Haunted by The Ghost of January Past — Square Ball 6/1/26
Meslier!
Written by: Chris McMenamy
Jonjo Shelvey stood over the ball that he’d placed on the
edge of Leeds United’s penalty area. Elland Road held its breath, frustrated
after almost seventy minutes of dominance without Leeds making the breakthrough
they needed against their fellow relegation battlers.
Shelvey curled his shot around the Leeds wall and it bounced
just before Illan Meslier, evading the goalkeeper’s outstretched arms as he
misjudged the bounce of the ball — yet it was Tyler Roberts who took the blame
for the goal.
Roberts had lost the ball deep in the Newcastle United half,
tackled by Miguel Almiron and Sean Longstaff. Longstaff sent Almiron tearing up
the pitch with the ball at his feet, bearing down on the Leeds penalty area
with only a worryingly square Diego Llorente standing between him and Meslier
in goal. Llorente, as was his style, stuck out an oafish leg and granted
Almiron the free-kick he wanted.
Shelvey must love the Elland Road Kop, having scored one of
the easiest hat-tricks of all time when playing for Blackpool back in 2011, a
night best remembered for Paul Rachubka gifting the away side three first half
goals, all scored by Shelvey.
Roberts had been introduced only a few minutes before giving
away the ball that — eventually — led to the free-kick, a moment in itself
enough to brew some scapegoating within the Leeds fanbase. Whoever was truly
‘at fault’ was, in some way, responsible for the ultimate downfall of Marcelo
Bielsa at Leeds United.
In a season plagued by injuries, poor recruitment and a
nagging sense of overconfidence from finishing 9th the year before, Leeds had
struggled and found themselves on the precipice of a relegation battle.
December involved a 7-0 loss at Man City and a shellacking from Arsenal when
Bielsa stuck to his principles and refused to allow several cases of Covid to
postpone the game, instead choosing to trust the likes of Cody Drameh and Liam
McCarron.
2022 began with a battling 3-1 win against Burnley at Elland
Road, a 90th minute Dan James header prompting an emotional Bielsa to hug his
assistant Pablo Quiroga in the pissing rain, a scene about as close to The
Notebook as Premier League football might ever get. Jack Harrison scored a
hat-trick — yes, really — at West Ham in the next league match as Leeds won 3-2
and a whiff of optimism returned as they moved up to 16th ahead of the
Newcastle game.
Leeds were facing the newest plaything of the Saudi state —
sorry, ‘Public Investment Fund’ — a team that had just been bolstered by the
arrivals of Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood but still sitting 19th in the league
and eminently beatable. Their manager, Eddie Howe? Surely he was too far from
his natural home of Bournemouth to be any danger to Leeds.
And it proved that way, right until the Shelvey free-kick. A
body blow to the Elland Road atmosphere that helped Newcastle hold on. The
month ended with Leeds failing to sign a midfielder from Red Bull Salzburg:
Brenden Aaronson. Victor Orta presented Bielsa with exotic options like, erm,
Harry Winks (who he had already turned down in the summer) and a completely
unfit Manchester United reject Donny Van de Beek, the perfect player to settle
into a high intensity team.
Leeds looked like a team short on confidence and personnel
as they endured a February from hell, conceding twenty goals in five matches as
owner Andrea Radrizzani hit the Jesse Marsch-shaped panic button and sacked
Bielsa.
Was it entirely Shelvey’s fault? Certainly not, but I’m
willing to point the finger for playing his part in Bielsa getting sacked and
for making poor Rachubka look like an injured puppy in the Leeds goal.
So thanks for nothing, Jonjo. Your daft little goal remains
rent free in my head. I hope you’re happy in your problematic Dubai paradise.
Four years on, that bouncing free-kick lives on as a sliding doors moment, one
that’ll always reek as a win for the bad guys.
