Good Morning. It's Friday 21st June, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road
Brighton keeper could be used as bargaining chipThe Whites are being linked with a move for highly rated shot-stopper Carl Rashworth, and could be used as a bargaining chip in Brighton's pursuit of Crysencio Summerville.
The 22yo had an outstanding season with Swansea City last time round, and was even named as their POTS in an otherwise uninspiring campaign, bringing him to the attention of Leeds, and others. Rushworth has never kicked (or saved) a ball for the Seagulls first XI, having spent the last four years on loan picking up valuable experience.
How likely is the move? Surely, if Leeds were going after a keeper, they would have made a play for Swedish International Viktor Johansson, who recently completed a £1m move from Rotherham to Stoke City.
McKennie blasts Leeds and the weatherThere wasn't too much to write home about during the 22/23 season, but for one man, his five month loan spell turned into the lowest point of his footballing career, as told by 'The Athletic' yesterday.
With relegation a real possibility in the January of 2023, the club decided to beef up their midfield by signing Weston McKennie from Juventus on a play before you pay basis. Fellow USA compatriots Tyler Adams and Brendon Aaronson were already integrated at the club, and with Jesse Marsch at the helm, nobody was too surprised when Victor Orta shook hands with his Juve counterpart, lining up a permanent £35m deal at the end of the season.
McKennie's loan spell turned into a nightmare. He learnt the hard way that the Premier League is a very unforgiving place, especially when you're not at the top of your game. He rarely got much game time, until Tyler Adams tore his hamstring, and even then, his performances were sub-par. He took his fair share of stick on social media, even claiming he was a victim of racist abuse from Whites fans.
With only his private chef and personal assistant to keep him company, the stress of a relegation dog fight (and the weather) got to the 25yo. His plan to come to Leeds, save them from relegation, and be snapped up by a top 5 club unravelled quicker than England's tactics against Denmark!
“My time at Leeds was probably one of my lower points, if not the lowest in my professional career. I always look at the positive because I was at Juventus, playing week in and week out, and maybe I developed a little bit of comfortability or complacency, knowing I was going to play on the weekend.
“By going to Leeds and having the performance that I had there and the way that it just turned out in general — four coaches in five months, just nothing going to plan or how I imagined it.”
“When I went there, my head was more, ‘OK, I want to go here, perform very well, put up numbers, help the team stay up and then hopefully another Premier League team, top five, comes in and sees how well I’ve played and then they would buy me.’
“With all the respect to Leeds and their fans, I love Champions League football. I love playing at the highest level. Leeds was more of a place I wanted to go to experience something new, the Premier League. But there’s no better place to be seen by Premier League teams than if you’re playing in the Premier League,”
“Football is a world where it’s sometimes unforgiving. People obviously don’t know what football players go through and the stress football players put on themselves to perform, because it’s not like we want to perform badly. It’s not like we want to lose games. It’s just sometimes you have ups and downs, so it hurts.
“It was probably the first time besides for the World Cup exit where I cried, after the last game of the season at Leeds, when we officially got relegated. I hate to lose and I felt like I really let down the expectations that people had of me going there.”
“Luckily, I had my personal chef, Patrick Contorno, who works with me in Italy, and he was living over in England with me and I had my assistant Charles also living with me.
“If you’re in a down mood in England, it can be hard to deal with it because it’s also very bad weather most of the time. It’s rainy and gloomy and it just sets the mood for you to already be in a sad mood. I had those guys there with me and it helped a lot. If I was there alone, I would have definitely gone into, like, a state of complete depression because I wasn’t performing. I’m my own biggest critic.”
