Good Morning. It's Thursday 22nd September, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road I don't ever want to be in that situation ever again - Cooper Liam Cooper has spoken of the mental torture both he, and his fellow teammates, were under last season, as they came within a hare's breath of relegation. He relived the final day of last season, claiming the entire dressing room had a siege mentality, and were focused to prove the World wrong, and they could escape the Premier League trap door. Although jubilant after the final whistle, the Leeds skipper insists he never wants to be in a position like that again, for the rest of his career! "Of course it's difficult. The thing for me was obviously we were as gutted as the lads playing. I always try and put myself in Stu's situation [Stuart Dallas] and people - think how bad they must have felt. "Being a footballer the worst thing that can happen to you is an injury and you're not able to play for a sustained amount of time." "It was hard to understand the situation we were in and that got worse and worse throughout the season. "We never got going - to our previous season - at one stage during the season. When Jesse came in we went on that little run and in the end I think that saved us. "I think we had ten points from his first six or seven games. When it comes down to it and when you look back on it, that sort of saved us. We knew there was a run of games coming up, where we played the top three or four and they're always difficult. "Obviously anything can happen but we didn't really give ourselves a chance in those games with the red cards. I remember [Luke Ayling] getting sent off at Arsenal, I followed him straight down the tunnel and said 'What happened and what were you doing?' "He looked at me and said 'Coops, I don't know what I was doing. I've never tackled like that in my life, in my career.' all you can put it down to is the stress. The stress of the situation and the situation we were in, it does crazy things to you and it makes you make crazy decisions. "But that was the way it was. We accepted it. The worst thing you can do in that situation is start finger pointing and blaming people. We knew we were in it and we were in it together. "I think the whole world had wrote us off and had us going down in the last game of the season. Yeah, we had to have a bit of a siege mentality and go out there and prove people wrong. "We did it in an unbelievable way, but I said straight after the game I don't ever want to be in that situation ever again in my life. My poor Mrs and kids, they got it in the last three games of the season. God bless them. I feel sorry for them I had to give them a big kiss and a cuddle and say everything's alright now." please log in to view this image Perkins scores on three Lions U19 Debut Sonny Perkins marked his England U19 debut with a goal, as the Three Lions ran out 2-0 victors over Montenegro. Perkins started alongside Darko Gyabi, who was also making his first appearance for the U19s. Perkins in particular has hit the ground running, since arriving from West Ham in the Summer, having turned down a professional contract with the Hammers. He has already scored six goals in five games for Leeds U21s. please log in to view this image Should Gelhardt have been sent out on loan Between them, Sonny Perkins (6 goals) and Mateo Joseph (5 goals) are on course to take Premier League 2 by storm. Whilst their fledging careers are souring high beyond expectation, back down to earth, fellow teammate Joe Gelhardt's progression continues to stutter. Perkins and Joseph are two years younger than Gelhardt, and are making ground on the former Wigan Academy prodigy. Has too much pressure been heaped on Joffy at an early age, or was he wraped up too much in cotton wool? Was his confidence dented last season by spending much of it warming the bench, despite Leeds horrific injury worries? Should he have joined a Championship club on loan this Summer, where he would have got 90 minutes every week? With the arrival of Wilfried Gnonto (another 18yo), Gelhardt could be pushed further down the pecking order! please log in to view this image Bamford hails quartet During a recent interview, Patrick Bamford hailed the club's academy, claiming 'the future looks promising'. The 29yo singled out four players in particular (Summerville, Gyabi, Gnonto and Perkins) having played alongside the quartet during their 6-2 win over Southampton last week. “Cry’s [Crysencio Summerville] a really good player and we see that in training all the time. I think the next step for him is showing that in the first team when he gets on. “Then obviously you’ve got young players like Darko Gyabi and Willy Gnonto who is new, and did really well, then Sonny as well who is a good player and scored a great finish. “The future looks promising, but then there is also the learning side of it as well because there is no way we should have conceded two at the end. So I think there is a learning curve and they’d have taken a lot away from the game.”
Last seasons injuries killed the progress of Joffy. I know Jammy doesnt agree but the 23s were relegated as we always seemed to have 8 or 9 of the better players on the first team bench, so not playing for the 23s which meant the U18s were filling in for them and struggling. First half dozen games of last season saw Leeds and Man City way ahead in the league because we had Joffy and mates playing. We ended up relegated because of first team i juries, a fact. Joffy made 20 first team appearances but not as many minutes as he should have. His season stalled and he had a couple of knocks which didnt help. He is now under pressure with a few players breathing down his neck from the 21s, and dont discount Max Dean who did a good job filling in for Joffy last season, hes now 18 too and will score goals this season for 21s.
Morning all. The young lads may or may not make it at top level, who knows. Equally hard to predict with Gelhardt. The failure rate with lads trying to break through is huge but similar at other clubs. One thing is for sure is if Coops doesn't want a repeat of last season the senior bunch better get their fingers out and hit the ground running, starting with the Villa game. That Chelsea win is buts a pleasant distant memory now
Agreed but doubt well be safe before last half dozen games of season at best, so it'll be high pressure for a long while yet. It'll be more exciting than mid table mediocrity
Gelhardt is smashing it out of the park. The kid is doing well. None of the strikers in the 21's can lace his boots.
I don't know if the break in football because Liz vacating the building, the pointless Nations football or the WC in Winter is going to benefit us or **** us up.
My West Ham mates all keep asking me if Perkins has played for our first team yet. Very surprised he wanted out as they thought he was close to regular game time with them. Rated him very highly.
I think he is sloppy in possession and relies on his size too much at u21 level as an advantage. He won't be afforded that luxury in the open age levels and he'll get found out. I've based this on a single game last Friday and have come to this conclusion having gone through an extensive research period of 90 minutes.
Well he won't play full matches as he has an experienced Spanish international striker and an experienced England international striker in front of him not to mention a full Italian international striker just brought in to the club. That doesn't automatically make him ****. He's on a 5 year contract and Rodrigo is 32 and Bamford 29. His job at the moment is to learn playing at this level and improve enough to displace these lads. He's not up to it just yet but he is 20 and has improved every season including this season where he has played up front on his own but also as a 10 behind Bamford. He's fine. Far too early to be writing him off just because Messi was playing for Barca at 17. Ian Wright didn't even become a pro until 21. Kane wasn't a starter at Spurs until he was 22.
