'I really love him' - Leeds United man's sliding doors moment as Daniel Farke delivers assessment - YEP 31/8/23
Jamie Shackleton had a sliding doors moment this summer when just about nothing appeared to be nailed down at Leeds United.
By Graham Smyth
Contracted players were sounded out about their future as
Daniel Farke was being recruited and though many wanted out from the start and
some would not make their real intentions known until moves came about,
Shackleton's plan was clear - report for pre-season, impress Farke and play for
Leeds.
A Leeds boy and a Leeds fan, Shackleton went away last
season for a Millwall loan spell that could best be described as mixed and
though clubs might have been taking a look this summer, was any offer going to
be realistically better than staying at Elland Road? Still only 23, Shackleton
has already played a part in getting his boyhood club out of the Championship
and knows that doing so again would reap even greater memories, given the
presence of his fellow Whites in the stands.
Pre-season is when a player like Shackleton can lay the
groundwork with a new manager, because he always comes back in mint condition
and prepared to run until the cows come home. He trains well. Bosses tend to
like that.
An ability to charge about and press the ball might be
enough to nail down a place in some managers' systems but Farke needs players
who can be trusted with it, so it was never going to be possible for Shackleton
to simply sprint his way into the German's plans.
What stood in his favour, beyond his on-pitch Road Runner
impression, was that he remains a tidy player. He can be incredibly neat in
possession. And, as he has shown with appearances at right-back, left-back,
central midfield and right wing, he's versatile in the extreme.
With time left in what has already been a head-spinning
transfer window at Elland Road, it would be foolish to ignore the ever-present
possibility for change but Farke does appear to be very fond of Shackleton.
Speaking after the Carabao Cup defeat at Salford City, in which Shackleton
missed a shootout penalty but rarely missed a beat of his right-back
assignment, the manager gave a glowing assessment of the youngster.
"I really love Jamie," Farke began.
"I think he's sometimes really underrated because he
can play all positions. Wherever he plays he's always reliable, always solid,
always a good teammate, gives us everything. Sometimes it's even a bit of his
problem that he has to play so many different roles instead of coming into
rhythm in one role but I think he proved again tonight that he is an
unbelievable piece of our squad and I'm really really happy to have him,
definitely."
Very few things lie outside the bounds of possibility at
Leeds, still, as they work feverishly to deliver Farke a squad that will
represent a successful window. With ins, often there are outs, sometimes not
particularly of a club's choosing and there will come a time when Shackleton
decides that regular football trumps squad player status with his boyhood club.
He will, at some stage, want to nail down a starting role, somewhere, in a
specific position, although versatility did little harm to Stuart Dallas in the
halcyon days of Marcelo Bielsa's reign.
