This week on the Inside Elland Road podcast, Graham and Joe reflect on last Friday night's 1-0 win over Leicester City, Leeds fans' views on Sky TV making it into the United directors box, Georgi Rutter's Apple Maps activity, individual awards, picking your nationality, Plymouth Argyle, Daniel Farke's noughties playlist and jerk chicken stew.
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00:00 Hello, welcome back to the Inside Elland Road podcast. It's a week on from arguably Leeds
00:08 United's finest result of the season so far, a 1-0 win over high-flying Leicester City
00:13 at the King Power Stadium. Jorginho Ruta's 58th minute goal, the difference between the
00:18 two sides in the East Midlands on what was a superb night for Daniel Farker and his team.
00:23 I'm your host Joe Donoghue and as always joined by YEP chief football writer Graham Smith.
00:28 You've had many a trip to the King Power in recent years, can't recall too many of them
00:32 going according to plan, certainly not in the vein that last Friday's did. In the words
00:38 of Katy Perry, what did you make of last Friday night, Graham?
00:42 Well, there were fireworks, weren't there?
00:46 There were fireworks, yeah.
00:49 Yeah, I think the highlights for me, probably the jerk chicken stew. Leicester has always
00:58 put in on a tremendous spread. The pick and mix, the car park man not having your name
01:04 on his list, some really good passive aggression. The away end being particularly boisterous.
01:11 I thought the atmosphere was actually pretty good, despite the clappers and whatnot. I
01:19 thought the game itself, we've seen some drafts this season, we have seen some championship
01:24 fodder that Leeds have carved up and teams that haven't offered anything. Whilst Leicester
01:31 were definitely not allowed to play to their best, I still thought it was two very good
01:35 teams, some really good players on both sides and a really good, tight game that was nervy
01:42 right to the finish. It was very, very entertaining Friday night.
01:47 I think you probably do in the catering team a disservice there as well. I think there
01:50 were three great teams on show at the King Power. As you say, that jerk chicken stew,
01:56 I've been thinking about it all week. I need to get that recipe because it was just brilliant.
02:05 I was sort of your guinea pig again. I got to taste it before you did. You needed to
02:09 check the allergen sheet to see if there was any of the thousand things that you're allergic
02:14 to on the list. That's one thing that I'm allergic to. It was fantastic. We're always
02:23 well looked after at the King Power. If Leeds are to be promoted, I certainly hope it's
02:29 Leicester who also get promoted because that would be very good to go back there. Also,
02:37 can I just say, the lady who welcomes you into the press box, the greeter, if you will,
02:41 she remembered my name, which was really kind of her at full time.
02:46 She didn't remember your name from last season or anything. She had it on a list.
02:50 Yeah, but from the beginning of the evening. There's lots of journalists going in there.
02:57 All right. Yeah, that is impressive. Yeah, well done Leicester. Just generally very accommodating,
03:04 as was their defence when Leeds took that corner and Sam Byram got up and powered ahead
03:11 of him towards goal. After your man in that Mads had a mad one, Routier stuck away the
03:19 rebound. Isn't it funny that we've been talking about Jorginho contributing everything but
03:24 the finish in recent weeks. I don't want to denigrate his performance by saying he provided
03:31 the finish and not the rest of it, but it was a performance from him very much categorised
03:36 by being in the right place, scoring a really important goal. He worked really hard, but
03:40 he didn't shine creatively in the way he has recently. Just as you'll take his creativity
03:46 without the finish if Leeds are winning, you'll absolutely take a close range stabbed finish
03:52 and none of the kind of step overs and silky skills that we've seen lately if Leeds go
03:58 on and win. That was such an important game to win. So impressive because Leicester have
04:03 been on a tear, an absolute record setting tear. So to go there, to keep a clean sheet,
04:12 to stop Dewsbury Hall from playing, he was barely a factor until one second of stoppage
04:19 time and Vardy, who so often has been a bit of a tormentor for Leeds, barely got a kick,
04:28 contributed to Leicester's downfall, looked generally frustrated and then went off. It
04:35 was just a very, very good performance all round from Leeds. I felt defensively very,
04:39 very good. Sam Byron recovered from a horrible first half. His was probably the weak spot
04:47 in that first half and second half, Chris Somerville and him teamed up brilliantly down
04:53 that side. You look across the team and they were solid performers. Kamara was excellent.
05:00 Best 45 minutes we've seen from him in that first half. Ampadu, very, very important.
05:05 Stroik and Rodon were just imperious in central defence. That's as good, I think, as I've
05:11 seen Stroik since probably the first season in the Premier League.
05:16 I agree with you completely. You're talking about Giorgi Routier there applying the finish.
05:22 He also applied the finish international with the Man of the Match award on Sky at full
05:28 time. You went on a bit there. I was having to jog my memory just so I didn't forget that.
05:36 I actually didn't hear anything you said after that. It was just on a loop in my head, like
05:40 a monkey playing cymbals, doing backflips, just so I could monopolise the conversation
05:45 with a little bit of humour. No, I agree. I think Kamara, yes, I think he got the fans
05:50 Man of the Match award, obviously was awarded that by Sky Sports as well at full time.
05:57 It's only since going back through the game and looking at the statistics and just the
06:02 influence that he had that you actually really fully appreciate. It was that block of four
06:10 of Stroik, Rodon, Ampadu and Kamara that essentially meant that Dewsbury Hall, whenever he picked
06:15 up the ball, didn't really have a Vardy to play the ball into down the channels because
06:21 he was always tracked. You spotted it midway through the game. Rodon was giving himself
06:26 two or three yards head start on Vardy whenever he was sitting on the last man. Again, quite
06:33 smart because we know that Vardy's got that pace. I think he was subbed off during the
06:41 celebrations for the Leeds goals. That's what, 58, 59 minutes? He was basically a footnote
06:50 in that game, Jamie Vardy. Again, it shows that you organise a team really well, you
06:56 set up defensively and you can stop one of English football's, at least in recent seasons,
07:02 maybe not this year, one of the more prolific and troublesome strikers that English football
07:08 has produced. So yeah, I think all in all, a great, great evening. Some excellent pictures
07:16 from our snapper, Bruce, as he went down there. One in particular that went really, really
07:22 well with a lot of fans was Jorginho doing the Leeds salute. I mean, I think it was before
07:29 it even clocked that he'd done it. I think someone had tweeted you or I and said, do
07:33 you have a picture of this? That's how keen people were to get their hands on it, or rather
07:40 get their eyes on it. And yeah, I mean, that's exactly what you want to see. You want to
07:45 see players buying into it. You want to see team spirit. You look at some of the photographs
07:49 of the celebrations and the Erling Haaland quote, isn't it, is that hang it in the Louvre
07:56 when he's taking the mick out of John Stones. The amount of people who I saw quote tweeting
08:01 pictures of Bruce's and stuff like that. There were some excellent, excellent shots. And
08:08 that's exactly what you want. You want to see, you know, immortalised big, big, big
08:14 wins in the grand scheme of this season. You want to see big wins immortalised like that.
08:19 And yeah, I'm glad that we've got the YEP copyright on them.
08:24 Yeah. Bruce is an absolute king. What you say about buy-in, I'm starting to get the
08:31 sense around this team that kind of, it's like a new thing is developing. You know,
08:37 I felt last season, and people might, people close to the team might, they would have denied
08:43 it at the time. They probably still would deny it now. I felt it was quite cliquey last
08:47 season. I felt like the kind of all-in togetherness that they had under Bielsa had gone last season.
08:54 I felt that there was kind of little compartments of players who were pally with each other
09:01 and there wasn't a great deal of kind of mixing, I suppose, before games, you know, after games.
09:09 There's no doubt that the stress of last season would have taken a toll, but you did kind
09:14 of have, you had the American contingent, you had the young lads, you know, Cree, Willy,
09:25 latterly Giorginio would have been with them. And then you kind of got your stalwarts who
09:31 had been there from the start, you know, that had been there through the promotion times.
09:37 And I just, I don't know, I just feel like it didn't look, well, people weren't having
09:41 fun for a start. So they're not going to look like they're enjoying each other's company
09:44 because they clearly weren't. But this season, and winning definitely helps, but this season
09:51 it feels like they're getting things together as a group. You know, that there's new leaders
09:59 in the group. There are young players who were just kind of young players who are now
10:05 key players. And with that comes a whole new dressing room culture, I suppose, a whole
10:12 new kind of atmosphere as the likes of Somerville step up to be main players. Routier, you know,
10:19 suddenly is the life and soul. And Leeds, I don't want to say they didn't have characters
10:25 because there were some really big characters in the dressing room last season, but remember
10:28 when they had Aliowski and he was like, he unified the team. I mean, he was the one answer
10:34 they all gave to who would you not want to be in quarantine with during the pandemic.
10:41 But in a dressing room, they all absolutely loved him. And you need like one or two head
10:46 the balls who are just always bouncing around the place, making silly noises, you know,
10:52 just grinning inanely. And it feels like Routier has become that kind of character for Leeds
10:57 United. And there's a few in the dressing room that have always got a big grin on their
11:01 face. Archie Gray is another one. Joe Rodon, in fact, cited those two earlier this week
11:07 as the two that make him laugh the most, Archie Gray and Georginio Routier. And it just feels
11:12 to me like that there is like, yeah, like a new thing in the dressing room.
11:16 Yeah. I mean, speaking about unity and togetherness, the away end was in fine voice at the King
11:23 Power. I'm not sure that Sky TV will be best pleased with the certain chants that were
11:30 on display. They were particularly vocal on that one. And there was a nice, I say nice.
11:37 It was quite a comical moment. You'd already headed down to the press room eager as a,
11:44 you know, eager as they come, really, to see if there were any leftover pick and mix sweets,
11:48 I bet.
11:49 No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not having that. I had no pick and mix after my initial burst
11:56 of pick and mix activity before the game.
12:01 We done remonstrating?
12:02 Yeah, carry on.
12:03 Yeah. So I was just packing up my things from the desk and looked over to sort of the guests
12:10 sort of director's area. And at the time, there was the, it was the post-match interview
12:15 that Georginio and Glen Camaro were doing. And at the same time, it was the now infamous
12:21 chant that Leeds fans like to sing whenever the team are on Sky. And I kind of, I thought
12:29 what I spotted was Parag Marath, the obviously the Leeds United chairman being explained
12:36 or having explained to him by Angus Kinnear what the fans were chanting. Because Parag
12:43 sort of pointed at the pitch, you know, where the only two players who were still remaining
12:50 there were Camaro and Georginio. And no, I'm sorry. No, it was Angus who pointed at the
12:57 pitch, I suppose, to suggest that that's an interview being done by Sky. The fans are
13:02 chanting these words. And so I wouldn't say that Parag, the very astute businessman that
13:09 he is, he didn't sort of throw his head back in laughter, but sort of smiled and grinned
13:13 a little bit as if like an acknowledgement of the impish behavior of the 3,000 or so
13:20 in the away end. But yeah, again, great noise from them from start to finish. I mean, it's
13:27 a far cry from what we saw at the King Power last time we were there, wasn't it? When it
13:35 was the, you know, what, I mean, I'm going to paraphrase here, I'm not going to use the
13:38 full word, but what on earth is going on was the chant towards Jesse Marsh's team. Whereas
13:45 at the end of that game last Friday, you had, you know, the three big fist pumps or four
13:50 as Daniel Farker likes to do, despite the fact that he only gets three cheers every
13:54 time and Elan Melier as well doing the big fist bumps. And he must've felt like a million
14:03 dollars or a million euros because that was one hell of a save that he made in right at
14:09 the death. Didn't have anything to do all game pretty much. But that, that is why, that's
14:14 why he's Daniel Farker's number one.
14:16 Yeah. I mean, that's a, that's a big moment and you want your goalkeeper to be a big game
14:23 player who can, you know, sit on his backside for 89 minutes and then suddenly claw one
14:30 out of the top corner. Jewsbury Hall, you know, it's testament to Jewsbury Hall actually
14:36 having not really figured in the game that he got himself into that position, got up
14:39 above Ailing and very nearly rescued a point. You know, that again, that's what you want.
14:44 That's where you want your big game players in the final seconds, you know, coming up
14:48 with moments like that. But Melier was equal to it. Terrific save. And he's having an all
14:55 right season is Melier. He's certainly having a good enough season that there's no real
14:59 debate. There's no conversation at the minute, is there? There's nobody suggesting bring
15:03 in Karl Darlow. And yet how many of us actually thought Melier would still be here when the
15:11 summer began, you know, and how many thought when Darlow come in that Darlow would be relegated
15:15 to League Cup goalkeeper, you know. But the way that Melier has performed, and I suppose
15:21 as well, you have to add the way that Darlow performed against Salford, there just hasn't
15:27 really been a point where you would think, right, now it's time for Farker to make a
15:33 change. There's so many situations that are really, like you said, a Farker cry from what
15:40 we saw last season, just how ridiculous it all got. I hadn't actually thought too much
15:49 about that Leicester game where they were chanting, you know, what's going on. And that
15:55 felt like...
15:56 I mean, it's only a job, Graham. What's gone before the ground that we're about to visit.
16:07 Yeah. But you're right, it is a million miles away. You know, it's a plan that fans can
16:14 understand, a style of football that they are enjoying, a team that they believe in
16:19 and they're getting behind and results to back it all up. You know, it's just, it's
16:24 going well, I think you could say. No one's dancing on any tables yet, Joe, but even to
16:32 put a little dent in that monstrous gap that Leicester had opened up and even just to introduce
16:38 Leeds back into that automatic conversation, because since then, Ipswich, you know, the
16:43 wheels haven't come off the tractor, but the tractor has definitely encountered some mechanical
16:49 difficulties because they've wobbled, haven't they? You know, they got pegged back very,
16:55 very late on against Rotherham. They've drawn their last two, haven't they? So all of a
16:59 sudden that gap has narrowed and yeah, it's going well.
17:09 It's there for the taking. And you think as well, Leeds have got two of their toughest
17:14 games of the season out of the way already, and they've won both of them, Ipswich away,
17:18 Leicester away. You know, the two teams who've been record-breaking or in record-breaking
17:24 form gone right to the top of the table. Leeds have beaten them both. Yes, they might still
17:29 be sat in third, but still very much in the race. And as you say, yes, there'll be no
17:33 dancing on tables yet, as Daniel Farker insisted in his post-match at Leicester. Wouldn't it
17:41 be nice if at the end of all this, at the end of the season, there was some dancing
17:46 on some tables? We might not bear witness to it, but I'd like to think that there will
17:53 be at least some dancing on tables.
17:56 Yes. You can't go all season long saying that you're not prepared to dance on the table
18:04 and then not dance on the table. I have to say though, that despite as well as it has
18:13 gone, I think this Farker thing has run its course. It might be time for a new manager
18:18 because at the end of the press conference yesterday, in his embargoed section, I won't
18:24 say too much about what he said because it's embargoed still, but he happened to mention
18:28 music. So I took the opportunity as we were picking up our microphones and phones from
18:32 the desk just to ask, what were you listening to 20 years ago, Daniel? And everything within
18:39 me willing him to say Rammstein or just anything that would be in keeping with his general
18:45 demeanor and look. And he said, some R&B perhaps.
18:51 Oh, wow. Okay. Interesting.
18:54 And it was at that point that you could see my heart break. He did follow it up with,
19:02 but I don't really dance around anymore.
19:07 He has made quite a few comments to suggest that maybe he was a dancer back in his day.
19:13 I can well imagine.
19:15 When he was talking about Willie and Cree, he was like, they dance now, maybe they dance
19:21 on the pitch now. We were doing our dancing sort of in the evening after a game. I was
19:25 thinking, Daniel, you fox. What are you keeping under wraps here?
19:31 You can imagine him in the 90s being a mover, but he's not anymore. Maybe in the intervening
19:39 years since then, his musical taste has matured. I don't know. Maybe that's a conversation
19:44 for another day. But yeah, he can be pretty pleased, I think, with the job that he's done.
19:50 And we've said it before that what he's kind of fashioned out of a very, very messy situation
19:57 that he took over and that he came into, and a mess that didn't really get sorted. I was
20:01 looking back at highlights from the start of the season earlier this week, and up popped
20:07 Sinisterra. And then there was Nyanto. And then even after the start of the season, Nyanto
20:15 had his wobble and his bad advice era, if we might call it that, and the refusal to
20:23 play. The season was underway and that was all still going on. So to be here where they
20:31 are, third, tucked in quite nicely, having beaten Leicester is excellent. But it means
20:37 nothing, Joe. It means nothing if they lose to Plymouth at home.
20:42 Yeah, it does mean very little if they win a game that they weren't expected to win and
20:46 then lose a game or fail to win a game in which they're very, very much considered favourites.
20:54 The injury news for that, obviously, being Pascal Stroik is out after undergoing hernia
20:58 surgery, having played with pain at pretty much most of the season. So look forward to
21:05 him getting back and playing at 100 percent rather than 80 percent, I believe is what
21:09 Daniel Farker said. Jamie Shackleton will sit out the game again with a glute issue.
21:16 There'll be another feature about that, that little snippet later on in this podcast, but
21:21 we'll just keep you, or breadcrumb you, that little bit of information there, Graham.
21:27 Shall we talk about Pascal and how much of a blow that is? Because I think...
21:31 Yes, I think you're right. I think we should talk about that. But I mean, I have just began
21:36 the injury update, so I think people are probably quite keen to know which other players are
21:40 out.
21:41 As if they don't know already. Go on.
21:43 OK. Excuse me. I'm fairly sure the Inside Ellen Road podcast is the only source of Leeds
21:49 news that our listeners tune in for. Yeah, you've got Bamford and Cresswell are doubts,
21:56 but I think probably quite likely to be in the squad after illness and personal reasons,
22:02 meaning they missed a couple of training sessions. Spence still in his rehab, in his rehab era,
22:08 if we can say. Still coming back. Dallas still coming back in individual training, but not
22:14 team training yet. And who have I missed? Joe Gelhart with his fractured hand, which
22:20 thankfully doesn't require surgery. So happy days. Lots of thumbs up for Joffie. Well,
22:27 maybe he won't be doing thumbs up because his hand's fractured, but yeah, that's the
22:32 injury news. Do you want me to give you the Plymouth injury news? Because I'm not sure
22:35 that everyone will know that.
22:37 No, absolutely not. I don't want to spend any time on the Plymouth injury news.
22:43 OK, well, it's Ryan Hardy, Mustafa Bundu, both injured. Oh no. Saxon Early, by the way,
22:50 what a name that is. He's out.
22:52 Saxon Early. That's not a name. That's a period of history. That's an essay title. That is
22:59 absolutely fantastic. Saxon Early.
23:02 Yeah, yeah. I did have to sort of check to make sure that he wasn't sort of a regen from
23:07 Pro Evo 6 when I was looking at that this morning. And then you've got Mikel Miller
23:11 who's suspended.
23:13 Is Saxon Early missing then, you say?
23:16 Yes. Yeah.
23:17 OK, so Saxon Early's not facing a late fitness test then?
23:22 No, no. He was hit by the flint of an arrow.
23:26 Was Saxon Early. I'm probably about 300. I'm trying to think of my periods of history here.
23:36 Saxons, that's 1066, isn't it? They were still using arrows then.
23:39 Yeah, absolutely. They were. Yeah. He's come down with a bad case of the bubonic plague
23:46 just in time for a trip down the road. Yeah, so now we can talk about Pascal Stroyk. Now
23:51 we've got all that really crucial information out of the way. I have really enjoyed watching
23:59 Pascal Stroyk dictate the play from the back this season. And it's a particular joy of
24:05 mine that his passes, whichever foot they come from, are almost always right in front
24:11 of the winger that he's playing them to. That allows them then in one smooth movement to
24:18 move forward. So players are not having to check back onto a pass that's hit behind them
24:24 a la, I don't know, Weston McKennie last season. Stroyk is actually putting the ball where
24:30 it's meant to be. And that's something that Bielsa always drilled into his players. They
24:35 always talked about Bielsa and the details when you spoke to players. And he was always
24:40 really keen that you played the ball to where it was meant to be. So not always directly
24:45 to the player, but into his run or that puts him in a position where he can then attack
24:50 instantly and it carries the play on. And Stroyk, his passing has been really good,
24:56 really, really progressive and not just back and forwards between the centre backs or little
25:00 passes into Ampadu. It's been really good stuff down the flanks, whichever side of the
25:05 defence he's been playing on. Probably more effective on the left, you'd say, but he didn't
25:12 really miss a beat too much, did he, when he was on the right? So it'll be an area of
25:17 interest when Plymouth come to see how whoever Farke turns to, Liam Cooper, how he fills
25:27 in that. Cooper's not got a bad left foot on him by any stretch, but I'll be interested
25:32 to see where the balance lies, you know, if they go more through Rodon or if they go more
25:37 through Cooper or if Ampadu or Kamara get more involved, picking up the ball centrally
25:43 or if they go out to Archie Gray at right back, if that's where he plays a little bit
25:48 more.
25:49 Or, you know, you could see Kamara dropping into the left back position as he has done
25:52 previously and trying to progress the play in that way. There's lots of options available
25:58 to him, but yeah, you can't deny that losing Stroyk, even if it is for one game, is a blow
26:02 because he has been an ever-present this season. And we've been talking about how he's getting
26:08 back to his best form and if that's been at 80% with a bit of pain, then yeah, then looking
26:15 forward to seeing him at 100%.
26:20 What did you get up to on bonfire night and Halloween?
26:26 Which was... so we did plan to go to fireworks on Saturday night, but then realised that
26:32 we were... that the fireworks were starting and we were still eating our dinner. And we
26:36 did make a last-ditch attempt to get to the rugby club that had the fireworks and turned
26:40 up just in time for everyone else to be streaming out of the gate. So with the children absolutely
26:47 crestfallen, we took them on Sunday night to see other fireworks, which were excellent.
26:52 Very good, free council-led fireworks in Derbyshire down the M1. That's what we got up to.
27:00 Why?
27:01 Sorry?
27:02 Why? Why am I suspicious every time you ask a question?
27:08 Well I was thinking mainly towards the... because you know, Halloween and bonfire night
27:11 tend to go together. And I'm just wondering whether anybody else saw what Jorginho was
27:18 up to on Halloween and whether we could possibly get to the bottom of whether him turning up
27:24 in a little bit of eyeliner, a cape, and sort of to the backdrop of Michael Jackson's thriller
27:31 at Elland Road in the dead of night was something arranged by the club or just something he
27:36 did off his own pack?
27:38 Nope. Nope. It came as much as a surprise to the club as it did to anyone else. Yeah,
27:46 there's worse things that your players could be rocking up outside your stadium to promote
27:49 or do. I've no idea what possessed him, why he felt the need to do that. But he did. So
28:00 then the club kind of got on board with it, piggybacked it and put it on their socials,
28:05 crediting his TikTok account. Where else would you like him to... I'm quite keen to see if
28:12 he shows up at Christmas dressed as Santa or at Easter dressed as a bunny or Jesus.
28:21 Slightly more controversial that could be. But I wonder what other kind of stunts he
28:29 might get up to if left unfettered. I mean, there are much worse things your young players
28:36 could be getting up to than that kind of stuff. But I'm interested. I'm keen to see.
28:42 Yeah, I mean, the reason that I've kind of gone on in a very long winded way was because
28:46 stumbling across Jorginho's TikTok as a result of that video that he posted, there was a
28:53 brief moment where he screen recorded his phone and I thought, oh no, no, please don't
28:58 have a... please don't have some sort of incriminating address in there. But Graham, I showed you
29:05 straight away and I was absolutely beside myself with laughter. His last three searches
29:10 for locations, one was a fancy dress shop in Headingley, which I'm guessing is where
29:18 he got his get up for the video. So that was, I mean, if he's going to go and get a Santa
29:24 costume or an Easter bunny costume, he's got a local supplier now. So that's good. The
29:30 other one was also quite funny. Argos, because just the idea of him, the idea of him going
29:38 around Argos or going to pick something up, walking in, using one of those little pencils
29:43 or the self checking, or what is it called now? You know, the, where you go up and you,
29:48 I don't know, you bought a duvet or a new furniture set or something, you have to type
29:52 in your confirmation code. Just quite funny. But the one that really, really made me laugh
29:59 is because I'm thinking, why has he searched that? Why has he gone on Apple maps and searched
30:08 Preston because he's probably thinking, where am I spending Christmas day? Because that's
30:16 the boxing day fixture. And he's gone, Oh, Preston. What was that?
30:22 What is a Preston?
30:24 What is a Preston? Yeah. I just thought that sums up, sums the boy up perfectly that he's
30:31 got this inquisitive mind and you know, he's like, Oh, going to be spending it in Preston.
30:37 It's not exactly Paris. It's not exactly, I don't know. It's not the France under 21
30:43 squad, which we'll get onto. Clairefontaine Academy where they're based. Preston, Deep
30:48 Dale, the crown plaza, if Preston has one.
30:53 It's what you call a traditional boxing day fixture, isn't it? It's just making it an
30:59 early one. It just feels a bit cruel for anyone who was planning on letting go on Christmas
31:06 day a little bit. They might have to rein it in slightly or face a little more painful
31:13 journey to Lancashire, deepest Lancashire.
31:18 I went on a journey this week to Seacroft.
31:23 Physically or spiritually?
31:26 A little bit of both. Went to Our Lady of Good Council, Catholic primary school in Seacroft.
31:36 Did not, as one colleague hilariously suggested, melt upon walking through the doors.
31:44 Yeah, so I went there because Joe Rodon and Archie Gray were, that was an excellent joke.
31:57 Well done. Yeah, Archie Gray and Joe Rodon were going to help with the delivery of Legion
32:03 of the Foundations anti-bullying session because it's anti-bullying week next week. So you'll
32:08 probably see lots and lots on social media about that. But Rodon and Gray were drafted
32:13 in as the star power. When I spoke to Katie Proud, who's the primary stars leader for
32:19 the foundation, and she was delivering the session when we arrived with a year five group,
32:25 the reason they bring the players in is because the kids will never forget the time when Archie
32:32 Gray and Joe Rodon came and sat next to them and helped them with their work on anti-bullying.
32:37 And so the thinking is that they'll hopefully never forget the content of that session.
32:45 And also it's just a really nice thing for a school. I mean, the school were absolutely
32:47 buzzing. The head teacher was positively giddy. They just had a really good offstairs and
32:55 it is a real treat, isn't it? Like when you get someone like that coming in, particularly
33:01 Gray, because they had no idea who was coming and they were all guessing at who it would
33:05 be. And I think most were guessing in hope that Archie would be there because he's that
33:09 kind of... the local lad, the new hero is also essentially one of their peers being
33:16 not much older than 10 himself. And yeah, they knew instantly when they walked through
33:23 the door who Archie was. A few of them needed a bit more of a reminder of who Joe Rodon
33:28 was, which I did enjoy. There was a previous school visit, I believe, with, I think it
33:34 was Ethan Ampadu and Willy Nyanto. Everyone knew who Willy Nyanto was, but Ethan Ampadu,
33:39 who has barely missed a single minute of action this season, had to be introduced to these
33:44 children. But yeah, they were absolutely buzzing to have Gray and Rodon in. And Ben Parker
33:51 was there as well. What his role seemed to be was walking around, winding up the children,
34:01 whose behaviour was previously fantastic. They really had their heads screwed on. They
34:05 were doing some really good collaborative work on anti-bullying until Parker got in
34:12 their midst and found himself embroiled in a £1,000 bet with a young Spurs fan that
34:18 Spurs won't win the league. So I imagine there will be some sort of FA investigation and
34:23 subsequent charge for Leeds United stemming from that.
34:27 I like that you're getting that on the public record nice and early, the first available
34:34 opportunity. He's really going to thank you for that.
34:39 I did consider whether we could name him. I was going to call him Penn Barker, like
34:44 that infamous radio interview where it might have been Chris Moyles. Somebody had an ex-player
34:52 on and they wanted to ask them questions about who the worst people in football were. And
34:57 the producer was panicking about them getting sued. So they came up with the idea of, it's
35:02 Spoonerisms, isn't it? Where you swap the first letter of each name around. And so they
35:07 asked this player, who's the absolute worst person you ever met in football? And he responded,
35:11 George Graham.
35:12 Terrific. Yeah, so Ben was there, LUTV rocked up and Rodon and Archie were there and they
35:26 were grilled in a Q&A that was spectacular. I mean, it could not have gone any better.
35:34 Rodon was asked if he'd ever been bullied on the pitch and you could see him instantly
35:39 thinking no one bullies me on the pitch. But he kind of tailored his answer. He actually
35:43 gave a really good answer about not being bullied on the pitch, but getting some nastiness
35:47 online. Archie Gray was asked, what position do you play? And when he responded, centre
35:51 midfield. Another child piped up, then why are they playing you at right back? Which
35:57 was just excellent. Just so good, as if they'd worked on it. Like a training ground move,
36:03 Rodon, a playground drill. And then Rodon was asked, which do you prefer, playing for
36:10 Spurs or playing for Leeds?
36:12 Honestly, the future of journalism is in very good hands if they want this group.
36:19 There's no amount of media training that can prepare you for such a moment, you know, out
36:24 of the mouths of babes. So when I sat down with Rodon, after they'd been in the classroom,
36:30 obviously the first question I asked was, which is better, playing for Leeds or Spurs?
36:35 And he kind of mumbled a no comment and we moved on from there. But it was just really
36:40 nice to see, actually, the impact that players going in can have. And it was also very nice
36:48 for us to get a bit of content for the, what would you call it? The desert, the content
36:56 desert that is an international break. So I'll not give too much away about what Rodon
37:01 said, but I did ask him who he would have liked to have come in when he was in primary
37:07 school for a visit. And he gave two names. I'll let you have a little guess at one of
37:13 them. One of them's an ex-Leeds United player. And I think you're going to be, oh, he thinks
37:18 he's got it.
37:19 I think I'm going to jump the gun here.
37:20 Who do you think it is? Yes, you got it in one. Fantastic. Do you know the other one?
37:26 The other one, not ex-Leeds United.
37:30 Would it be a player who Leeds fans are probably not too fond of?
37:35 Well, no, we got that one out of the way with Lee Trundle.
37:39 So I meant maybe like an ex-Manchester United and Welsh international.
37:46 No, I don't think so. I'll just give it to you because we'll be here all day. You'll
37:50 be guessing Swansea players for the rest of the day. It was Leon Britton.
37:54 Oh, yeah, actually, fair enough.
37:58 If you think about the era and the time, you probably wouldn't have got that. But it did
38:02 make me chuckle that he went for Lee Trundle, who did not have a good time at Leeds and
38:09 was not fondly remembered at Leeds, but of course was an absolute legend in Swansea where
38:13 Rodon grew up. So that was a nice day. That was a nice day at the office.
38:21 Very good. Very good. I'm glad you had that. Any other sort of nice tales of, I don't know,
38:28 endorsing childhood gambling or anything like that?
38:32 No, I did enjoy Ben Parker's attempt to get Archie Gray to join in singing, marching on
38:41 together. I also enjoyed a teaching assistant who's been at the school for 32 years, I think.
38:50 Really lovely lady, telling Archie, "I had no idea who you are until just now, when I've
38:55 met you." But then I think she even might have done it there and then, gone online and
39:00 ordered a shirt with his name on it for one of her family members. And the players were
39:06 absolutely besieged with staff members coming for photographs and autographs. Yeah, it was
39:13 good. Well done, Leeds.
39:16 Very good. Speaking of internationals, well, you've got Joe Rodon, Welsh international,
39:22 Archie Gray, called up to the England's under-19s again today. Georginio Rutter, though, won't
39:27 be spending this international break, this final international break of 2023 at Thorpe
39:34 Arch. He will be with Thierry Henry and France's under-21s. How about that? I tell you what,
39:41 you can ask Daniel next time you speak to him. Do you think Georgie will prefer working
39:46 with you, former striker Daniel Farker, during the international break? Or his new under-21s
39:52 head coach Thierry Henry, also former striker, and actually probably a little bit better?
39:58 Yeah, as a player, yeah. Coach me like one of your French girls. No, it doesn't work,
40:05 does it? You can't really say paint me like one of your French girls either, because he's
40:08 not an artist. Well, he was an artist on the pitch, wasn't he? But yeah, it's a very nice
40:17 link-up, isn't it, Rutter working with Thierry Henry? Because it can only benefit his game
40:24 as a striker. And if he comes back after the international break and all of a sudden he
40:30 starts targeting the right-sided centre-back, cutting inside him and curling the ball into
40:36 the far corner beyond the keeper, then we'll know that Thierry's been up to his old tricks
40:40 in training. Quite an attacking line-up they've got, France under-21s. I mean, Rutter's been
40:47 in it before. It's more than a year since he's played for them, though. He's kind of
40:50 been in the under-21 wilderness. But one thought that did strike me was, might Henry be looking
40:59 at Rutter with an eye on the Olympics? Yeah, potentially.
41:06 Because it's got to be an under-23 squad, isn't it, for the Olympics? Still under-23?
41:11 Yeah, you can have a few over-age players, but again, not many. And it's unlikely that
41:17 there'll be many for the Olympics.
41:19 Will want to, I would imagine.
41:21 When is the Olympics next summer?
41:25 I don't know the exact dates.
41:27 But it's usually in August, isn't it?
41:30 But it's in France. Yeah. Maybe you've opened Pandora's box there and he's going to miss
41:36 a whole swath of Leeds United action, or at least part of pre-season. But yeah, I think
41:42 it's... What it is, is a really nice recognition that playing in the Championship does not
41:48 necessarily hamper your international prospects. I mean, for some, it might, but Rutter is
41:55 flying in the Championship. And I think fair play, more part of Thierry Henry's elbow that
42:01 he's looked into the Championship and plucked Rutter out of it for a squad that has the
42:08 likes of Callum Wendow in it, who was once linked with Leeds and has been at PSG. And
42:14 there's another PSG lad in there as well. Bradley Barcola. Yeah. Yeah. Brothers. So
42:19 yeah, it'll be interesting to see how he gets on, if he gets on and plays any minutes.
42:26 But so long as he comes back in one piece, I think that's probably the main concern from
42:30 a Leeds United point of view.
42:31 Yeah, quite a few Leeds players going out with their countries again. Charlie Cresswell
42:36 is with the 21s for England. You've got Darko Djebi and Matteo Joseph with the 20s. Archie
42:42 with the 19s, as I said. Charlie Carew with Wales' under 21s, which again, for a player
42:47 like that, still 17, a great achievement. Glenn Kamara's in the Finland squad, I believe.
42:54 You'd imagine that if Ilya Gryves, Bulgaria call-up, I haven't seen it myself, but you'd
43:00 imagine he'd be in that squad. Who else have we got who's regularly in those camps? Charlie
43:06 Allen. Your man, Charlie.
43:08 Yeah, Charlie Allen's been called up for the 21s.
43:10 Yeah, he's in the 21s.
43:12 In fact, aren't they playing you lot?
43:15 I don't know.
43:17 I'm sure Northern Ireland are playing England at Goodison in November.
43:22 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Your lot?
43:26 Yeah. Your accent is definitely, well, I suppose you could say that my accent's English as
43:31 well these days, but you are England-born, are you not?
43:37 I'm not sure that getting my birth certificate out is what I had planned for this week.
43:41 All right, well, who, okay, if you had your pick, who would you be called up for?
43:46 Well, it would be-
43:48 Who are you eligible for, for a start?
43:50 Who am I eligible for? Well, I'm eligible for two.
43:54 Yeah, go on.
43:56 And due to my footballing ability, I'd be more likely to be called up by Scotland. I'm
44:05 playing the long game here.
44:06 Yeah, but you've also managed to besmirch both your countries of eligibility by saying
44:13 that Scotland are rubbish and also that you wouldn't be desperate to play for England.
44:17 But I understand. I get it.
44:19 I'm playing both sides, so I always come out on top.
44:22 Yeah. So, yeah, Charlie Allen, it'd be terrific if he could come out with a win at Goodison.
44:28 Yeah, we should look at that game. We should look at sending you to that game if I can't
44:32 get there.
44:34 I think the win is probably quite unlikely from a Northern Ireland perspective.
44:39 Well, we'll see, won't we?
44:42 We will.
44:43 Yeah. So, yeah, I haven't seen the Italy squad yet. That'll be an interesting one.
44:53 Especially after you saying that, you know, the Championship is absolutely fine. Do you
44:57 still want to call up? Oh, sorry, wait.
44:59 I said for some.
45:01 Just for Georgie.
45:02 I said for some. Do you think that Crescencio Somerville will play for Holland one day?
45:13 Yes, I do think he will.
45:15 This season too early?
45:19 I don't see him. I'd say the Dutch senior team is probably better than France's under
45:24 21s.
45:25 Oh, yeah, 100%.
45:26 I mean, they've not been great recently, but they do have plenty of options. And considering
45:33 that Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch is only just about breaking into the senior squad
45:38 now, suggests that he's maybe still got a little way to go, does Cree.
45:45 But you know, winning Player of the Month in the Championship, pretty good going, even
45:49 if Daniel Farker is not a fan of individual awards.
45:54 You know, I think, in fact, just while we've been recording, I think some quotes from Somerville
46:00 come out on the Leeds channel, which do definitely contradict what Daniel Farker said, which
46:06 I think is brilliant.
46:08 Crescencio, to be awarded Player of the Month, it's like an individual boost to go even harder
46:13 the next month.
46:15 Well, it does and it doesn't contradict what Farker said, because Farker said for a young
46:20 player, you know, they get a bit of a boost, so it's nice.
46:24 And I thought Farker struck an interesting balance. I think what we were all expecting
46:28 was, yes, it's great for Cree, it's very deserved, it's great for Cree to get this award and
46:35 get this recognition.
46:36 What we got instead was individual awards are for little slugs. Little slugs are interested
46:44 in individual awards.
46:46 He basically said that, and he's right, we're a collective, you know, nobody wins on their
46:52 own in football.
46:54 Defenders need attackers, attackers need defenders, players need staff, you know, they win as
46:58 a collective.
47:01 Interesting as well that he singled out football as being the neediest of sports by its obsession
47:07 with individual awards.
47:09 And I suppose he's right.
47:10 There are a lot of individual awards, aren't there?
47:13 Like all the time.
47:14 Yeah, it is tedious sometimes.
47:18 And the Ballon d'Or, like I have never once been interested in who wins the Ballon d'Or.
47:26 Shocking revelation from Rangers and Northern Ireland fans.
47:28 He's never been interested in the Ballon d'Or.
47:32 Are you telling me that Lydrup or Jorg Alberts were not genuine contenders for that award?
47:37 Because I would beg to differ.
47:51 It doesn't really float my boat either.
47:53 [Music]