over the place.
40:47 I think you might run into trouble when it came to image rights.
40:50 Yeah, probably.
40:51 So there might be a slight issue there.
40:56 I'm just trying to think if there's anything else that, quite gimmicky that I would sell.
41:04 Just while you're having a think there, it's reminded me when we were talking about boxing
41:08 there that typically you imagine that boxers will have a firm handshake.
41:13 I have.
41:14 I've done it.
41:15 I've found the firmest handshake in football, which is England's under-20 manager, Joe Edwards,
41:19 who I spoke to as well as Matteo Joseph during the week.
41:23 Honestly thought he crushed every bone in my hand.
41:27 And then just to really hammer home that he does actually have a firm handshake and it
41:32 wasn't any sort of mistake, he then shook my hand at the end of the interview as well
41:37 with my already hand, which had been turned to mush.
41:42 But I'd expect nothing less from a former assistant of Frank Lampard's.
41:47 He very much cut from similar cloth, shall we say.
41:52 Very well preened men.
41:53 I like that he went in for a second go.
41:56 He must have felt that there was like a little bone that he hadn't quite snapped on the first
41:59 occasion and he's gone back in to finish the job.
42:02 I shook Pat Jennings' hand once and my hand disappeared.
42:07 It was nowhere to be seen.
42:10 Hand like shovels, that man.
42:13 And still has a fine head of hair on him as well.
42:19 On Leeds United commercial matters then, obviously we've alluded to the Paul Bell news, so he
42:25 is departing his role as the exec director when it comes to all things commercial and
42:30 will be retained in a consultancy role in a transitionary period.
42:37 I think what the 49ers have done, I think a lot of people assumed that they'd been in
42:42 the building for quite a while because they invested during the Rajruzani era, they were
42:46 his partners in the boardroom, Moratti was vice chairman, etc. etc.
42:54 Having that presence in the boardroom and being a part of the ownership group is a very
42:58 different thing from being able to walk into any office or corner of Elland Road and lift
43:02 up the carpet to see what's underneath.
43:05 Once you own the place, then you have full license to really dig into what is in your
43:12 football club, what it does, how it looks, how it functions on match days, how it functions
43:17 in every sense.
43:21 I get absolutely no sense that Paul Bell has been removed from his position, but I do get
43:26 a sense that the 49ers have been looking really intently at every aspect, doing a really fulsome
43:33 review of the club and how it operates.
43:36 I would imagine that this is just a fairly natural consequence of that and the change
43:41 that I think we'll see over the next months and years really.
43:45 It's going to take them time to build a Premier League-worthy operation off the field because
43:51 the club that they bought wasn't particularly sized or scaled for Premier League football.
43:58 Although there was some investment made, obviously, when they did go up, it wasn't probably to
44:07 the levels that you would anticipate the 49ers would want to put in.
44:11 I think headcount was a big thing for them.
44:14 They were quite surprised at the headcount of the club and how many people were probably
44:18 doing quite a lot of work just as one person doing multiple roles, that kind of thing.
44:26 I think we will probably start to see an influx over the next 12 months, over the next two
44:32 years of people in various roles to oversee various departments or create, not necessarily
44:38 create departments, but roles that previously weren't in existence at Leeds.
44:42 It'll be very interesting to see how that actually impacts the club's offering when
44:48 it comes to stuff like commercial.
44:52 Will the profile of the sponsors change?
44:55 Will the quantity or the quality or the types of merchandise they offer change?
45:02 Will the matchday food offering change?
45:05 That's one thing that's been a bit of a bone of contention for fans in recent years.
45:11 I think if anyone was at Hull and was on the concourse, that for me is just about the gold
45:17 standard that I've seen in terms of food being offered to supporters in the stadium.
45:23 That was ridiculous, like katsu curry and waffle fries and pulled pork, that kind of
45:30 stuff.
45:31 That is food that actually makes people want to go to the ground and eat there rather than
45:37 having their tea before they come to the game.
45:40 Someone said to me once, "How ridiculous is it that so much of the football culture is
45:46 the food that you get either before kickoff or at halftime, when ordinarily on any other
45:51 day you would not be thinking of having a meal at 3pm or at 3.45?"
45:57 What football has done is created a new meal time for people, an extra meal, a first dinner
46:05 you might call it.
46:06 A football meal.
46:07 A football dinner.
46:08 Football has done it really well because it's made it part of the matchgoing tradition to
46:14 have food.
46:16 I think if like Hull you can offer food of that variety then people would be very, very
46:21 pleased indeed.
46:22 Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
46:28 When I'm watching football for pleasure, not for work, I'll maybe frequent the occasional
46:34 burger van outside the ground.
46:36 Not too often, maybe on an away game or something.
46:42 It is something which I'd never really considered to be honest.
46:45 Do you watch football for fun?
46:47 I do watch football for fun, yeah.
46:49 Not just through a laptop screen.
46:53 Before you go out with that little quip or something.
46:58 On that note, I think that's just about where we're going to finish this week's episode.
47:04 Whether you've enjoyed the discussion around soccer slammers or what we do as commercial
47:10 directors of Leeds United or just simply the relaying of information from Daniel Farkas
47:14 press conference, please do remember to subscribe to the Inside Ellen Road podcast on whichever
47:20 pod platform you listen or if you've watched this on Shots TV, we hope that we've not broken
47:27 your TV screen with some of the images that I'm seeing right here on that side of my screen.
47:36 Thank you for listening to the Inside Ellen Road pod.
47:38 I've been Joe Donoghue and this has been the Inside Ellen Road pod.
47:42 Bye for now.
47:43 Bye bye.
47:45 [Music]