Joffy Gelhardt remembers what fun feels like - The Square Ball 5/20/22

OLD NEWS

Written by: Rob Conlon

It must be exciting for a young footballer to become the subject of hype and attention, particularly a young striker like Joffy Gelhardt, emerging in the Premier League last season and living a self-fulfilling prophecy of teenage stardom. But with hype and attention comes expectation. Combine that expectation with the glass ceiling of limited opportunities and seniority every young player in the Premier League bangs their head against, and you’ve got frustration. Running around the pitch to maintain some semblance of fitness after being left out of the matchday squad on a weekend doesn’t sound so exciting.

Gelhardt has played 124 minutes of Premier League football this season, equating to less than a game and a half spread across five appearances. After living up to our hopes as the source of good vibes last season, he was meant to explode into a breakthrough campaign. His failure to do that so far has meant underwhelmed shrugs on the terraces and online. And now Leeds’ desperate trolley dash around Europe on deadline day means the boy we hope is the best young striker in England is being pitched against a new kid we hope is the best young striker in Italy. Against Aston Villa, Jesse Marsch chose Willy Gnonto. Sorry, Joffy. You’re old news now.

I was guilty of falling into the trap of questioning Gelhardt at the start of Leeds Under-21s’ Papa John’s Trophy fixture at Tranmere. Leeds were going in like Kevin Keegan’s Entertainers drunk on Red Bull. Gelhardt started in a forward line that read like a shortlist of Football Manager prodigies, alongside Gnonto, Sonny Perkins, and Mateo Joseph. In midfield, former striker Sam Greenwood held things together next to Darko Gyabi, protecting a back four including midfielder Morten Spencer at centre-half and right-back Harvey Sutcliffe at left-back. In the opening minutes, Gnonto twice showed quick feet and quicker thinking to play Joffy in on goal, but he wasn’t quick enough to get to the ball quicker than Tranmere’s defenders. Maybe Willy really is the future we never imagined until Cody Gakpo said no.

Or maybe Gelhardt’s lack of sharpness was explained in an interview with Phil Hay for The Athletic last month, when Joffy and Greenwood spoke about how difficult they found being caught between relegation battles with the first team and U23s last season, struggling to find a rhythm with either:

“That was the hardest part. We weren’t playing many minutes at all. Like Sam said, you’d have maybe 45 minutes for the ’23s and then 10 for the first team. It’s hard to keep your fitness up, your match fitness. You can run all you want but when you don’t have match sharpness, you’re not going to be at your best. For me, that was the most difficult part of the season. Every time I went down to the ’23s, it was doing my head in that we were in a relegation battle as well — the first team and the ’23s, it was both important.”

Gelhardt’s success for the first team last season means he’s even further away from the U21s, but no closer to the starting eleven, unable to get the minutes to be at his best. But when Tranmere scored twice with their first two attacks of the opening twenty minutes, the U21s didn’t have time to wait for Joffy to get in a few games’ worth of practice.

Sonny Perkins is showing what happens when a forward plays every week, when the momentum of game after game turns into goal after goal. A rebounded shot from Joseph fell to Perkins, who calmly volleyed a difficult finish, scoring for a tenth successive game. That seemed to remind Joffy what he used to be like playing for Leeds’ reserves, that it really can be as simple as Perkins is making things look right now. Two minutes later, Joffy was dribbling towards goal, twisting one way then the other, and spanking the ball through the back four, through the goalkeeper, and almost through the goal.

Joffy is a first-team player now, so did the obligatory celebration of acting cool with his teammates around him. But when the circle broke, he allowed himself a little fist pump, visibly strutting back to the centre circle with his shoulders back and chest thrust out. Three minutes later, he was in on goal again, this time taking the ball with him past the goalkeeper, who was left on the floor while Joffy rolled the ball into an empty net. The grin with his teammates belied the nonchalant shrug. In the space of five minutes, Leeds had gone from 2-0 down to 3-2 up. Being a talented young striker was feeling as fun as it’s meant to.

Tranmere tried to ruin the fun by equalising in first-half stoppage time, but Leeds were too busy enjoying themselves by that point. Joseph put Leeds back in front in the second half from close range after Greenwood got bored of teasing defenders and found the striker with a cut-back from the byline, before Cody Drameh stormed forward from right-back and toe-poked one into the bottom corner.

Gelhardt was back to being the cocky young upstart, joking with goalkeeper Mateusz Hewelt after nearly catching him out from 35 yards, and laughing with Tranmere players who were resorting to fouls to stop Leeds’ kids — even after Greenwood was given a straight red card for kicking an opponent in the shins after losing possession.

Some competition to get back into Leeds’ first team should be healthy for Gelhardt. It’s a challenge all young players need to learn to cope with. At the start of the match the quartet of forwards looked eager to be the one who grabbed the attention, but by the end they were all loving each other’s company. Gnonto in particular just wants to have a laugh, joining every celebration first and grinning his way through the ninety minutes, even when flipping over the advertising hoardings, poking his head back up with his smile still gleaming.

Joffy no doubt wants to play more in the first team, and I want him to play more in the first team. In the meantime he can right the wrongs of Leeds in League One by leading the U21s to glory in what used to be known as the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy — a competition I always regret we never won while down there. Start with that, then he can work his way through the rest of the trophies Leeds should have claimed, all the way up to beating Bayern Munich in the European Cup final. Is it too much to expect a player whose future is so bright to fix our past?