Crysencio Summerville’s decision not to push for Leeds exit is paying off — The Athletic 23/10/23
By Phil Hay
It was not a celebration for the ages — Crysencio
Summerville flat on his back, being treated for cramp a few yards from the
dugouts — but perhaps it suited the goal and the vibe.
Leeds United had run and chased it that hard. Summerville’s
cramp was the tank running empty. Two-nil Norwich City was 3-2 Leeds — Ronaldo
Vieira, Mark II.
This club were a long way out of the habit of enjoying
themselves before the season started and, at the risk of jinxing the mood,
there is a sliver of schadenfreude in the fact that some of the players who
decided Elland Road and the Championship were not for them might have found
some gratification by giving it a chance.
Where would Summerville be if not here, and what would he be
doing? Is status in football more important than pleasure, or is money better
than moments? Does it not pay to have fun?
Summerville, to answer part of that question, could have
been at Burnley and, right now, wedged in the Premier League’s bottom three.
For those who reacted to relegation from the top flight in May by waving adios
to Leeds, there has been far more of that kind of sobering reality than sunlit
uplands.
Burnley came for Summerville late in the window but Leeds
fended them off, without giving him much chance to argue. It was a complete
change of stance from their position at the start of June when, in the case of
Summerville, they were transparently open to offers. A bid arriving from Turf
Moor then could easily have played out differently.
Quite simply, by August, Leeds did not want him to leave.
New manager Daniel Farke could see in the winger the verve that would keep the
rest of the Championship honest, and which hung Norwich out to dry on Saturday.
Moreover, by August the club had run into problems with
Willy Gnonto, making Summerville’s presence more essential. But crucially,
people close to him, people in his camp, were advising him that committing to
Leeds was the right thing to do; that by the latter stages of the window, with
Farke already counting on him, trying to get a move would be a mistake. A year
in the second tier of English football could be good for him, a chance to throw
his weight around.
Summerville was inclined to agree.
The Dutchman, historically, has a winning-goal touch and a
knack for doing something as the clock is running down. Leeds needed someone to
do something at Carrow Road, and to do it quickly with an hour gone. Norwich
had scored twice in the first half as Farke’s players, time and again, wasted
chances and let their hosts off the hook.
The match was slightly sleepy when Shane Duffy turned in an
own goal with 63 minutes played to halve the lead, at which point Farke
summoned the cavalry: three at the back, an attack which represented an all-in
gamble on steroids and a game teed up for Summerville to win it with a curling
shot off a post and another, on 85 minutes, into the far corner as Leeds tore
forward on the counter.
Farke wanted a pleasing return to Carrow Road, his old
stamping ground. Carrow Road, after a bewildering finish, might have taken him
back there and then.
To this juncture, Summerville’s career with Leeds — starting
when he was 18 and now into its fourth year — has been largely about cameos and
interjections, such as Liverpool away a year ago, the flashes which exposed him
to a wider audience. Farke described him as “a baller” on Saturday, but said he
was spending time drilling into Summerville the need for his goals, assists and
all-around influence to be more telling and more regular; progress which would
be “the next step in his career”.
Broadly speaking, and among Farke’s wingers, Gnonto was seen
as the wildcard before a ball was kicked this season, the talent who might look
like he had no business lowering himself to play in the Championship, but the
teenage Italian’s commitment wavered badly in August and a few weeks ago, Leeds
sent him for surgery on an ankle injury.
Summerville became the regular pick, his flair let loose.
The promise of minutes was a solid one, and minutes at a lower level could do
him good in the long run.
Farke, who said the number of players away on international
duty over the past fortnight had stopped any meaningful on-the-training-ground
work on a 3-5-2 formation prior to this game, made five substitutions in the
second half, including replacing Summerville shortly after his winner hit the
net.
Had he been at all tempted to withdraw the 21-year-old
before his two goals? The cramp in Summerville’s calves was a sign of him
spending all the energy he had left. “Not after 60 minutes,” Farke said. “I got
the feeling there was something in him. Sometimes you’re wrong, but my gut
feeling was that he was on it.”
Leeds’ preparation for the game was not ideal: their planned
flight out of Leeds Bradford Airport on Friday fell foul of an aeroplane
sliding off the runway, and a long coach journey only brought them into Norwich
at around 11pm that night.
If that made a difference, then there was an off-colour tone
to some of their football in the first half, the many chances that went begging
and the near-post header from Duffy which put Norwich ahead after four minutes,
but Farke’s players had the stamina to crack on as the home side got tight and
invited pressure. Farke could see which way the wind was blowing.
Summerville’s winner was ruthless, a ball out of deep
finding him in his stride, his patience holding firm until, with Gnonto
unmarked to his right, he slotted a finish in. Some of Leeds’ players ran
straight to the away end as if they knew the contest was over. Summerville went
for Farke and others in the technical area, pulling up as he did so and
signalling for a team-mate to stretch his leg out.
“I wanted to go for it,” Farke said. “I got the feeling that
today was our day.”
Now third in the table, it could be more than their day too.
Leeds’ vulnerability to transfer offers in the summer made
Summerville a natural target — a skilful youngster whose rough edges could be
smoothed off. Summerville had known throughout the summer that Burnley manager
Vincent Kompany had eyes for him. Eredivisie champions Feyenoord enquired about
taking him back home. Two more Premier League sides, Bournemouth and Crystal
Palace, had a look.
It is easy to picture a scenario in which, as time ticked
down at Carrow Road on Saturday afternoon, Summerville was somewhere else
entirely.
Over the past few years, it has not been unusual to hear
questions asked about Summerville’s attitude, but of all the players knocking
on Farke’s door before last month’s transfer deadline, he was not one.
Farke told him that if the season ahead ends with promotion,
Summerville would have a hand in it.
Here was proof of that, in a fightback which points the way.